Trump plans major downsizing at U.S. spy agencies

The Washington Post ^ | May 2, 2025 | Warren P Strodel

[montag813]

It’s amazing to watch Jack Ryan and the honest, decent, hard working CIA analysts in Patriot Games or Clear, Present Danger in 2025 and realize what an actual nest of viper they are.

[cgbg]

CIA worked with Hollywood to create propaganda for decades.

That kept them fat and happy.

[Get Daddy a Beer]

On your point about USAID, you are right on the money. When I heard about some of the more absurd expenditures, I automatically assumed these were CIA fronts under the guise of NGO charity work or what have you.

Hopefully Trump or Ratcliffe vetted some of these more flamboyant programs for their true value.

[larrytown]

Example—supposedly there is a Naval version of the NSA monitoring undersea communications whose name is classified. Some researchers have dug up hints of it while digging through FOIA document releases.

Which makes the naming of the USS Jimmy Carter that much more ironic.

[cgbg]

Here is the video that goes deep on US Navy secret programs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9GSqOEvoBE

You can ignore the UFO stuff if you wish—regardless there is a ton of data about various compartmentalized Navy programs.

This guy is very detail oriented and an amazing researcher.

[equaviator]

Maybe they should make it 1,800 instead of just 1,200 but then bring in 300 new hires to be trained as instructors.

[equaviator]

"with Trump installing his own Republican loyalists in those same roles, it’s the Democrats who will raise alarms about a so-called “deep-state”

Sure they would but they'd be full of shit like they always are. To deem it as some kind of inevitable "six of one, half a dozen of the other" situation implies that those same roles are ever-present when "draining the swamp" means exactly what it says.

[gleeaikin]

Carter’s cut in CIA agents gave us Pres. Reagin and Bush 1. I wonder what Pres. Trump’s cuts will give us?

[gleeaikin]

We had a wonderful example of leaky compartments in our recent action against the Houthis in Yemen. Too bad it turned out to be the new guys. It could have been such a great opportunity to get rid of members of the old guard.

[EnderWiggin1970]

In the end, “deep-state” may simply be shorthand for “the other side’s people in charge.”

You have no grasp whatever of the state of governance in America (or Europe for that matter). No, it's not just a matter of swapping out who is filling the chairs. It's a matter of unelected bureaucrats usurping the powers reserved both to the elected representatives of the people and to the people at large, as defined in the 9th and 10th amendments.

Trump is not replacing Deep Staters with like-minded bureaucrats who will keep ignoring the Constitution and subverting elected officials and making up their own rules for the rest of us to live by. We are destroying your "facade democracy" such as you've been advocating and shilling for in Ukraine and the rest of the West and restoring power to the electorate and its elected representatives.

[Vigilanteman]

Bush did not become head of the CIA until 1976. John McCone was in charge when JFK was assassinated.

While the CIA (or rogue elements in the CIA) possibly played a supporting role, the foul deed was orchestrated by LBJ.

[ansel12]

Your conspiracy is that LBJ and hundreds or thousands cooperated to kill the president but other conspiracies have Bush in Dallas as a secret CIA man killing or helping to kill JFK.

[higgmeister]

This is straight out of Wikipedia:

The TSEC/KW-26, code named ROMULUS, was an encryption system used by the U.S. Government and, later, by NATO countries. It was developed in the 1950s by the National Security Agency (NSA) to secure fixed teleprinter circuits that operated 24 hours a day.

In the Crypto Vault the Crypto Gear had a sign on each unit made of Accu-Ply™ Engraved Plastic, red with white letters stating "Property of NSA."   We were lead to believe, back then, that the NSA was the technical side of intelligence gathering and securing.

[i_robot73]

Yet another example of the ‘signature’ (R)N(C) ploy: “nibble around the edges”.

Nothing that can’t be UNDONE in 3 yrs. time; as if the illegal Deep State didn’t have anything BUT time

[bert]

The process is that of getting rid of the dead wood.

[cgbg]

Welcome to the real world.

Anything good can be undone by evil.

The left has proven they can destroy any good institution and turn it into a bleeding oozing zombie.

However—we have no other alternative—we must do good things and build good things.

[i_robot73]

>
However—we have no other alternative—we must do good things and build good things.
>

Yes, yes we DO have other alternatives: ELIMINATION, abolish, defund+

You don’t stop cancer from spreading by removing < 100%

Welcome to the REAL world.

[cgbg]

I agree—100% elimination is the best approach.

At the end of the day—though—that does not prevent evil Democrats from creating new evil—perhaps under new names.