The Attorney General's Assault on the CIA

There are times when I see eerie similarities between President Obama’s Administration and that of President Jimmy Carter.

In 1978, during the early years of the Carter Administration, I left the U.S. Army for the Drug Enforcement Administration. In my last job in the Army I was the Provost Marshal at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, and my MP’s and a civilian guard force, including four Department of the Army Cowboys—yes, I said Cowboys—were responsible for security and law enforcement on the over 4,000 square mile facility that encompassed Trinity Site where the first atom bomb was detonated.

WSMR has a history of hosting highly classified, scientific projects benefiting the military’s development of arms to ensure the protection of American liberty. There were projects on WSMR that were so classified that they had two sets of guards: my MP’s on the outside of the fence surrounding the project and contractor-provided security personnel with much higher security clearances on the inside of the wire.

When I resigned my Regular Army commission to become a Special Agent with DEA, I remember being out-briefed by my boss, the Chief of Security of WSMR. One salient point that was made was that I was to forget anything I’d ever seen at WSMR especially as it related to the special projects on the range. I took that to heart and went off to the DEA Special Agent’s course that was then held at 1401 I St., NW, Washington, DC.

During those early years of government service—actually throughout my government career—I was basically apolitical. I read the papers, of course but paid little attention to the political parties. While in the Army I focused on being ready for whatever mission the Army gave my unit. In DEA I was focused totally on the drug investigations I was assigned and developed. And I took my security responsibilities seriously and studiously forgot what I’d seen at WSMR until one day I picked up a Newsweek magazine (that was in the time when it was still what I would consider a credible news source) and saw that President Jimmy Carter had unilaterally announced that the United States had developed a stealth aircraft that couldn’t be seen by radar. I looked at it initially in disbelief, as I had the impression that they’d come for my first-born son if I ever mentioned seeing that dark shape in the night over WSMR, and now in a magazine that had to be available to the Soviets, the President was telling the world about our secret technology.

As the Carter years unfolded, and it’s especially glaring in retrospect, the country saw the Administration move seamlessly from one stupid economic or intelligence decision to the next. One of the worst was when they all but emasculated the CIA mostly, it seems, as a reaction to CIA operations during the Vietnam War; and also because some unknown advisor convinced the President that the CIA no longer needed those nasty operators on the ground because we had great satellite technology that could see everything our enemies were doing. I have to admit, as a young DEA Special Agent immersed in complex international narcotic investigations, I was enthralled with the idea that satellite technology could replace the gathering of human intelligence. I even voiced that opinion in front of some senior Special Agents all but one of whom nodded knowingly. The exception wisely commented, “That might work if those satellites can tell us what the people are thinking.” He was prophetically right.

The CIA took a terrible hit during the Carter years and lost decades of experience in the downsizing of its clandestine branch. The country suffered greatly because of the loss not because the CIA was incompetent but because they had been seriously hamstrung by the Administration’s policies.

As a former operator in the drug world, I know that it takes many years and lots of luck to infiltrate an international drug cartel and get a source planted in a position to help you dismantle the organization and put its leaders in prison. The difficulty of infiltrating another government or a terrorist organization is also exceedingly difficult but made even more so when you lose the core of your experienced clandestine service. That central core of experience is something that takes decades to develop and, as we saw then, only a couple of years to destroy. I have no doubt that the diminution of the CIA’s capabilities in the late 1970’s helped the terrorists responsible for 9/11 and prevented a better intelligence product from being delivered to protect the country.

Now we are seeing the beginning of another assault on the CIA. Attorney General Eric Holder, clearly with the under the table approval of the President, is going after CIA interrogators who were successful in pulling information from hardened terrorists that helped prevent another 9/11-type attack on the U.S. It’s almost as if the Democrats, not having been able to lose the War on Terror as they lost the Vietnam War, are again going after the CIA in a case of monumental pique.

Any DEA Special Agent who worked overseas will complain about the CIA as much, if not more, than domestic Special Agents complain about the FBI and Customs—and they will complain about the FBI and Customs (now ICE) as well. But despite the disagreements that flourish because of agency competition and jealousy, none dispute the dedication and love of country that flows through the veins of CIA operators and support personnel. Knowing them and the clandestine nature of the agency those people will basically suffer this assault in silence, so it is up to the rest of us to take up the cudgels in their defense. It is true that we are a nation of laws. The perversion here is that the current administration is striving to use those laws in a political manner.

I will agree that there would be a problem if the CIA, as an agency, had taken no action, but they did take action when they saw that the CIA’s rules were violated and punishment was appropriately meted. With that in mind, I still see a “no blood, no foul” situation here with the type of interrogation undergone by Abd al-Nashiri, et al. We are fighting a war with an enemy that has no compunction about video-taping the beheading of a prisoner and now the Attorney General is getting all wee weed up over the brandishing of an unloaded gun and a power drill that were never used? Or a hollow threat to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that we will “kill your children?” I’m almost of the opinion that this is a sop to the Democrats far-left-wing, lunatic fringe because the administration sees that they are not going to win the ObamaCare battle. But regardless of the reason for the naming of the independent prosecutor, it is the wrong thing to do and sends the wrong message to the people who are trying to keep American safe.

While we still have to fight the ObamaCare battle and attempt to derail Cap & Tax, I urge you to not let this go unanswered. Take time to write your Congressman and Senator and protest the move by AG Holder. Let us let those who risked all to keep our families safe know that we are behind them. The country does not need to have another Carter-esque neutering of our senior intelligence agency by an Administration playing political games with our safety.