The next director of national intelligence needs courage, political smarts and strong presidential backing to fulfill her duty to oversee and provide advice on covert action.
Tulsi Gabbard in 2019 in Clear Lake, Iowa. (Gage Skidmore, Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0)
By Ray McGovern
Special to Consortium News
President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence (DNI) will cause shockwaves in and among the 18 fiefdoms that now comprise the U.S. intelligence community.
Gabbard will be fighting an uphill battle if she tries to herd those 18 cats into a cohesive whole and restore integrity to intelligence analysis. The hill’s incline will be still steeper, if she takes seriously her duty to warn the president of the frequently noxious blowback of C.I.A. covert actions. I cannot overcome the urge to quote from “The Princess Bride”: Good luck stormin’ the castle, Tulsi … It will take a miracle!
In short, the odds are against her. Whether she succeeds depends, first and foremost, on how strongly the president backs her. Unlike most former DNIs, she has already demonstrated uncommon courage, as well as smarts and political skill.
On the other hand, she has had virtually no experience managing a large institution, much less a “community” well versed in internecine warfare to protect individual rice bowls, and populated with careerist bureaucrats all too accustomed to telling the ultimate boss, the president, what he wants to hear.
Important Duties
The DNI is in charge of preparing The President’s Daily Brief (PDB), National Intelligence Estimates and the annual Threat Assessment required by Congress. What is less well known is her role in covert action — a favorite of the C.I.A.’s clandestine service.
Executive Order 12333 (July 2008) stipulates:
“The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) shall oversee and provide advice to the President and the NSC with respect to all ongoing and proposed covert action programs.”
Thus, what the EO says. My own experience suggests that this covert-action-related duty has been more honored in the breach than in the observance, so to speak. Director of Central Intelligence William Colby was, in my personal experience, the only director to give intelligence analysts a look at some covert action proposals and ask for comment. I served directly under Colby as an acting national intelligence officer in the mid-70s.
Colby, at left, briefing President Gerald Ford and his senior advisers on the deteriorating situation in Vietnam, April 28, 1975. (David Hume Kennerly, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public domain)
Will DNI Tulsi Gabbard (assuming she is confirmed by the Senate) step up to this task? It would take uncommon courage. Was the current DNI, Avril Haines, informed beforehand that the C.I.A. would blow up the Nord Stream pipelines? If so, did she give it her blessing? Or was she kept in the dark?
Blowing Up Pipelines …
My guess is that DNI Gabbard would have promptly recognized the folly in that C.I.A. “can-do” attitude/escapade and would have briefed the president on its longer-term implications. She is a good listener to analysts who she asks to brief her. I know that, too, from personal experience responding to her questions when she was one of Hawaii’s representatives in the House.
It would take a courageous and politically astute person and strong backing and trust from the president for any DNI to be able to fulfill the duty to “oversee and provide advice … on covert action programs.”
… and Blowing Off the Analysts
Sizable covert action programs require a sanity check from analysts with substantive expertise, as sad experience has shown. Recall the Bay of Bigs operation of April 1961. At President John Kennedy’s request, historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. investigated the affair. His conclusion, set down in a MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT dated June 30, 1961, speaks for itself:
“The trouble with the Cuban [Bay of Pigs] operation, for example, was not that the intelligence and operations were combined, but precisely that the Cuban operation evaded systematic intelligence judgment. The Intelligence Branch (DDI) of the CIA was never informed of the existence of the Cuban operation. The Office of National Estimates was never asked to comment on the assumption, for example, that discontent had reached the point in Cuba where a successful landing operation would provoke uprisings behind the lines and defections from the Militia.
I gather that if its opinion had been invited, DDI would have given quite a different estimate of the state of opinion in Cuba from that on which the operation was based. …
The Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the Department of State knew even less about the Cuban operation.”
DNI Position: A Creature of 9/11
Tenet listening to President George W. Bush’s address on Sept. 11, 2001, in the President’s Emergency Operations Center. (U.S. National Archives via Flickr, Public domain)
As most are aware, there was enough intelligence available before 9/11 to prevent it. But the cats would not be herded. C.I.A. would not share with F.B.I. and vice versa. NSA would share with no one. Here’s one account that will turn your stomach.
