Larry Johnson: The CIA Has Become the KGB

My title may appear to be over the top, but hear me out. There was a time when the CIA, despite deep flaws and sloppy tradecraft, could be counted on to tell the President, regardless of political party, the truth. No longer. It is corrupt to the very top and now should be viewed as an enemy of the Republic.

The latest revelations from the Intelligence Community's Analytic Ombudsman described in a memo from DNI John Ratcliffe is beyond shocking. Rather than tell the truth about Chinese interference in the 2020 Presidential election, the CIA opted to quash intelligence that would have proven Donald Trump's claim that the Chinese not only interfered in the 2020 election, but played a hand in throwing the election to Joe Biden.

Here are the salient points of the DNI's memo:

The IC's Analytic Ombudsman issued a report . . . that includes concerning revelations about the politicization of China election influence reporting and of undue pressure being brought to bear on analysts who offered an alternative view based on the intelligence. . . .

Analytic Standard B requires the IC to maintain "independence of political considerations." This is particularly important during times when the country is, as the Ombudsman wrote, "in a hyper partisan state." However, the Ombudsman found that:

"China analysts were hesitant to assess Chinese actions as undue influence or interference. These analysts appeared reluctant to have their analysis on China brought forward because they tend to disagree with the administration's policies, saying in effect, I don't want our intelligence used to support those policies. This behavior would constitute a violation of Analytic Standard B: Independence of Political Considerations (IRTPA Section 1019).". . . .

"There were strong efforts to suppress analysis of alternatives (AOA) in the August [National intelligence Council Assessment on foreign election influence], and associated IC products, which is a violation ofTradecraft Standard 4 and IRTPA Section 1017.

National Intelligence Council (NIC) officials reported that Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials rejected NIC coordination comments and tried to downplay alternative analyses in their own production during the drafting of the NICA." . . . .

Additionally, the Ombudsman found that CIA Management took actions "pressuring [analysts] to withdraw their support" from the alternative viewpoint on China "in an attempt to suppress it. This was seen by National Intelligence Officers (NIO) as politicization,"

"There were strong efforts to suppress analysis of alternatives (AOA) in the August [National intelligence Council Assessment on foreign election influence], and associated IC products, which is a violation ofTradecraft Standard 4 and IRTPA Section 1017.

National Intelligence Council (NIC) officials reported that Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials rejected NIC coordination comments and tried to downplay alternative analyses in their own production during the drafting of the NICA."

Let me make this very simple--the CIA cooked the books because they did not want to produce the evidence that proved what the President has been saying since the election was true.

This is not a mistake. This is treason of the highest order.

This is not the first time that the CIA has produced politicized intelligence or has refused to produce contrary intelligence. But is it the first time that the CIA has taken a blatantly partisan stance against an American President and sided with a foreign enemy.

The CIA has cooked the books before. One of its most damaging acts of intelligence sabotage in the past was manufacturing the Iraq Weapons of Mass Destruction fraud that was used by then President Bush to launch an unnecessary and unjustified war in Iraq in 2003. But back then there were a few senior officers who continued to conduct themselves with professionalism and exposed the lies of Curveball, which was a major foundation of the mendacious assessment that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

I was an analyst at the CIA and saw first hand how politics brought pressure to bear on analysts to slant analysis. In my case, it was the war in Central America. I was the Honduran analyst from September 1986 to September 1989. I wrote frequently for the Presidential Daily Brief (aka PDB), producing on average three briefs a week for the President (Reagan and Bush). [Note, most analysts were lucky if they wrote one PDB every two weeks.] Before starting my work I had the honor of being trained as a new analyst by the legendary George Allen. George Allen, not the football coach, was a 30 year veteran of US military intelligence and the CIA.

He authored the book, None So Blind: A Personal Account of the Intelligence Failure in Vietnam. Book From his vantage point as a chief official with the CIA and army intelligence, Mr. Allen reveals specifically how American leaders, unwilling to face up to bad news from intelligence sources, largely excluded intelligence from important policy deliberations until it was too late. . . .

One message shines through his recounting of more than three decades of American policy-making in Vietnam, what Allen calls the "unwillingness of U.S. officials to confront reality in Vietnam." Allen names the names of those officials. They included the three top Army generals sent to South Vietnam in the 1950s and early 1960s (Joseph "Lightning Joe" Collins, Samuel T. "Hanging Sam" Williams and Paul Harkins); the ambassador to South Vietnam in 1964-1965, Maxwell Taylor; and Johnson administration heavies Walt Rostow, McGeorge and William Bundy and Robert S. McNamara.

