High Security Officials Speak Out: Dems are Wrecking CIA

A former Bush official compares today’s bashing of the CIA to the Carter years, when both intelligence and national security were seriously compromised.

Did the CIA break the law by omitting to brief Congress about a program still in the planning stage – and that never carried out any operations? NewMajority this week asked a series of high-level officials and former officials for their reaction. A former senior official in the Bush White House who must be unnamed said: “If the CIA had to brief Congress about everything they thought about, there would be no point of having the CIA; just have Congress do it.” Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, formerly a senior official at the CIA, said: “We [the CIA] would be irresponsible if we didn’t try to expand the ways we deal with terrorists.  I am certain that in the right time people [the CIA] would inform Congress in the proper way.” Congressman Elton Gallegly (R-CA), a member of the House intelligence committee, worries that national security has ceased to be the number one priority for many Democrats: “[N]ational security should be a sacred issue not turned into a political football.” Another former CIA official feels that Congressman Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), chairman of the intelligence committee, has politicized these issues and played them out “viciously and publicly.” The former Bush official expresses concerns that Congress’ political machinations could drive the best and the brightest from the CIA “If they think they will get sued or hauled before Congress” later. Representative Pete Hoekstra concurs, noting that President Obama himself was deterred from hiring the talent he wanted for intelligence positions because of internal Democratic politics:  “You get a couple of guys who Obama wanted to appoint but whose names were withdrawn because they are viewed as tainted.” In Rolf Mowat-Larssen’s view, “Americans should be really worried. Morale is suffering and people are becoming risk averse because they are fearful… In this world we live in today we really need the CIA.” Congressman Gallegly observes: “morale within the CIA has been affected and many hard working career officers are second-guessing all the political ramifications.” Congressman Hoekstra regrets that while the Obama administration talks about going forward, in actuality it is looking backward when threatening prosecution of former CIA operatives as well as officials.  The former Bush official went further. “President Obama could put an end to these attacks on the Agency. He could do it immediately.  Obama under the Constitution is the chief law enforcement officer in government, and Holder works for Obama. “ A semi-retired CIA operative told NewMajority that although Obama’s remarks are supportive, actions speak louder than words. “Obama talks the talk. Let’s see if he will do the walk.  Everybody in the Agency is watching and waiting.  If there are in fact investigations, there will be a ripple effect.  Why should people risk their livelihood and trust any politician?  They will become risk averse or leave because the administration does not back them.” President Obama seems unable to control his attorney general and the Democrats in Congress. In the Intelligence Authorization Bill the Democrats sought a provision that increased the number of Congressmen briefed by the CIA. The former Bush official points out that the more people briefed, the higher the odds of a leak.  Representative Hoekstra draws a lesson from his service on the intelligence committee. “The sensitivity of information required that it should be limited to a very, very small number.  I don’t think there is any need for anyone else to know about it.”  A high-ranking CIA official suggested that the Obama administration push back against congressional pressure by asking Democrats, “don’t you trust the judgment of the Chairman, the Ranking members of the committee, the Speaker, and the minority leader to do the right thing?” The former Bush official compares today’s bashing of the CIA to the Carter years, when both intelligence and national security were seriously compromised. A semi-retired CIA official dejectedly voiced, “we never get praise.  We never are told you guys did a great job.  A lot of our successes we can never tell anybody, but when something goes wrong and it becomes public we get crucified for it.” When NewMajority read that quote to Congressman Hoekstra, he replied that “we are not going to let them (the Democrats) do this to the intelligence community.  It’s just totally wrong.”