The congressional oversight committees as well as the administration and the intelligence community were not only intent on covering up what had happened, but needed to make it appear that remedial action was being taken.
Enter the 9/11 Commission and its recommendations. Here, they said, was the problem: George Tenet, as director of central intelligence (head of the whole community) as well as chief of the C.I.A. was overburdened.
In fact, Tenet was the antithesis of an effective head of the intelligence community; he screwed up royally. But he also knew “where the bodies were buried” — which key administration and congressional officials had been exposed to some of the disregarded intelligence. So it was not deemed safe to lay the blame where it clearly belonged.
A fiction was devised. The problem was said to be that “no one was in charge of the intelligence community.” So the 9/11 Commission recommended that a new superstructure be created to coordinate the community (and let no one be held accountable).
On July 22, 2004, immediately after the 9/11 Commission report was released, I found myself with 9/11 commissioner (and former senator from Washington) Slade Gorton in the BBC blue room in Washington. I had the temerity to remind him that it was far from the case that “no one was in charge” of the intelligence community; that Tenet had all the authority he needed.
Gorton turned to me, smiled and said: “Of course we know all that; but we in the Commission and in Congress just had to do something so the American people would see that we were doing something.”
Yuck.
The national intelligence director, and the newly created bureaucracy, is what it is. Maybe Tulsi Gabbard can take the reins and make the community work. It will take a miracle; let’s hope for one.
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. His 27 years as a C.I.A. analyst included leading the Soviet Foreign Policy Branch and conducting the morning briefings of the President’s Daily Brief. In retirement he co-founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
Views expressed in this article and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
I do realize we are very early into this second Trump administration. After his break I can discern no significant differences in the man from what his attitudes and actions displayed in his first term. His deportment seems to have taken a more hardened approach if any change can be detected.
Unfortunately his perception of being given a mandate by voters has emboldened him in my view, something which may very well negatively affect his performance. The in coming (my Dog this hurts me to write) POTUS benefits from an ill informed electorate IMHO, so be it! These are simply opinions of mine, but opinions shared by a great many others. I am of the very firm belief one is well advised to believe the message delivered when individuals tells us who they are, something Trump continuously espouses. He is what and who he presents himself to be, in my opinion, no one should experience any surprise at what comes next. I mean if Putin is clueless we all need to take note.
Ray’s comments hit their mark, he knows this turf very well. I also agree with his take on Tulsi’s success, “it will take a miracle “. This said I have become even more jaded and cynical in my evaluations of certain situations since April 24 of this year.
The country has undoubtedly been in need of the benefit of a miracle, in my opinion since the death of JFK, an opinion that has solidified substantially with the increased knowledge of the events that transpired from the very beginning of the JFK administration through the events of Nov 22, 1963 , up to the most recent new revelations exposed with respect to those events of Nov 22 1963, and after!
Bob’s DOGma, my tenet, indicates to me because of very serious missteps in foreign policy over the last sixty years, the likelihood of a miracle being bestowed upon this country may very well take some time to reveal itself.. I figure retribution in the form of punishment will have to come first. Look around for a couple of minutes.
In strong support of Lt. Colonel Gabbard I advise everyone consider the positive forces of karma as opposed to the negative, the Colonel is going to need all the help she can get.
Judging from her wide variety of experience in life, her intelligence, pun intended, apparent hard work ethic and what must be a great positive attitude she may well find success in her endeavors. May Peace be with her.
Thanks CN
I hold out zero hope that Trump’s picks will change the system in a positive direction. The whole shit show is so corrupt it can’t be reformed. I don’t trust any of his picks to be our saviors. We will have to save ourselves by grassroots solidarity. That’s where democracy resides.
Sadly, I agree with you. This rot and decay is prevalent throughout the US government, and to a slightly lesser extent other western countries, too. It is not called the ‘deep’ state for nothing, since it is so deeply infected – like an aggressive and terminal cancer.
Using the cancer analogy, the patient is clearly dying, and cannot live much longer without radical and severe treatment, that in itself might provoke and exacerbate the decline. In other words, the treatment might kill the patient!
Tulsi’s observation that false-flag war-mongering is to profit financiers and military suppliers may be opposed to Net’s genealogical psychological Globalist obsession that is shared by other cabinet members.
