I have written on this often. Members of the US Congress do not have vetted information security clearances. They have access to government secrets because of their constitutional office as elected representatives of the citizens of the US. This is true in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. This is true because they are members of a part of government co-equal with the Executive Branch. The Executive Branch controls the clearance process created by presidential executive order and the co-equal congress cannot in our system be denied information by the executive. Congressional staffs, however, ARE required to submit themselves to the executive branch clearance process.
What brings this to mind is are the statements and behavior of Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota's 5th Congressional district, a jurisdiction wedged in between Minneapolis and St. Paul and probably not very typical of Minnesota.
Members of Congress are immune from restrictions on their speech in Congress and generally during the sessions of their term in office. "Treason, felony and breach of the peace" are exceptions to that immunity.
Ilhan Omar's statements and attitude in her interrogation of the execrable Elliott Abrams yesterday raise the question for me of whether or not she can be trusted with US government secrets. She spent four years of her childhood in a Somali refugee camp in Kenya. She seems to have acquired there a deep antipathy to the US as a country. She seems to regard herself as a Muslim penetrant in the US government, a penetrnt who will automatically, as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, have a great deal of access to US Government secrets. She is openly supportive of various jihadi movements and the Maduro government of Venezuela. How can we know what she will communicate outside the government and to whom?
It is impossible know the exact motivations of anyone, but I will hazard a guess that Omar is falsely sworn as a member of Congress. What did she think these words meant?
"I, (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. [So help me God." wiki
Was there a certain irony in yesterday's confrontation between the arch neocon and the Muslim activist? Of course there was, and it was on many levels.
Nevertheless, you can be sure that the FBI will be watching and listening closely. pl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_or_Debate_Clause
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