Ed. Note: Joe Flynn, the brother of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, wrote this letter in response to a Democracy in Crisis story “Flynn’s transformation from ‘Water Brother’ to hardliner” by Baynard Woods. Democracy in Crisis verified the identity of the author but chose not to edit the letter.
Baynard:
I hope this finds you well.
I am just so pissed at all the negative bullshit about my brother in the press….it is so unbelievably one sided… where are the questions about the laws that were broken in the fact that the private conversations of a US citizen have been breached selectively? It just seemed like you are jumping on a bandwagon. I know hundreds of skaters and surfers who are concerned about the weakened position the Obama Administration put the US military and our national security in. Does that make us all Haters?
I am most happy to see that our friend and brother Sid did not sell out like many of the press want him to do when they found out about Mike’s skating/surfing past and the fact that he is still an avid surfer. These are things we grew up doing in a beautiful place (Newport, RI), we were the Z Boys of the East Coast, Sid was and still is our spiritual surf/skate leader. Only difference between us and others we grew up with is that our parents (there are 9 of us) kicked our ass about school and we fell in line. We had great parents we were very poor but very lucky to have them keeping us from going way off the deep end. Some of our friends burned out… many became successful… Sid knows this and is still a close friend of our family. Sid always had an open door for us at Waterbrothers and we are all OWB for Life (Original Water Brothers).
My brother is not a hater… he is a patriot who served his country incredibly well for 33 years and transformed wartime intelligence gathering everyone in the US military knows that…. He has strong opinions about Radical Islam and made no bones about it…. Hater is a lame term to use. You want all sides heard you should talk to the thousands of people who worked with him and for him in the military and loved him and still love him today.
His day of reckoning is coming, he welcomes the investigation and is patiently waiting to testify UNDER OATH about his conversations with the Russians and any other foreign dignitaries he spoke to prior to taking office, which was totally natural for an incoming Nat. Security Advisor to do. There is no crime, there is nothing wrong in doing that. There is a ton of precedent with all incoming NSA and administrations with these kinds of communications The crime is the fact that someone on the Obama team selectively disclosed these conversations to the media in order to put Mike and the President in untenable position. This is a Political Assassination and it will be brought to light very soon.
Read these articles to get some more perspective and to understand what direction this is going in.
- http://www.aim.org/aim-column/the-permanent-state-has-a-press-office/
- https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-02-14/the-political-assassination-of-michael-flynn
Also I always get a kick out of the shit storm he created when he tweeted “Fear of Muslims is Rational”? The Flynn family is Irish Catholic…. In the 1970s if you were in London, given all the bombs going off by the IRA in pubs, train stations etc…and someone said “Fear of Irish Catholics is Rational” would you say they had a point? As an Irish Catholic I would have a hard time disagreeing with that statement. While it is generalizing … it is still rational given the circumstances… It is not hate, it is caution…Mike has thousands of Muslim friends he has worked with over the years including many current heads of state. None of them condemned him about those statements.
All I am saying is try to be more educated with your views… you are perpetuating the myth that skaters and surfers are supposed to be degenerate burn outs. Not the case with General Flynn, who could skate like a champ and still rips on a surfboard.
Have a great day,
Joseph J. Flynn, Gen Flynn’s younger brother.
Subscribe to LV Daily for community news, events, photos and more in your inbox every weekday afternoon.
