Explicating “Crossfire Hurricane”

The FBI’s operation “Crossfire Hurricane” seems to have been a counterintelligence investigation that sought Russian-related dirt on the Trump campaign. If any other dirt turned up, that would work too. The name of the operation came by way of the Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” I thought, probably mistakenly, that “Jack Flash” was a stand-in for the devil (please spare me the gardener’s tale).

Even if I was wrong, Don McLean famously made the association in “American Pie” (“fire is the devil’s only friend”). Within the Stones’ song itself, the “spike right through his [Jack Flash’s] head” certainly seems to represent the object of the FBI enterprise. One way or another, I thought, the name of the operation reflected deep antipathy to Trump.

Lee Smith has an entirely different reading. He deduces an alternate meaning by way of the 1986 Penny Marshall film Jumpin’ Jack Flash. He elaborates his reading of “Crossfire Hurricane” in this Federalist column.

UPDATE: Link fixed. Sorry.

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