Gabbard is a total sellout of her initially-alleged “principles” who afterwards then gave her full support to Biden. That’s all anyone needs to know. A fake and a tool.
By that standard, isn’t EVERYONE in Washington DC a sellout?
Establishment Republicans sold out to Trump, Bernie and his acolytes (including Tulsi) sold out to the establishment wing of the Democrats, the ‘Squad’ has also sold out, as AOC has become a Pelosi mini-me. The only people who aren’t ‘sellouts’ are the ones who are no longer in DC due to them quitting or having been primaried out of their offices (Jeff Flake, Liz Cheney, Jamal Bowman, Cori Bush).
The only way to stick around in Washington DC for the long-term is to sell-out. That’s why I favor term limits for the legislative branch as well as the executive branch (which already has them). Nobody should be able to make a career out of feeding from the public trough. Congress critters who hang around for 30-40-50 years until they are octogenarians on death’s door (or nonagenerians in Chuck Grassley’s case) are a scourge on democracy. Politics was meant to be a public service, not a career path.
This is more an indictment of the self-defeating turf wars and counter-productive corruption of yet another segment of the government and its corporate owners than that of any particular DNI nominee.
The notion that, in the era of 18 separate intelligence agencies and an apparent totally rogue CIA, a DNI can function ONLY with the backing of the president is, in the case of the chronically deep-state beleaguered Trump, hardly encouraging.
No wonder nothing ever goes as planned whether direct U.S involvement, proxy wars, or a few “advisors” here and there. No real management. But even if there were, would that be significantly better?
The assumption behind management is that one person is leader holding all the power and authority, has examined all needed information, and acts for the good of the organization. Even a cursory look at the econ system should put to rest that myth.
The writer Robert Anton Wilson tracked conspiracy theories for years. Mostly they’re not much more than interest groups, including ones each of us belongs to. But, yes, there are some a lot more sinister. He didn’t worry much about them, though, because eventually they don’t work. Their pyramid shaped organization is such that ambitious underlings tell the top person what he (and a few shes) wants to hear. Thus the top becomes less and less in touch with reality. Plus suspecting others are plotting against her or him. They probably are. So paranoia ramps up and voila! Dysfunction.
This snarl of agencies (a good collective noun for them) means inept policies and worse–death and destruction on a global scale. But I often wonder if the only reason we in the U.S. don’t live in a totally oligarchic dictatorship, most likely plutocracy, is that the intel agencies hate each other. Each functions as a separate interest group fiercely guarding its own power. Which means we irrelevant nobodies aren’t worth bothering with.
I am rather befuddled by some of these Cabinet nominees, but expect Tulsi, if confirmed, to show resolve and courage in a tenure for an administration already under siege. I can understand why DJT put her where he did, but do have to consider there is a larger strategy at work here with these appointments, especially in Trump having only one term to expedite his efforts, and he’s likely aiming at the next decade for achieving longer term goals. Undoing Biden’s and the Blob’s work since 2015 seems a must-do.
And there will be plenty of intrigues shaping up over his current nominees. McConnell got his final digs in by getting Thune in as Senate Majority Leader, pointing to some ugly battles ahead trying to seat those whom Trump has chosen so far.
Nobody knows like Trump how he was so hobbled by political, bureaucratic/institutional, and media manipulation by Clinton Inc/DNC during his first term. And the incessant lawfare he endured in the Biden interregnum due to expire January 20, 2025.
McConnell is definitely trying to make it a hellish ‘twofer’ for Trump, no matter the further damage inflicted on this country and its citizens.
Such is the nature of our representative democracy, and the state of our republic as we find it in Washington, D.C. as November 2024 rushes by.
His cabinet nominees make perfect sense to me … they are all designed to put an ‘enemy’ of each particular agency in the lead role of that agency. Gabbard has been fighting against the MIC for years (most recently leading to her being put on a TSA watchlist) … now she is their boss. The DOJ pursued Gaetz on trumped-up human trafficking charges … now he is their boss. RFK Jr has been feuding with the public health community over their regulatory capture by Big Pharma for decades … now he is their boss. Pete Hegseth has been complaining about the poor readiness and lack of focus of the military for years … now he is their boss. Most of these Trump appointments are designed to reign in the permanent bureaucratic state and MIC by putting their worst nightmare in charge. Generals are resigning, lawyers are quitting, health administrators are running for the exits, and Trump smiles as that was his intent. No need to fire anyone when they leave voluntarily.
