20. CIA in decline
"The CIA was created after World War II with an overriding primary mission: to prevent a recurrence of what happened at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941... In the future, we would be forewarned and forearmed," stated Charles S. Faddis, Chief at the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center and Chief of Libya Station in the Mideast during his career.
Mr. Faddis continues to say, “At its core, the CIA is meant to do what everyone else considers impossible. It is supposed to be run by people who want to steal the crown jewels and will do so if asked. Not anymore. Now it is run by people who look for ops with no possible downside and, therefore, no particular upside either.”
“The CIA has proved unable to put a source inside a Chinese bio lab, within the leadership structure of the Taliban, or next to Vladimir Putin. Those kinds of operations require the willingness to take risks and the ability to manage those risks. We no longer have either,” said Mr. Faddis in a speech given in October 2023.
He believes the declines occurred under President Obama and they have considerably worsened today. He saw how the attack on the embassy and CIA headquarters in the Libyan City of Benghazi on September 11, 2012, was politicized by President Obama and Secretary Clinton. One of our compounds occupied by Department of State was overrun by Islamic militia, we lost our ambassador. The other occupied by CIA fought the attackers until help arrived and was evacuated. During and after the attacks, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others in the Obama administration stated that “a peaceful demonstration had gotten out of hand.” Faddis, who was there, says nothing was further from the truth.
Faddis says what is needed to start to repair the damage is “A new director must make it crystal clear that there is no more business as usual, that the CIA is returning to its roots, that there will be zero tolerance for any involvement in domestic politics.” His concern is that we lack resources in the field developing information and have focused on pencil pushers at desks in Washington.
On the front page of the WSJ on December 27, Warren Strobel writes about the “Challenges of Spying On China.” The article discloses that “the US has never publicly disclosed the loss of over two dozen Chinese assets executed or imprisoned between 2010 and 2012; the agents have not been replaced. Although satellites monitor military deployment and cyber tools scoop up communications, Xi’s ‘Orwellian surveillance system’ complicates spy operations in China, and we are no longer aware of what is going on day to day without assets on the ground.” Although these dramatic failures occurred during the Obama administration, these two writers feel we are far worse off today.
Seth Crosby, president of the Yorktown Institute, in an OPED in today’s WSJ titled "America Needs a Middle East Strategy," outlines consequences from having a dysfunctional CIA and an appeasing president. The OPED article outlines how Iran is playing us on 12/27/23. The next day, 12/28, Douglas Norton, in an opinion piece WSJ A19 titled "Iran Is Pushing Biden Around," states, “The American President wants to avoid escalation leading to war, but the decision isn’t his alone.” Mr. London, a former CIA operative, authored “Spying and the Lost Art of American Intelligence”. He teaches intelligence at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Mr. London writes, “There have been 103 attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria since Oct 17; several Americans have been injured. Iran relishes the idea that it is engaged in a David-vs.-Goliath struggle with the U.S. This plays well in the Islamic world and allows the ayatollahs to justify repression at home. At the moment, Iran is dictating the pace and scope of the conflict.” “President Biden mistakenly believes that restraint will prevent war. Better for the U.S. to play offense than defense. Since coming to power in 1979, Iran’s Mullahs see themselves at war with the Great Satan. Iran’s leaders are aware of their disadvantages but have no interest in peaceful coexistence. They need to maintain conflict to legitimize their repressive regime. The Biden administration views Tehran’s provocations as an occasional annoyance, a distraction from larger National Security issues with Russia and China.” “The U.S. needs to move quickly to change the status quo with Iran. The U.S. should destroy facilities that make air-fired cruise missiles and drones,” Mr. London recommends. Mr. London concludes, “Hope that our defensive capabilities will continue to limit casualties isn’t a viable strategy to avoid war.”