Our friends at NewsMax recently carried a column by Scott Uehlinger, a retired CIA station chief and naval officer, explaining the dire situation within America’s intelligence community.
The short version of the column is that the intelligence community has become so arrogant and politically corrupt that some anonymous low level bureaucrat now has the temerity to try to impose his or her political ideology on the country by fabricating a document that could be used by Democrats to impeach President Trump.
Uehlinger says this is the "canary in the coal mine" moment for the intelligence community. It must face reality and deal with the fact too many personnel within it are content to passively support political games against a president they did not vote for. And he says it must be made clear illegality and questionable judgment cannot be tolerated on one side of the political field at the expense of the other within the intel community.
What is quickly becoming known as Ukrainegate reveals a culture of hubristic entitlement, says Uehlinger, that a GS-14 (likely) "whistleblower" would blithely file an Inspector General report (having nothing to do with intelligence affairs, by the way) on the president simply because he or she objected to POTUS's constitutional exercising of his own foreign policy.
The inescapable fact is these agencies are basically politically liberal in outlook. Although this is not by itself alarming, it is clear that for years, laws/rules are being bent or broken to effect a political agenda -- and too many personnel in the Intelligence Community are OK with that -- or at least afraid to voice their qualms.
What’s more, says Uehlinger, the fake “whistleblower” has revealed that self-examination is not the Intelligence Community's strong suit. The Steele dossier debacle, which blew back on the FBI, should have been a warning to the Intelligence Community and CIA that playing politics in government agencies is the best way to destroy reputation and relevance.
After more than a decade abroad, Uehlinger says he has seen the price intelligence services -- and their nation -- pay for politicization. The results can be deadly for national security.
Uehlinger went on to astutely observe that many of the American people have already made their views clear via a fundraising blizzard for the 2020 Trump Campaign motivated by outrage at the actions of the so-called whistleblower.
“Where I live,” said Uehlinger, “most are outraged by this latest blatant attempt to unseat a duly elected president. CIA's reputation, already suffering, might soon be irrecoverable.”
Uehlinger concludes by asserting that it is clear major reform must be enacted lest the U.S. intelligence community devolve into partisanship and incompetence. In closing, it is clear to me, a reform-minded intelligence insider must be appointed by the president to reverse the damage.
The candidate Uehlinger puts forth is our friend, the outstanding retired senior CIA analyst, former chief of staff at the Trump National Security Council, and now president of the Center for Security Policy, Fred Fleitz.
Uehlinger’s stated goal is to save his old agency from, as he put it, “the garbage heap of irrelevance.”
We agree the United States needs an effective and uncorrupted intelligence apparatus to play its part in defending the nation, and Fred Fleitz has shown himself to be an adept and able administrator capable of doing the housecleaning necessary to air out the stench of Leftwing partisan politics in the intelligence community.
But from our perspective, the last thing the country needs is a Republican version of the vile partisan Democrat John Brennan as the next DNI, and Fleitz has demonstrated that he is the exact opposite of that poisonous partisan. Despite his long association with conservative national security thinkers and Republican policy makers, Fleitz’s reputation is that of an honest broker, above the partisan politics that have too often corrupted the national security establishment during the past decade -- which is exactly what President Trump needs in his director of national intelligence.
George Rasley is editor of Richard Viguerie's ConservativeHQ.com and is a veteran of more than 300 political campaigns. A member of American MENSA, he served on the staff of former Florida congressman Adam Putnam, then vice chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, and as spokesman for Rep. Mac Thornberry, former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
