Posted on 04/05/2017 5:06:46 PM PDT by markomalley
The U.S. intelligence community is in the midst of a severe crisis. It has been used, or perhaps allowed itself to be used, as a tool of political destruction, against some of the same U.S. citizens it was created to protect.
What I am talking about is the continuing “Wiretapgate” debacle. We are seeing the widespread abuse of intelligence by an incumbent administration to target political opposition. Long a technique in the developing world — a tactic I often witnessed as a CIA station chief working abroad — the Third World has come to roost in the United States. It is a tragedy of the first order.
The danger of politicization is widely accepted throughout the intelligence community as the greatest hazard, in theory, to the intelligence profession. If an intel service cannot be accepted as an unbiased arbiter, it loses the trust of its people, and risks becoming irrelevant and unheeded. History is littered with intel failures; one need only look to the invasion of Iraq to see how politicization can lead to costly failure and a “trust gap” that can take years to bridge and resolve.
Truth, despite the naysayers, is objective and absolute. The intelligence community has a responsibility to provide the most informed truth to the president. The truth, warts and all, will always be the soundest basis for any foreign policy. This is what our multibillion-dollar intel leviathan owes the American people and its government.
It has become clear to the American public, however, that intelligence leadership learned long ago to stop listening to its own philosophy.
The twin serpents of politicization and political correctness — a Soviet term, by the way — walk hand in hand throughout the intelligence community, as well as every other government agency. The PC mindset that now dominates every college campus is also positioned firmly throughout our government — particularly within the intelligence community, which saw its greatest personnel influx ever in the post-9/11 environment. Today’s intelligence community, the average age of which I would estimate at 32, was raised under the beleaguered Bush administration and reached professional maturity primarily under the Obama administration, immersed in a PC environment.
In this PC world, all diversity is embraced — except diversity of thought. Federal workers have been partisan for years, but combined with the rigid Obama PC mindset, it has created a Frankenstein of politicization that has never been seen before.
Watching Evelyn Farkas admit on TV that the Obama administration wanted the intelligence community to “get as much information as you can” before Donald Trump took office resembles some sort of social science experiment gone bad — and it frames the problems wrought by PC/political brainwashing. Here a mid-level official, permanently dwelling in a bubble of progressive liberalism, acknowledged being complicit in the breaking of U.S. ethics rules and perhaps law — because, as she explained, that’s what they needed to do!
Farkus has all the right credentials: a Ph.D. and a career shuttling between academia, the government and the press that is the hallmark of the anointed “Washington insider” class. What is lacking, however, is any level of self-awareness, common sense or judgment. She is emblematic of the denizens of the Deep State that everyone in Washington likes to tell us doesn’t exist.
I am here to tell you, having served in the CIA and the Naval Reserve, that the Deep State does indeed exist. And it’s not a bunch of centrally controlled drones in black robes meeting at midnight. The Deep State is made up of thousands of similarly credentialed, remarkably “un-diverse” civil servants and political appointees who saw themselves promoted rapidly during the eight years of the Obama administration. The appointees have left, but make no mistake — the progressive civil servants remain.
There is little doubt that intel leadership saw Obama’s relaxation of rules regulating the sharing of NSA raw intelligence — for which there is NO operational justification — and did nothing. They also saw the Obama administration’s demand for “incidental” collection on the Trump campaign at an unprecedented level — and still they did nothing.
Like some binary poisonous reagent, these dynamics combined to foster an environment ripe for political abuse and leakage — a fairly transparent attempt, from the point of view of any discerning intelligence officer. This weaponization of intelligence for the sake of discrediting the political opposition I have seen in Kosovo, Azerbaijan, Moldova and elsewhere — sadly, it is now on our shores.
The present culture of the intelligence community and the shameless political shenanigans of the Obama administration combined to create this disaster. In earlier times, such a gambit would have failed; CIA leadership famously stood up to the Nixon administration when asked to domestically spy on Justice during Watergate, for example. It seems that today we lack the character and the competence to ensure that the intelligence community honors the trust of the American people.
