National Security and the Head of a Racehorse


 

If Donald Trump decapitated every horse that ever won a race, he still could not intimidate intelligence officials.

He is no Dick Cheney.


From Mario Puzo’s novel, The Godfather:

He had asked Hagan one final question. “Does this man have real balls?”

Hagen considered exactly what the Don meant by this question. Over the years he had learned that the Don’s values were so different from those of most people that his words also could have a different meaning. Did Woltz have character? Did he have a strong will? He most certainly did, but that was not what the Don was asking. Did the movie producer have the courage not to be bluffed? Did he have the willingness to suffer the heavy financial loss delay on his movies would mean, the scandal of his big star exposed as a user of heroin? Again the answer was yes. But again this was not what the Don meant. Finally Hagen translated the question properly in his mind. Did Jack Woltz have the balls to risk everything, to run the chance of losing all on a matter of principle, on a matter of honor; for revenge?

Hagan smiled. He did it rarely but now he could not resist jesting with the Don. “You’re asking if he is a Sicilian.”

She wasn’t just a CIA officer, she was routinely put into a degree of danger shared only by a small percentage of spies.

Until she was betrayed by members of the US government, most private citizens had never heard of a non-official cover. Spies are usually assigned dual roles. They secretly are agency operatives, and they openly are part of an embassy team. If they are caught by another government, they can claim diplomatic immunity. They can be expelled, but they won’t be harmed, at least not legally. If they are caught by terrorist groups or rogue governments, well, that is a different story.

The problem with using diplomats as agents is that every spy agency for every government does it, and every spy agency knows that every other spy agency does it. So that sort of whittles down who needs to be shadowed at all times. That is how everyone in the spy business knew that Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak was a spy. It was how US intelligence agencies were able to figure out that Kislyak had enticed US military hero General Michael Flynn into becoming a Russian agent.

Michael Flynn has pled guilty and is facing a prison term. But Sergey Kislyak was never touched. He was THE Russian Ambassador to the United States, and you can’t arrest the Russian Ambassador, even if he is in the business of getting a US official to betray his country.

After subverting General Michael Flynn from American military hero to Russian agent, the Ambassador was famously able to flatter and coax a very new President Trump into boasting about US intelligence sources. In the Oval Office, Mr. Trump proudly revealed eyes-only secrets that had been shared by Israel at some risk to a highly placed Israeli spy.

Not every spy type diplomat is in the business of recruitment. Sergey Kislyak was simply good at it, even as he was tracked. And he couldn’t be captured and jailed. Diplomatic immunity.

And so it is in the spy world. Nine out of ten spies can’t be touched because they have dual roles, and one of those roles is diplomatic. That also means there are things those nine out of ten can’t be effective at doing.

Valarie Plame was part of the one in ten. She went without diplomatic cover. If she was caught, there was little between her and “enhanced interrogation” or even execution. It would all be legal, because she was not a diplomat.

She did have a cover story. She was an employee of a corporation that seemed legitimate, but that had been secretly set up by the CIA. It employed several people who traveled internationally, ostensibly for business purposes. They were all spies, and all of them were at risk. None of them could claim diplomatic immunity. They were deep undercover CIA officers. They were called NOCs, N-O-C for non-official cover.

There was a wrinkle that made her role a bit unusual. Her husband had been a diplomat.

Joe Wilson served as the American ambassador to several African nations, then to Iraq. He was the emissary sent by President George H. W. Bush to confront Saddam Hussein, getting in the dictator’s face after he invaded Kuwait. When Hussein said to hell with diplomatic immunity and threatened to have Wilson executed for saving more than 100 Americans from arrest, the Ambassador publicly offered to bring his own rope rather than surrender any American.

President Bush called him “a true American hero.”

So, when a new President Bush took office, was stunned by the 9/11 attacks, and decided to invade Iraq, Joe Wilson was the guy to go to Africa and find evidence of Weapons of Mass Destruction. If Saddam was developing nuclear weapons, Africa was the place he would have to go in order to get uranium. Joe Wilson had the contacts in Africa. He had developed close relationships with African allies. He was the one who could find the evidence.

Vice President Dick Cheney told the CIA that Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear weapons. He demanded the CIA send someone to Africa to get the evidence. So they chose the former Ambassador, the expert with the knowledge and the contacts.

But there was a problem. When he got to Africa, Joe Wilson discovered that there was no uranium going to Iraq. Every ounce was accounted for. Iraq had no store of nuclear materials. That meant there were no nuclear weapons. In fact, there couldn’t even be a nuclear program. No raw materials with which to work.

Wilson sent in his report, which was relayed to the Vice President. No nukes.

Then he watched on television as President Bush claimed to have proof that Iraq was getting nuclear materials from Africa.

