There are times... And these times are exasperating. Every so-called journalist is either openly shilling for someone or is an asset for the Intelligence Community (IC). CIA hence forth CI, FBI = Scooby Doo, and honestly no one cares about the rest unless they screw up like the BATF did with Operation Fast & Furious.
So this piece entitled: Trump's intel power play spooks the spooks is written from the perspective of the "spooks" being on the side of all that is good and just and that this Trump interloper is destroying the "institutions" that keep us safe! This from the same institutions that gave us Operation Gladio, Operation Mockingbird, The Shah of Iran that lead to the Islamic Revolution (that they failed to foresee which led directly to the Hostage Crisis), No WMD in Iraq, Failed to prevent 9/11 also failed to prevent the first WTC bombing, the Russians gave us warning about the Boston Bombers - Intel failed to treat it seriously.
The FBI manufactures the terrorists it catches regularly. How did they miss that terrorist training camp in New Mexico run by the son of a co-conspirator in the WTC bombing in 1993?
Okay... so moving on from that let us get to the article itself.
And Ratcliffe — an intel greenhorn with only one year of experience on the House Intelligence Committee and a resume that now includes serving on Trump’s impeachment team — is the epitome of what intelligence officers “reflexively” reject, said David Priess, a former CIA officer and daily intelligence briefer.
“Anyone who does not come with extensive intelligence experience is automatically and quickly viewed as a threat because of the risk of the politicization of intelligence,” Priess said.
Those concerns are particularly acute given the abrupt departure of Joseph Maguire, the acting director who was forced out of the job after his office briefed lawmakers on the intelligence community’s assessment of Russian interference in the 2020 election.
Oooh a Greenhorn is he? Worried about politicization? Maguire was fired due to leaks that got politicized. He was fired for mishandling it all. Brennan, a communist and CIA 'veteran' does nothing but politicize things. As you will see later in the article - the IC would like nothing better than to relegate the DNI/ODNI to nothing but politics a la James Clapper.
And the writer tosses in the Russia Hoax meme at the end of that bit.
“When ODNI was first created, some of its proponents harbored grand ambitions, believing that the DNI could forcefully herd the 17 cats that make up the modern Intelligence Community,” said David Kris, the former assistant attorney general for DOJ’s national security division and a founder of Culper Partners.
But Kris said the role had since evolved, with subsequent DNIs focusing more on day-to-day bureaucratic issues, inter-agency coordination, and, sometimes, providing support in political battles.
John McLaughlin, who was serving as acting CIA director when the ODNI was established, initially opposed the concept when it was being debated in 2003-2004.
But, he said in an interview, the office “went through an evolution from 2004 through four directors,” reaching maximum effectiveness under James Clapper, who served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and the director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency before taking over as DNI in 2010.
“Clapper figured out the secret,” McLaughlin said. “Let the agencies do their jobs and do only the things that the DNI alone is empowered (and authorized by the president) to do — mainly shaping the budget, coordinating tasking, briefing the president and Congress.”
So here the article reveals the actual fears which are the opposite of the original statement. They are afraid that Ratcliffe will try and re-assume the original powers of the office. They are afraid he will try and control or reform them and find out just maybe some of what they have been up to. Clapper just let them do whatever they wanted and he just went full advocate for them rather than trying to reign in their power. He became an asset that was handled.
The IC doesn't own Ratcliffe (yet) and that is what makes them nervous.
What vexes intelligence veterans most, Priess said, is the prospect that a partisan director like Ratcliffe might take an active role in managing the President’s Daily Brief instead of letting analysts do their job -- substituting his personal opinions for the consensus view of the $70-plus billion intelligence community.
So the writer's handler...erm source... places the value of the intelligence based on the budget size? Riiiiiight. How about them WMD's buddy? Where's my return on investment? Asshole. I don't like Dennis Kucinich but his opinion carries more weight given that he is right far more often. Also his opinions don't lead to trillions of dollars spent in a wasted war and thousands of dead US soldiers.
It must be nice being paid to be a useful idiot.
