Flashback Saturday – Looking back at James Comey and why he was so dangerous

A few weeks ago I started a “Flashback Saturday”. On Saturday, a “whatever happened” to answer or review previous news I have covered and how the story has unfolded. A “Blast from the past.

How about James Comey and now what we know about him. I will throw in a short one on Mueller.

First I need to start out with

Comey: Citizens Should Have No Secrets That The Government Can’t Access March 6, 2017

The latest sign of this stealth takeover of civil rights and freedom was epitomized in recent Senate testimony by FBI Director James Comey, who voiced his objections to civilian use of encryption to protect personal data – information the government has no automatic right to obtain.

As reported by The New American, Comey testified that he believes the government’s spy and law enforcement agencies should have unfettered access to everything Americans may store or send in electronic format: On computer hard drives, in so-called i-clouds, in email and in text messaging – for our own safety and protection. Like many in government today, Comey believes that national security is more important than constitutional privacy protections or, apparently, due process.

Comey had ‘false and dangerous view’ of FBI role June 9, 2017

 “Independent? This is a false and dangerous view of law enforcement in the American system. Mr. Comey is describing a FBI director who essentially answers to no one. But the police powers of the government are awesome and often abused, and the only way to prevent or correct abuses is to report to elected officials who are accountable to voters.” More at Washington Examiner

FBI Director: I have to check to see if Obama can kill citizens on U.S. soil January 26, 2013

FBI Director Robert Mueller on Wednesday said he would have to go back and check with the Department of Justice whether Attorney General Eric Holder’s “three criteria” for the targeted killing of Americans also applied to Americans inside the U.S.
Pressed by House lawmakers about a recent speech in which Holder described the legal justification for assassination, Mueller, who was attending a hearing on his agency’s budget, did not say without qualification that the three criteria could not be applied inside the U.S.
“I have to go back. Uh, I’m not certain whether that was addressed or not,” Mueller said when asked by Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ga., about a distinction between domestic and foreign targeting. Graves followed up asking whether “from a historical perspective,” the federal government has “the ability to kill a U.S. citizen on United States soil or just overseas.”
“I’m going to defer.

For an abbreviated view of what Comey has been doing with his life:

FBI James Comey, the ultimate chameleon who sold his sou  July 6, 2016 

The author of this piece makes a prescient observation regarding the Comey Ashcroft relationship back in the 1990’s when they worked together:

On the surface, it’s an odd pairing: Comey—who cites liberal theologian Reinhold Niebuhr as a formative influence, and who can sing along with Good Charlotte pop-punk hits—and Ashcroft, a reactionary born-again Christian who breaks into spirited renditions of biblical hymns. There’s little risk Comey will lose his sense of humor in his new job. It’s only his soul that’s up for grabs.