George Allen was in charge of the analysis on Vietnam during the lead up to the TET offensive. George, along with his lead analyst, were warning President Johnson that the Viet Cong was far more powerful than being reported by US military commanders in Vietnam, General William Westmoreland in particular. George was pressured repeatedly by Secretary of Defense McNamara, National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy and even President Johnson to, "be a team player." In other words, go with the flow and back up the happy talk that Vietnam was well in hand by the U.S. military. But the intelligence from the field told a different story.

It was only several years after we pulled out of Vietnam that the American public heard the truth of the deception during a libel suit brought by General William Westmoreland against CBS.

Major General Joseph McChristian, Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence under Westmoreland, testified at trial that when he had presented new increased enemy strength estimates, Westmoreland had responded that sending these figures to Washington would "create a political bombshell" and would "embarrass my commander in chief [President Johnson]." ^[9] General McChristian testified that, in withholding these figures, Westmoreland, "in being loyal to the President, was disloyal to his country."^[10

George warned us about the reality of political pressure and called us to stand strong against that pressure. He was very candid in talking about his lack of courage in pushing back when he was confronted with this pressure. He had kids in high school and no deep-pocket financial resources to enable him to take the risk of opposing too strenuously and being left without a job.

What DNI Ratcliffe reports is different and more ominous. Rather than oppose a crazed policy concocted by a President, the current batch of CIA leaders and some complicit analysts chose to lie. Rather than expose the truth about China and its subversion, they collaborated to thwart President Trump in his bid to expose the Chinese penetration and manipulation of the US election.

I spoke with a retired CIA colleague last night who was heartbroken and sick over this latest revelation. Until yesterday he still harbored the hope that there were still some good apples in CIA leadership who would put politics aside and serve the interests of the Republic regardless of their partisan leanings. He told me, "our old outfit is rotten to the core."

The CIA is now transformed into the KGB of the bad old days in the sense that it is filled with political hacks eager to serve one particular party without regard for the welfare of the nation. The KGB told their Soviet masters what they wanted to hear. You did not advance in that intelligence service unless you played along. Speaking truth to power was not a virtue in the KGB. It is in that sense that the CIA has become the very thing it was created to fight.

This is a watershed in the history of America and marks a point that will make it very difficult for us to survive. Instead of providing the best analysis free of politics, the stench of the political corruption that covers Washington has now fully embraced the CIA.

Intelligence analysis, at its root, is more art than science. Answers usually are not black and white. There are vast amounts of gray intelligence and nuance. An honest process requires the analyst, and his or her bosses, to present the facts, good and bad. If there is dissenting views those are supposed to be laid on the table as well; not suppressed.

The IC Analytic Ombudsman makes it very clear that intelligence was hidden from the President and the Congress. We have been told a massive lie about a clean election. It was not. It was dirty as hell.

Comments

[Exiled off mainstreet]

It is disappointing, but this does not surprise me. Unfortunately it seems to fit the prevailing pattern.

[Reggie Meezer]

yes, it is treason but unfortunately, they continue to get away with it.

[james]

thanks larry.. this is disturbing to read...

[Deap]

Where is Gina Haspel?

[sbin]

Enjoy your contributions to this wonderful blog.
Have noticed that your recent comments on political events has not been very accurate.
From Barr/Durham investigation to Powell law suits.
Looking forward to your opinions on the new regime.

[zm]

Trump team was not able to prove through courts that election fraud has been committed.

Are all the major government institutions, most politicians, courts, biggest media, big tech, 80+ million people etc. part of this treason ?

If this is the case, is it still a treason and against whom or what ? Against the founding principles of the US ?

Is a peaceful secession the way to resolve the growing differences or will one side just have to suck it up and learn to live with the new state of affairs.

Whatever the case I hope the US comes out of this stable and strong, because despite its flaws, if the US goes, the world will not be a better place.

[Noel Grannell]

seditious stuff

[JohninMK]

Not only get away with it Reggie but prosper from it. No doubt the key people will be rewarded well for their treachery.