The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.

Ambassador Joe Wilson, the guy who had shown that there was no flow of uranium to Iraq finally went public. No, that wasn’t what he had told the administration. That wasn’t what he had found out for the Vice President.

The Vice President was said to be furious. Karl Rove, the Senior Advisor to President Bush, told his staff that Joe Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, was fair game. Those were his words. “Fair Game.”

Later, administration member Richard Armitage told folks that he was the source, confirming that Joe Wilson’s wife was an undercover spy, operating without diplomatic cover. As far as the public later knew, the spy career of Valerie Plame was over. Her cover had been blown. She had been compromised.

What had been under reported was the collateral damage, and for good reason. It was information could not, and will never, make public.

Every contact she had developed, everyone who had warned her of some danger to the United States was now known to have been talking to a spy. The CIA company for which Valerie Plame had supposedly worked, the fictitious company that had allowed her to travel internationally for pretend business purposes had been compromised. That meant that everyone who had pretended to work for that company had also been compromised. Other NOC spies, the ones without diplomatic immunity, were now exposed. And so was anyone who had talked with them.

And the message had been conveyed throughout the CIA. Dick Cheney was not to be crossed. He was the one Mario Puzo had written about decades before, who would risk everything, who would run the chance of losing all for revenge. He would put the nation itself at risk, willfully damaging national security, all to prove a point.

In Puzo’s book, a film producer finds his beloved racehorse has been killed, the head put next to the man as he slept. He faces a horrible new reality.

The ruthlessness, the sheer disregard for any values, implied a man who considered himself completely his own law, even his own God.

Our own CIA was now confronted by a government official who was capable of anything. No personal risk, no national harm would stop him.

And so our intelligence agencies were tamed, for a time. They would no longer seek what was true for the sake of national well being. Too many sources were at risk. Too many secrets could harm the nation. They would find what they were told to find, true or not.

Fifteen years later, we find a continuation, a logical sequel.

Dick Cheney is no longer the one sending a message.

I’d like to begin by reading a statement from the President:

As the head of the executive branch and Commander-in-Chief, I have a unique constitutional responsibility to protect the nation’s classified information, including by controlling access to it. Today, in fulfilling that responsibility, I have decided to revoke the security clearance of John Brennan, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

This time the internal threat to national security does not pursue some point of honor. He is not after a cruel foreign dictator. He is simply angry about criticism.

Mr. Brennan has recently leveraged his status as a former high-ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations — wild outbursts on the Internet and television — about this administration.

His action will extend to others. What they seem to have in common is not partisanship. Rather they are all potential witnesses.

As part of this review, I am evaluating action with respect to the following individuals: James Clapper, James Comey, Michael Hayden, Sally Yates, Susan Rice, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr.

Security clearances are not extended to former officials out of simple courtesy, or even as gratitude for past service. It is partly to give them access to past notes so they can accurately testify before Congress. More important, it is so they can be called back into service, providing quick answers and advice to current officials during some unforeseen crisis.

Withdrawing a security clearance damages the security of those of us who live in the United States.

So was the intelligence community intimidated into silence?

From NBC News:

Overnight, 12 former senior intelligence officials releasing a joint statement blasting President Trump for revoking former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance, calling it “ill-considered and unprecedented,” the former officials telling the president that his actions against Brennan have “nothing to do with who should and should not hold security clearances – and everything to do with an attempt to stifle free speech.”

Within hours, the twelve grew to 15, then were joined by dozens of lower ranking intelligence officials. The next day, the number grew to 160, by week’s end over 200.

One remarkable military hero went much further:

Brennan now getting backup from the commander of the Osama bin Laden raid, Navy Admiral William McRaven in a Washington Post op-ed defending Brennan as “a man of unparalleled integrity,” saying, “I would consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well.”

Mr. Brennan’s own response was predictably direct, writing in the New York Times editorial page:

Mr. Trump clearly has become more desperate to protect himself and those close to him, which is why he made the politically motivated decision to revoke my security clearance in an attempt to scare into silence others who might dare to challenge him.

His point seemed to be supported by the President himself, as he spoke to the Wall Street Journal.

I call it the rigged witch hunt, it is a sham. And these people led it! So I think it’s something that had to be done.

That may be the reason for the very different response from a decade and a half ago.

Vice President Cheney was a recognizable brute, quite willing to risk everything to prove a point. He operated without fear.

President Trump does not risk everything. He does not risk anything. He is simply afraid, willing to sell out his country to avoid being caught.

Cheney intimidated CIA officers by threatening to put national security in danger if he was not obeyed.

President Trump cannot intimidate those in charge of national security in the same way.

He cannot silence them by threatening danger.
They speak out because he is the danger.
 


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