Deja Vu All Over Again…Making America More Safe?

posted at 10:53 am on April 22, 2009 by coldwarrior

David Ignatius, at the Washington Post, writes today, it is “Slow Roll Time at Langley.”

Seems like old times.  Yep.  Old times.

I wasn’t around at CIA during the Church Hearings, but I worked alongside a few survivors of that era.  Great mentors, these.  And I came to the Agency after the Stansfield Turner massacre, and there were a few of the old hands still around who survived that particular onslaught.  Wonderful mentors, all of them.  But they were few.  The open ground between novice and old hand was vast…palpable.  At times, discouraging.  How could I, or my career trainee colleagues ever measure up, hone the skills, develop even a small bit of their expertise…and be real honest to goodness overseas operations officers going after the bad guys?  A daunting thought, when you look back.

I was one of the fortunate ones…came in as Bill Casey brought to Langley a spirit of “let’s get this job done” and offered all sorts of encouragement to us, those men and women at the tip of the spear.

And there were times, even then, under Reagan, that the Agency took some hard hits.  And we had a few cold warriors that exceeded their brief from time to time.  But, when the chips were down, we knew, just knew, that the 7th Floor would back us up.  And they did.

Ours was an enormous task back then.  Unlike the previous Carter Administration, who saw us as the reason American foreign policy failed, the Reagan Administration saw us as a means to make American foreign policy work…successfully.  And, it did.  Reagan liked us.  Supported us.  On any foreign visit, Reagan made sure he got to talk to the men and women of that overseas Station, to offer encouragement, a few typically Reagan jokes to get the conversation going, he had a sharp wit, I’ll say that.  He was indeed our National Cheerleader at a time when the “experts” told us that there was no way we could best the Soviet Union, and accommodation was the only rational route to take.  And these same experts shuddered in fear when Reagan called the bad guys an “Evil Empire” or made that famous last minute ad lib…”Gorbachev, tear down this Wall!!”

His visits to Langley were things that had crowds of professionals cheering like they were at their kids’ soccer championship or little league play-offs.  He inspired us.

If Reagan actually knew the details, well, that didn’t matter. He set the tone.  He articulated goals.  We, in turn, worked our hind quarters off to make sure those goals were attained.  The stuff of thriller novels sometimes.

We got our operational objectives annually from Headquarters, operational objectives painstakingly crafted to meet a global threat.  And a lot of anciliary threats that enabled the Soviets to make inroads in far away places that put all of us at risk, though little heralded in our press.

The Soviets were the Big Target, and over at SE Division Russia House was the sanctum sanctorum of our global efforts against that former Evil Empire.  But, the other area divisions also were invigorated, and innovation, thinking outside the box, coming up with novel ways to enhance our overall intellgience efforts were rewarded, sometimes with an Exceptional Performance Award, sometimes with a bit of a bonus, sometimes with our choice of our next assignment being granted, or an accelerated promotion….and the spirit of “can do” pervaded the Agency.

We went after the Soviets, and a few others, and grew in our experience, expertise, and ability to do a lot with precious little at times.   And we had a press and a populatiuon who still saw us through the Church Committee lense…rogues, criminals, out of control assassins all of us.  It didn’t help.  But, knowing that we had a President who knew better, who understood what we were tasked with doing, and his successor, George H.W. Bush, also, as well, understood and appreciated who we were and what we had to do.

Then came the Clinton years…and a new exodus from CIA.

And we had those few inside who took advantage of us…and to this day, we loathe them with a passion not known to many, intense, visceral hatred…the Rick Ames’, the lot of them.  Sold us down the river.  Not something to forgive nor forget easily.

But, through it all, we worked hard to maintain focus on the real issues ahead of us…our national security and the knowledge that our kids would sleep safely at home while we were in some godforsaken part of the world simply because it was our job…our passion…and we had a President who wanted us to succeed.

No small thing, having a President behind you when the going gets tough.

Fast forward to today…

A lot of change…and hope?  Hope is fleeting.

As David Ignatius says in his column in today’s WaPo,

“Put yourself in the shoes of the people who were asked to interrogate al-Qaeda prisoners in 2002. One former officer told me he declined the job, not because he thought the program was wrong but because he knew it would blow up. “We all knew the political wind would change eventually,” he recalled. Other officers who didn’t make that cynical but correct calculation are now “broken and bewildered,” says the former operative.”

And it is not just the President who has a severe impact on the morale and focus of the officers at CIA.

Witness this, also from Ignatius, today,

“For a taste of what’s ahead, recall the chilling effects of past CIA scandals. In 1995, then-Director John Deutch ordered a “scrub” of the agency’s assets after revelations of past links to Guatemalan death squads. Officers were told they shouldn’t jettison sources who had provided truly valuable intelligence. But the practical message, recalls one former division chief, was: “Don’t deal with assets who could pose political risks.” A similar signal is being sent now, he warns.”

I can recall spending hours, hours a week with lawyers in the Office of General Counsel for each hour I or any of the officers I worked alongside actually spent with a foreign asset, newly recruited agent, or developmental, during the Clinton years.  And each time, there was this implicit bottom line…if you screw up, or our advice is countermanded, you are on your own.

Fast forward to today…

We face today a global threat just as real and violence prone as it was on 9/11 and long before 9/11…and we have in the White House a President who cares more about his own legacy than those working to keep America safe.

Priorities.  Those operational objectives.  Seems the primary operational objective for the Obama White House is that Obama be seen, greeted and hailed by the global community as the Saviour of Mankind.  Anything less is failure.

It is, in the words of German actress, Sabine Ehrenfeld, “All about the “O”.”

Yet, the officers, the men and women of CIA, the National Clandestine Service, formerly called the Directorate of Operations, are out there, trying to nail down those tasks and operational objectives not for glory, but because if they do not….who will?

And as each day passes since this past 20 January…they are beginning to understand that even if they do it by the book, even if they follow the letter of the law, even if they place themselves at great risk and save numerous lives…they face a President who is more interested in being loved than their being right.

And folks, that is no way to run a Nation.

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