By Lee Cary ——Bio and Archives--December 22, 2019
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At last count, America’s “Intelligence Community” (IC) included 16 organizations, represented above above by 16 stars, plus the White House Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). James Clapper once held that position during the Obama Administration.
Theoretically, Clapper was a conduit for operational coordination between the 16 stars and the Executive Branch. The DNI monitors the various intelligence operations in these federal government departments: Defense (8 entitles); Justice (2); Homeland Security (2); State (1); Energy (1); Treasury (1); and the lone-star Central Intelligence Agency (answerable to no department).
We can reasonably suspect that the DNI job, if done well, requires a gifted cat-herder. And that no one with that skill has ever been hired for the job.
If the 16 should gather as a “community” for a combined holiday party over Christmas/New Years, with spouses, kids and significant others, it will likely remain a Secret. Until it leaks out.
Would it surprise us if they were all wearing wires on behalf of their respective IC’s?
The two members of the IC that have been most often in the news since before and after the election of Donald Trump are the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) and, to a lesser extent, the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.).
You can go a long time without hearing much about the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, or the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence. But silence doesn’t mean they’re not doing fine and needed work.
But nary a day has passed in the last few years without hearing troubling news about the Freebees and the Spooks. With more likely to come in the New Year.
So how deep does their corruption go; how long will it take to plumb the depth of it; and, how will it be remedied?
Candor is the first step toward the recovery of the reputation of the F.B.I., and to a lesser extent, the C.I.A.
That will begin when reporters and pundits stop qualifying every criticism of the senior leadership of the F.B.I. with an assuaging codicil that says something like, “But, of course, we all know that that’s not reflective of the rank and file men and women of the Bureau, who remain the core of the very best criminal investigative agency in the world.”
Well, how do we know that? What evidence has there been, lately, of that assertion?
It’s akin to language used by those unfamiliar with the history of World War II who say, “The appalling brutality of the German war machine was largely perpetrated by the SS military units and their independently operating murder squads. The rank and file Wehrmacht soldiers performed as soldiers do in every war. Fighting for their country – just following orders.”
Yea, but the brutal carnage of the German and Russian Armies in the Western theatre of WWII went far beyond what soldiers did in every other war. Total war there took on a whole new meaning. Extinction, by any means necessary.
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To assume that knowledge of the senior F.B.I. officials conspiracy (“insurance policy”) to damage Trump; the awareness of the machinations and deceit at the highest level of the Bureau necessary to sustain the effort for years; that all that, and more, remained unknown to any among the “rank and file” of the organization is a bridge too far.
Are we to accept the implied claim that no knowledge of senior-level misdeeds leaked down through the ranks? That no hints of the malfeasance perpetrated by the Bureau leadership was known beyond those directly involved? That there was zero water cooler scuttlebutt in any of the Field Offices? Seriously?
That’s just not a realistic expectation.
Which is why the Bureau needs a thorough cleansing. The indictment of one or two sacrificial perps will not bring that about. It will only increase the growing cynicism among Americans who are weary of the absence of justice.
Here’s what that cynicism sounds like: It’s in a comment to an article on a U.S. conservative website. I didn’t write the comment – but there are ever more days when I wish I had.
“Burn the Hoover building down. Bulldoze the smoking ruins. Salt the ground with Polonium. Emplace land mines and put up concertina with signs explaining what happened. Call it "The FBI Memorial/Warning." Then found a new agency and refuse to hire anyone who ever worked for the Bureau. Otherwise this is going to continue and get worse.”
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