The Deep State, the Truth and the Battle for our Democray. Kash Patel exposes the Swamp

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Anybody with doubts about the democratic credentials of USA must read this book. Kashyap Pramod Patel, the presumptive head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the new Administration of President Trump has exposed the ugly underbelly of what he calls the Swamp or the Deep State. That USA is in a state of permanent war with the rest of the world in well known: less so are the institutional and ideological compulsions behind the constant drum beat of war and military adventures. When President Trump  left Office in 2020 there was an uneasy peace which was soon shattered by the Ukraine-Russia War. It is now generally assumed that had Trump not been deprived of his victory in the 2020  Election, the pretext for Russian invasion, the NATO membership for Ukraine would not have been present. As we survey the world today we see a widening arc of conflict from Central Europe, to Iraq, Israel, Gaza, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangla Desh. Taiwan was a point of contention even in his first term and North Korea was far less beligerent during his term in the White House.

Kash Patel as he obviously likes being called is the son of Gujarathi immigarnts who settled in Queens, New York after Idi Amin expelled Indians from Uganda. A lwayer by profession, Kash Patel worked in Florida and caught the eye of the Republican establishment there as a "public defender". In this memoir of his four years in the first Trump Administration, Patel was instrumental in exposing the deep conspiracy that emanated from the Democrat Party and the Campaign headquarters of Hilary Clinton. Joe biden has even awarded her the Presidental Medal of Honor. Using a disgraced MI6 agent Christopher Steele to prepare a "dossier" with fabricated evidence, the Deep State and its assets in the Media such as the Washington Post and New York Times ran a vicious campaign to descredit Trump as a :Russian Agent". The methods used were similar to the ones used in India to run the false narrative against Narendra Modi and his alleged involvement in the 2002 Gujarat Riots. In both cases a high decibel campaign of  slander, selective leaks, motivated public statements and lawfare were used to create a narrative. Kash Patel was part of the Congressional team investigatiing Russia Gate and the Nunnes Memo estabished the fact that Trump was in no way connected with Vladmir Putin. It is shocking that well respected global newspapers sold themselves for political causes  that are close to the Deep State.

The most damning part of the book is when Kashyap Patel discusses the Benghazi killings of the American Ambassador and his staff in the compound of the Embassy. Obama who dis bot want the Inquiry damage the political climate for Hilary Clinton's Presidential Campaign used the FBI leadership to scuttle the probe. Real crimes involving American citizens were set aside and FBI misused to harass and intimidate ordinary citizens suggests that in the brave new world of Hi Tech USA, totalitarianism lurks. And there is no defence as even the courts are compromised.  FBI and its leadership was again deployed for political purposes when  the Director made a public statement knowing that it was false that Hunter Biden's lap top which contained documents relating to his deals in Ukraine was a Russian plant and Russian Disinformation. The failure of FBI to investigate the hunter Biden Lap top and the egregious corruption it proves indicates that the security apparatus was being misused. Kash Patel is livid and he regard both the FBI and the ODNI as parts of the corrupt Deep State.

Kashyap Patel is perhaps being too simplistic when he attacks an entity called the Deep State, It is in reality too diffuse, too complex and too widespread to be apprehended in a single term or word. Perhaps we should call it an ideology that believes in western dominance, permanent war, covert and overt interventions in parts of the world where economic and geopolitical interests converge, and selective use of law and ultimately its foreign policy is militaristic and costly in terms of blood and tresaure, US interventions in Serbia, Iraq, Libya and Syria have all been fueled by a pliant media willing to sell the War Now line.

I enjoyed reading this book. I encourage geopolitical and foreign policy experts in India to read this book as Kashp Patel will move into the White House from the FBI Headquarters. politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books