I saw this news story a few days ago. But I like Kunstler opining on it.
In the annals of Deep State WF-ery, is there a stranger case than CIA officer David Rush turning up with $40-million in 303 one-kilogram gold bars, plus $2-million in cash, plus a stash of 30 mostly Rolex watches? Well, yeah, the stranger story is how the guy got hired by the CIA in the first place.*
Rush first applied for a job at the CIA in March 2006. He claimed to have a bachelor’s degree in math from Clemson University and a master’s from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). He was rejected. He reapplied later that same year. Bumped again. He reapplied again in 2009, adding a new credential: that he’d been a US Navy test pilot and flight trainer. This time, he was hired.
Rush’s college credentials were found to be false, but it is unclear when that was discovered. Since he included them in his two earlier 2006 failed applications, why were they not flagged in his successful 2009 application? His claim of being a US Navy pilot was also found to be false (he was an information systems tech in his Navy service).
Rush rose to become a senior executive service (SES) officer with a top-secret (TS/SCI) security clearance. His exact duties, the division he worked for, his day-to-day responsibilities have not been disclosed.
Wouldn’t you assume that some higher-up CIA officer would have to sign off on such a colossal requisition of gold and money
The institutional embarrassment is monumental. Trust in the so-called Intel Community is at an all-time low. Indictments and trials are coming. This is the Deep State on parade like a naked emperor.
The whole thing is absurd! When I graduated college, I considered applying at the CIA and did the first interview with them on campus. After a quick background check, they mailed me their application a few weeks later. The application was 100+ pages, literally. Many of the pages were divided into quarters and you had to write for each quarter of each year of your life (yes, from the year of your birth) where you were and what you did and anything else relevant to your life during that quarter. They wanted names and addresses of any person you had a relationship with, even if it was only 2 dates. And they wanted names and addresses of every single relative out to second cousin (or twice removed). And a whole bunch of other stuff.
Bill Pulte, President Trump’s top housing official, was appointed yesterday as the acting director of national intelligence. Mr. Pulte will now also vet national security threats. He has no intelligence experience…and his actual intelligence is in doubt (IMHO). Mr. Pulte, 38, is a grandson of the founder of PulteGroup, one of the nation’s largest home-building companies, and served on its board for about four years before his fellow members pushed him out.