[sova]

Let's please be watchful and prepared for major turbulences which may result in existential problems for the marvel of this Committee of Correspondence.. Every effort must be made to preserve this precious resource and to assist the turcopollier in persisting. Monetary contributions and everything else.. Mr. Johnson - you do have a significant presence and following here, please take this to heart. After all you do know that at the time we suspect that something may be happening the same thing is happening already for a while!!

[Bill H]

sbin
Larry Johnson has continued to believe that this nation's institutions would continue to function is a basically constitutional manner. He is beginning to shed that illusion.

[TV]

Dog bites man.
CIA, like the rest of the swamp, has it's own agenda which is only tangentially related to its supposed function.
The first goal of any bureaucracy is self-preservation, the second is growing the budget.
Treason (lying to and withholding information from a President not of the swamp) is shrugged off as collateral damage.
On the brighter side, contemplate how much damage the CIA, FBI and the rest of the "alphabets" could do if not for their gross - sometimes bordering on the comical - incompetence.

[Dan]

Its extremely odd to see the public positions of our ex-CIA folks these days - they present themselves as almost uniformly far left. We had 8 former intel folks enter congress as democrats in 2018, many of them CIA, and they engage in some of the shallowest and crudest anti-Trump rhetoric. Obviously John Brennan is an outrageous hack and propagandist, but even a former deputy like Mike Morell now trolls the gutters of Twitter appealing to low information partisans.

The hiring and promotion at the CIA must have become *heavily* politicized in recent years. Its a bunch of eager manipulators shamelessly pushing lefty politics and abusing Trump.

[gabriel]

"where is Gina whatever?"

Who put Gina boss of Cia?

[turcopolier]

gabriel

Trump did. This is one of his many disastrous personnel decisions.

[Diana L Croissant]

Larry Johnson has been and will remain the political commentary writer I trust the most.

I am completely saddened about the current state of our country. I fear the most for my children and grandchildren. I was so lucky to grow up in the country when students were taught the history of our country based on the writings and the actions of those men and women who founded the country.

Over the years as a public school teacher in high schools and community colleges and colleges in my state, I realized that the Left had given up any loyalty to our founding principles and were teaching distorted ideas of what those principles were meant to be. Perhaps it's the result of a university system that grants doctorates to those who have to twist the ideas of the early writers in order to come up with something new and "original" in their own quest for a doctorate.

Our country was founded by great thinkers and writers UNDER THEIR GOD. I gave up my quest for a doctorate when I realized that our department's chairman was a true believer in Marxism. He was forced to give me my A on a paper I wrote for his seminar disproving the thesis of the text he chose for us. All the other sheep (I mean students) in the seminar had gone to him to let him pick out the books and documents to use for their papers. He was dismayed when I did my own research in the best research library in the state , which was on HIS campus and actually wrote a paper that disproved many of the ideas in the text he had forced us to use.

Then I left the university when the next professor I was assigned for a seminar turned out to be involved in a state-w,\ide controversy because a reporter from one of the states most widely read newspapers had discovered that his doctorate had been written about pornographic literature. I guess it's a topic that some might find interesting and worthy of research, but I had by then lost faith in our educational institutions of supposed "higher" learning and had become an advocate for the home school and charter school movement that was gaining momentum in the country.

We have allowed our educational institutions to erase God from their thinking and any sense of propriety. My grandparents on both my mom's and my dad's side escaped the Godless persecution of the Bolsheviks.

Now I can only pray to God for help for those of us who still revere our Constitution. With Biden--who is still I believe under Obama's influence, we will be led by a man who is Christian in name only.

I hope our country will survive. I have to put my faith in those whom Hannity calls the "smelly Walmart shoppers," and whom he admires. They are the real "free market" believers, since there seems to be none left in our political class.

[Hamza]

Larry, what happened to the agency? It seems like there’s been a flood of leftists. Is this now rank and file, middle mgmt , or a problem primarily with the leadership?

[Deap]

gabriel, You and everyone else already knew this answer Trump put in Gina Haspel. What was the point of your question. How does it relate to the question asked. Where is she? Why have we been asking this question for the past month.

[Andrei Martyanov]

The KGB told their Soviet masters what they wanted to hear. You did not advance in that intelligence service unless you played along. Speaking truth to power was not a virtue in the KGB. It is in that sense that the CIA has become the very thing it was created to fight.

Actually, it was more complex than that. It was reported and political top was aware. E.g. Andropov with his tenure as General Secretary. But KGB and its counter-intelligence was strictly forbidden to conduct any activity within nomenclature, which was free to roam and do as it pleased.

