



IMO there is a lot of evidence of incompetence and malfeasance in the leadership of the 17 agencies of the Intelligence Community and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A partial list of failures and misdeeds:

1. They failed to predict the collapse of the USSR. There was a lot of scholarship on the subject before the event and individual analysts were sure that the end was approaching for the Soviet government but the agencies refused to believe that such a thing could happen. Why? The IC accepted the insistence of the elected government of the US that history would continue in a straight line forever with concomitant profits for industry.



2. They failed to predict 9/11. This failure was not "failing to connect the dots." It was largely a failure to run clandestine HUMINT collection operations well enough to know what al-Qa'ida was up to in detail. This was not an impossible task. The IC was offered the means of penetration of the group and refused to take the risk of disclosure with subsequent damage to executives careers even though it was well understood how dangerous AQ was after the East Africa bombings.

3. They failed to infiltrate Al-Qa'ida before 9/11. Once again, this was not an impossible task. I could tell you how, but ...

4. The FBI has repeatedly participated in DoJ efforts to "frame" persons charged in federal courts. They helped DoJ prosecutors do that to Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska. To my certain and personal knowledge from my work as a consultant to the federal courts and an expert witness in national security cases the FBI/DoJ have repeatedly withheld evidence from the discovery process in which security cleared defense attorneys were due this knowledge, I have seen the FBI bribe witnesses to testify against defendants on what amounted to a contingency basis, i.e., no conviction, no fee.

5. And then there is the current murky situation concerning the leaders of the IC; Brennan, Clapper etc., and the leaders of the FBI. IMO it is clear that whatever they did exactly, they aligned themselves against Candidate/President elect Trump.

There are many, many more examples but time and space available here must limit my recitation of these issues.

Tell me, pilgrims, why should we put up with such nonsense? Why should we pay the leaders of these agencies for the privilege of having them abuse us? We are free men and women. Let us send these swine to their just deserts in a world where they have to work hard for whatever money they earn.

TTG and I are agreed that the very first thing to do is strip CIA of whatever role they still have in the world of Covert Action. CA includes all measures short of war but more violent than diplomacy that are taken to implement legal US foreign policy. The CIA should not have this mission, one they have shared with the armed forces since 9/11. CIA's present mission is to serve as the main US Clandestine Service, backed up by the military. In this role they are supposed to recruit foreigners to spy for us but also to run a large part of CA. It is obvious to anyone who has watched them try to do that over many decades that they simply lack the skills needed. Watching them try, is like watching a monkey try to f---k a football. In their efforts to comply with this mission the civilian leadership of CIA hire people who once were soldiers but who sought other employment and they also borrow junior soldiers from Army Special Forces. Why not cut out the "middle man" in the process and have the military run CA?

An argument can be made that the FBI, the spawn of J. Edgar Hoover's peculiar brain (he amassed dossiers on US politicians in order to control them) and the CIA an artifact of the Cold War (which ALWAYS had too much power) should simply be torn down as institutions and replaced with other government bodies more reflective of our collective nation values.

The country needs a police agency that obeys the law. The country needs a small agency to conduct strategic level penetrations of important foreign threats.

Should existing structures like the US Marshal's Service and/or DIA be given the missions of the CIA and FBI or should altogether new groups be constructed with better controls inflicted on them?

I look forward to the discussion. pl