Bureaucrats quitting is helping Elon.
I share your well informed concern, Mr. McGovern. I presume that Gabbard has accepted the nomination, and praise her bravery in so doing.
I recall that she visited Syrian President al Assad while the US was ginning up the civil war there. That she has experience gaining information first hand, and avoiding the “intelligence” community, may be one of her strongest experiences to prepare her for the role.
YesX — I remember Tulsi’s trip to Syria to find out things for herself, too. Loved it! Of course, she was greatly criticized for it because her colleagues didn’t want to know the truth.
Nope, she will become a figure head and last only as long as Trump is happy with her indulgence, i.e. telling him what he likes to hear.
In the word of Mr. McGovern , Yuck!
It is absolutely insane that there 18 entities in the US. intelligence community, but I suspect there is a method in the madness. They constitute yet another arm of the MIC. That makes Tulsi’s job all the more daunting.
Trying to audit these agencies would be an exercise in futility. I’ve hear Ray McGovern and his compatriot, Larry Johnson–another retired CIA analyst–say that the agency has a black budget making it all but impossible to know what they spend and on what.
Given the others identified as nominees for Trump’s administration, it’s clear that he has wadded into the deep state swamp in making his selections. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
There are MANY more that 18 intelligence agencies
I remember reading an article a few years ago that stated that the USA has OVER 4,000 intelligence agencies and that there are over 60 levels of security classifications above the President.
The names and exact number are classified
They will NEVER tell enemies exactly what they really are. Would you ?
The 18 you are allowed to know about are just “customer facing help desks”
And Phil Schneider, in his lecture (on youtube) described that for EVERY 12 CALENDAR MONTHS, THE UNITED STATES TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES 40 YEARS AND IT HAS BEEN DOING THAT SINCE THE LATE 1970’s. United States technology is over 2000 years ahead of “the world”
Now you know why they killed him
Does ANYONE EVER retire from the C.I.A. EVER?
That is a smear of former C.I.A. officer who risked their freedom to blow the whistle and to dissent.
Can’t help but think that this and the other appointments are precisely to eventually blow up all these cabinet departments +. He’s alays indicated scorched earth at least partly for revenge and to serve his warped head fantasy.
I like Gabbard. She is an independent thinker, a trait that may get in the way of Trump’s emphasis on blind loyalty to him, but so far, so good. She also seems to have a lot of backbone and composure, which she will definitely need in this job IF she is approved (a BIG if,) as well as a real concern about our Constitutional guarantees and rights, safety, and the hopes of the American people I wish her luck.
Are you sure about her independence and clear thinking, Steve. I’m concerned about her affiliation with the cultish, mystical Hinduism group, The Science of Identity Foundation and its abusive leader, Chris Butler. This needs to be investigated.
hxxps://www.newsweek.com/tulsi-gabbard-has-lauded-religious-leader-accused-running-abusive-cult-1985941
Fascinating that a text search for ‘Syria’ does not hit, amongst all this talk of 9-11 and the Bay of Pigs. Syria is the obvious place where Rep. Gabbard’s former stated positions conflict with both the Deep State and what Trump was saying and doing in his first term. It also appears to be a big contradiction in regard to Trump’s fixation on Iran.
For those who don’t remember, Gabbard always opposed the illegal invasion of Syria under Obama, and continued to do so under Trump. For Trump, this was Operation Steal The Oil, which was a cause for bragging. Trump and the Deep State both seem unlikely to want to give up their anti-Iran fight on the Syrian front. Thus, Syria appears to be a place where we might be able to get a notion of who’s views are dominant. The Deep State wanting its invasion and continuing its escalations of recent months, Trump wanting to ‘Get Iran’, or Tulsi’s previous views that this was both illegal and not very wise.
Unfortunately, Tulsi is obviously the lowest ranking person in that picture, and thus it would appear that she needs either Deep State or Trump’s support to put her previous views on Syria into force. If, of course, she still holds them.