[JerseyJeffersonian]

Pardon me Col. Lang for this communication to Smoothie x12.

Andrei Martyanov,

Somewhat OT, but not by much.
I don't know if you saw the excerpt from Fourth and Long from the online version of Viewpoint in this earlier thread:

https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2021/01/httpswwwwashingtonpostcominvestigationscapitol-rally-organizers-before-riots20210116c5b40250-552d-11.html#comments

It looked quite intriguing, and I will try to use Yandex.com to get to the whole thing. (I don't have an iphone [that's Insurrection Phone now that Apple has jumped in with both feet on the suppression of speech on the internet, and I am not using Chrome browser, either], so I will see if I can get to it by other means).

Perhaps you might consider posting it with an English translation at your own site?
Interesting analysis from a Russian perspective seems up your alley.

Thanks, Colonel, for your indulgence, and Andrei, too.

JJ

[JohninMK]

Gateway Pundit saying that Gina Haspel has resigned.

[BillWade]

Well, so it goes, Haspel resigned today. I would have thought she'd be a hold-over to the Biden regime.

[Deap]

American people know when someone is getting a raw deal, no matter how much gas-lighting comes from the media and the Democrats.

Trump's approval near his all time high, as we speak. 51% https://sharylattkisson.com/2021/01/poll-trump-approval-quietly-nears-3-year-high/

What concessions will Democrats and Biden make if they want "us to come together" because it looks like they are the ones who need to come over to our side.And concede we were right and they were wrong for the past four years.

Anyone else as cynical as I am, thinking Biden will magnanimously offer to stop the "impeachment" of Trump as an act of reconciliation, proving the whole thing was ginned up Pelosi theater in the first place?

[Australian lady]

"Intelligence analysis, at it's root, is more art than science."
Unfortunately even science is more art than science these days.
Great piece, Larry Johnson, with some fascinating, thought provoking, anecdotal details.
I like your kind of intelligence.

[Andrei Martyanov]

@JJ

The piece you referred to is by one of the more prominent Russian "Americanists" Dmitry Drobnitsky. There are some good points he makes, others--not so much. I don't think that the piece itself is that significant, because many (not all) similar conclusions are arrived at at the expert and simply common sense forums (i.e. Colonel's blog) and are not really revealing in terms of what to expect. The fact that fragmentation and chaotization of America's political discourse is ongoing with an increasing speed is a fact of life. How the US will "split" itself remains to be seen, but in the foundation of this all are two major factors (and a bunch of derivative ones):

1. Ceasing of a long-sputtering economic system which cannot continue within existing framework of neo-liberalism, which effectively killed America's rel wealth production;

2. A betrayal of American "intelligentsia" (or as they love to call themselves "intellectual elite") of the real interests of the American "deplorables", with coincidental collapse in expertise and knowledge. In other words--there is nothing rigorous in American social and political scholarship in the last 20+ years.

How this will play out, and if we will face a real, however sporadic, violence remains to be seen. But as I say for many years ad nauseam--American political class, which consists of primarily office plankton, has no idea what it plays with. I don't think any of them are ready to face real street warfare and "joys" it brings of which I made a note few days ago when this circus on 6th in Capitol was called "insurrection". They do not know how real insurrection looks like and we may yet, God forbids, get there.

https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2021/01/echoes-of-bs.html

I personally think that the US regionalization will continue together with economic implosion because currently there are no people (zero, zilch) in US top echelon who understand how real economy, not this BS of stock exchange as asset value gross inflation, works. They are primarily products of the Ivy League pseudo-scientific economic whiteboard theories and that is a huge issue. Most of them do not know the difference between CNC and Kitchen Aid meat grinder. This is not a class of people who know how to deal with current situation.

[Fred]

Andrei,

The left and the GOP establishment that also supports them believes most of their own propaganda. The idea that the so called right wing militias and white supremacists (useful fundraising labels, as well as a useful race baiting label for their non-white voting base), are what organized the events in D.C. on the 6 th being a prime one. Fools. They've also shown that the antifa/blm militants are controlled by someone. The fact that the FBI could trace back most of the members of the crowd that entered the Capital building yet in almost 9 months couldn't do a damned thing about rioters who destroyed large parts of more than one American city shows just how corrupt the bureaucracy is. As if the Russia collusion fraud hadn't done that already.