Ex-CIA Officer Unloads on Brennan/Politicized IC, Warns of ChiCom Dominance, Southern Border Threat

Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten ^ | 2018-08-22 | Ben Weingarten

[fredericbastiat1]

For this week's Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten podcast, I had former CIA operative and leader of CIA's Counter Terrorism Center’s WMD unit, author of the must-read and highly relevant 2009 book Beyond Repair: The Decline and Fall of the CIA and outspoken critic of the politicized leadership in America's intelligence and national security apparatus, Charles Sam Faddis on the podcast to discuss among other things:

• Why Faddis supports revoking John Brennan's security clearance -- and the bureaucratization and politicization of the leadership of the intelligence community versus the rank-and-file analysts and operatives in the field
• Whether politics dominates over merit in the ranks of intelligence and the national security apparatus more broadly
• What members of the national security establishment really mean when they talk about "protecting the institutions"
• Why President Trump has been deemed a threat to the power of the political leaders within the national security establishment in a qualitatively different way than any of his predecessors -- and that's a positive thing
• What Faddis would do to reform intelligence
• The poor state of America's counterintelligence capabilities
• The lessons of Iraq regarding U.S. intervention and the national interest
• Whether America has the capability to use intelligence to engage in ideological warfare and bring down Iran's Khomeinist regime
• How China's liquidation of our spy network reflects the problems plaguing America's intelligence apparatus
• The long-term dire ramifications of China's OPM hack
• The implications of China's attempt to infiltrate Senator Dianne Feinstein's office
• The threat to the U.S. homeland of a collapsing Venezuela and Mexico, combined with drug cartels, organized crime groups and Hezbollah in our hemisphere
• Faddis' optimistic assessment of the Trump administration's North Korea policy
• Why China poses the greatest long-term threat to America of all, and our willful blindness towards it

You can find the episode on iTunes, everywhere else podcasts are found, and download the episode directly here.

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[Lurkinanloomin]

I agree that the CIA is beyond repair.
So is the FBI.
Probably many more agencies.

The founders were correct to exclude the children of foreign nationals from becoming President.

Too bad we did not follow the Constitution, now we have forfeited it and most people don’t even know it.

[Mollypitcher1]

We haven’t forfeited it as long as we don’t let it happen again. Never give up on educating people as to why Cruz, Rubio and other “stars” are NOT eligible for the presidency.We simply have to outlast the lawbreakers and NEVER give up.

[Lurkinanloomin]

The Cubanadian has a lot of fans on this site who are willing to make Anwar al-Awlaki’s kids eligible to be President just so they can vote for him.

[Mollypitcher1]

You and I have been fighting this battle for a long time and are apt to continue in the same vein until some people finally accept the truth about what the Constitution says.