Gabbard is one of WEF’s Young Global Leaders – hxxps://thedailybeagle.substack.com/p/a-rebuttal-to-media-praises-on-trump
WEF Young Global leaders is a nothingburger. It’s a resume filler that young policy wonks get for attending a seminar. It means nothing. That’s why there are so many of them. It’s easy to get and it looks good on a resume when applying for a job in government (or it did, before the WEF brand became toxic). It says nothing about who those people are or who they will become a decade or two down the road.
Syria is a “piggyback” project
The public view is the “steal the oil”
The spook view is “recovery of pre-flood technology of “The Watchers”, those being that descended onto Mt. Hermon as described in Genesis. That fact that you just laughed at that proves that you don’t really understand what is happening in the world.
Try another of the ‘biblical archaeology’ and ‘Israeli archaeology’ SERIOUS archaeological edited collection of essays that fully debunk any notion that the two aforementioned ‘archaeological’ systems have anything to do with what actually took place in the ancient history of the Levant: “The Politics of Israel’s Past”, edited by Emmanuel Pfoh and Keith W. Whitelam. Not laughing, but challenging.
Trump ordered U.S. troops out of Syria. He was disobeyed. And as he was not allowed to make so many of his own choices for appointments, some form of this was to be expected, although this one was a very extreme challenge to presidential authority.
It might even be said, treasonously so. But the long knives were out throughout his administration and allies were few to be found.
Perhaps Trump would have had a different approach to Syria if he had a voice like Tulsi Gabbard in the room with him when he was making those decisions. Unfortunately, he was surrounded by war mongering neocons because he was a foreign policy neophyte and filled his staff ‘his generals’, and generals are hammers to which every problem appears to be a nail. This time around, he WILL have Tulsi to provide a different perspective.
As is expected, the election does not change my method for accurately predicting American policy.
Binge-watch your favorite gangster movies. Then, when after hours of exposure, when you are thinking just like a evil, ruthless gang boss, you will be able to predict with 100% accuracy what America will do. Works everytime.
On the other hand, the method of listening to what American politicians say has a prediction rate of 0%, also everytime. What they are doing never matches what they are saying, and what they say after the ‘elections’ never matches what they were saying when they were trying to con you into voting for them. As a prediction method, listening to what American politicians say is in the category of Completely Bleeping Useless. What do you think this is, a democracy?
Yeah, but I have a lot more respect for the old-school US Mafia, La Cosa Nostra than the US govt. They were more honest and did not kill women and kids.
Does anyone else notice the way the Democrats are now saying very loudly and obviously that all of their statements about some sort of peaceful resolution in Gaza were only BS for the elections? Blinken’s statement awhile back that ‘things must get better in 30 days’ is now obvious BS, as the official position is that we don’t care that nothing got better. Any threats of weapon’s embargos or sanctions against rampaging settlers are now withdrawn. Now Biden and Trump are smiling together in the Oval Office talking about how many people must die.
The Democrats are now backpeddling furiously away from any of their half-measures that even gave the illusion of restraining Israel. It is now all obviously being clearly revealed as manipulations of the gullible for an election. The Democrats never stopped saying “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition”. Now that the inconvenient election is behind them, the Killer (D)’s shorten it down to just “kill, kill, kill”.
I’m holding out hope that Trump will use the power of the purse to get the cats in-line. Don’t want to cooperate with the Administration? BANG! 10% of the top of your budget. Give Tulsi the run-around? BANG! 10% off the top. Won’t cooperate with other agencies? BANG! 10% off the top.
There is only one thing bureaucrats and spooks value more than power over their own little fiefdoms, and that is the budget allocation of those fiefdoms. Force them to choose. You can keep playing games in order to maintain total control of your fief, but if you do the president will shrink that fief by 10% when the next budget comes out. Or you can give up a little control and your budget will remain intact. FAFO.
Most presidents won’t mess with the intelligence community because they are worried about Chuck Schumer’s proverbial ‘six ways from Sunday’. But Trump is in a unique position. The intelligence community and the administrative state have already messed with him 12 ways from Sunday, and he is still standing. They can’t have much ammunition left. And Trump being a lame duck also works in his favor, as he doesn’t need to worry the intelligence community messing up his re-election campaign with nasty surprises.
No chance Tulsi