Some have stated that Trump could declare a state of government emergency and clean house. I’m starting to think that it’s the only way. Like a fumigation tent over a house.
I’ll take this being in The Hill as a positive, but notice that it starts off spinning the notion that the Intelligence Community was a dupe of nasty politicians, rather than willing participants or instigators.
The intelligence community “...has been used, or perhaps allowed itself to be used, as a tool of political destruction...”
The I.C. “allowed itself to be used” by itself.
The NSA and FBI might have collected raw intel without knowing its fate, and some lower level analysts might have just done what they were told. But it seems darned unlikely that mundane anti-Trump intel would have reached the NSC for Rice to promulgate without active participation by DNI Clapper and CIA Director Brennan. People under their command had to have been ordered to vacuum up data that touched on Trump and his associates, and to move it up the pipeline. The top dogs have to have approved sending the White House data that would be insignificant in national security terms, but very useful for domestic politics and smear campaigns.
Our intelligence agencies are totally controlled by the Democrat Party and America is in danger!
I can’t imagine how hard these past several weeks have been for you. You spent ***countless*** hours, spread over many years, defending Obama—time you will never recoup. Yet now, with him not even three mos out of office, your entire view of him has been destroyed. It turns out he’s not merely as bad as his critics claimed; he’s far worse.
You must be devastated. Still, knowing the truth is better than believing a lie. Consider yourself fortunate that the truth surfaced so quickly and conclusively.
Fogbow must be on suicide watch. And it will only get worse; there is more truth to come—much more.
Great job as always Liz
The author is correct,this stuff goes on all over the place but when it goes internal trust is lost.
When means and methods and trust are compromised we’re ****ed
There is such an internal fight they are revealing means and methods to the public in order to prove guilt.
Somethings are sacrosanct.
Good men swear an oath on the constitution
It could all be a ruse, but I do not like it at all.
In earlier times, such a gambit would have failed; CIA leadership famously stood up to the Nixon administration when asked to domestically spy on Justice during Watergate, for example.Only because Nixon was a Republican.It seems that today we lack the character and the competence to ensure that the intelligence community honors the trust of the American people.
Poor chuckleheads at my level get polygraphs.
You think Obama ever got a polygraph?
Well there is the rub my friend.
Some 2nd class Petty officer gets 5 years in Leavenworth for taking a selfie on a submarine but Hillary roams free
Amen
I sure as hell do
“Long a technique in the developing world — a tactic I often witnessed as a CIA station chief working abroad — the Third World has come to roost in the United States.”
Years ago I was talking to some Korean guy about the olympics and he said something about how Korea’s guy on the committee to that picks the cities is always the most recently retired head of the secret police, so he can get all those juicy bribes as reward for keeping what he knows to himself. This Korean guy casually explained that is how most countries do things. I called BS on him. I went on the internet and found the list of the current committee members and guess what. Yep, around half of them were retired heads of the secret police.
Our first Indonesian president certainly taught us about diversity.
True.
Politicians get their “security vetting” by winning elections. If you don’t think they are responsible enough to be “security vetted” don’t vote for them!
Unfortunately a majority of voters don’t think that way.
you know there are people who want to kill us ... oh isis. last eight years of letting the bad guys go crazy really worked well/
He could have done that on day one.
Libs do
That my friend is because half this country like all of europe and the world are IDIOTS
Any organization large enough that it could be turned into a political weapon against an American candidate for office (of either party), without neglecting its primary mission, is too large. The intel agencies that were weaponized need to be cut by at least 20% each. Then decide if they should be cut even more.
Excellent article the truth shall set you free
Hi Liz Red Light Story just up at Drudge that Bannon has threatened/is threatening to quit over turf battle.
I don’t know how to post new stories so am giving you a heads-up.
Part of the problem is that the intel community swelled under GWB and Obama stuffed all the new agency’s with fresh meat.
Trump gave the IRS the power to hire collection agency’s today.
Yeah we need unaccountable IRS agents
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