The Washington Post (but of course, CIA outlet) is reporting on a downsizing effort within the CIA to eliminate approximately 1,200 jobs. The number represents approximately 5% of the workforce although the actual number of CIA employees is classified (national security, dontchaknow).
Within the report, Director John Ratcliffe is noted as shifting the focus of America’s leading spy agency to use more “human intelligence.” That phrase, “human intelligence,” is IC silo code speak for shifting away from “analysts” (political operatives) and engaging in more ¹factual intelligence information.
According to the report, DNI Tulsi Gabbard has also reduced the employment level within the Director of National Intelligence office by approximately 25% (current payroll estimate of 2,000 employees). The general narrative within the WaPo reporting is that “national security” is being compromised by large downsizing of spy agency employment.
Additionally, to bolster the positions of the current political operatives within the CIA, the WaPo waxes concerningly about China and other mysterious foreign adversaries recruiting the CIA employees who are now becoming increasingly concerned about their paychecks.
WASHINGTON POST – “The Trump administration is planning significant personnel cuts at the Central Intelligence Agency and other major U.S. spy units, downsizing the government’s most sensitive national security agencies, according to people familiar with the plans.
The administration recently informed lawmakers on Capitol Hill that it intends to reduce the CIA’s workforce by about 1,200 personnel over several years and cut thousands more from other parts of the U.S. intelligence community, including at the National Security Agency, a highly secretive service that specializes in cryptology and global electronic espionage, a person familiar with the matter said. The person, like others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
[…] The staff reductions would take place over several years and would be accomplished in part through reduced hiring. No outright firings are envisioned. The goal of a roughly 1,200-person staff reduction includes several hundred individuals who already have opted for early retirement, the person familiar with the matter said.
The downsizing is taking place separately from efforts by the U.S. DOGE Service, led by billionaire Elon Musk, to radically restructure the federal government. Musk met with Ratcliffe in late March for a discussion that included government efficiency measures, but no DOGE teams have been working at the agency’s Langley, Virginia, campus. (more)
[¹Obviously, I can certainly appreciate the “human intelligence” shift noted by Director Ratcliffe for all the factual reasons that necessitate his concern. It is part of the reason why I ended up frustrated with “western reports” and determined the only way to really understand what is going on inside Russia during the sanctions was to travel there myself and review.
It was quite an experience to sit in a renamed Starbucks coffee shop at the crowded Galleria Mall in downtown St Petersburg, Russia and read the Wall Street Journal reporting on the devastation to the Russian economy, while looking around at the packed stores and purchases being made on an ordinary weekday. Then to read the New York Times reports of shortages of steel in Russia, while driving past many miles of apartment and condominium construction. Everything cited in western corporate media, “according to sources familiar with the situation”, was/is the complete opposite of everything factually visible.]
♦ Imagine a world, our world, where all the scary threat protection systems are removed. What does that world look like?
CCTV cameras removed. Body scans at airports removed. X-Ray machines removed. Shoes stay on. You carry a bottle of water onto an airplane without issue. You return to the 1980’s world of transit.
Your metadata is no longer being captured for review. Your conversations are no longer being recorded by your devices. Your data profile is no longer being sold and monetized.
No one is tracking you, or anyone else. It’s a scary world with all kinds of perceived ‘risks’ and potential ‘threats’ existing, that never surface.
It’s a world where all these terrible ‘what if’ dark imaginings still happen in the psyche, but nothing ever comes from them.
Stop being scared, and suddenly you no longer need the ‘global counterterrorism conference’ and all the looming rules and regulations they can put into place to protect you, ultimately control you, from the scary imagined stuff that has existed for generations….
Australia used quarantine camps for a fictitious threat. New Zealand set up regional roadblocks for a fictitious threat. The EU made you carry documents to ensure your compliance with a fictitious threat. In the USA, the paint in WalMart was blockaded to protect you from a fictitious threat. You could not stand at a bar to drink, but if you sat down at a table the virus wouldn’t get you. In Canada they shut down the bank accounts of those who did not comply with the rules of the fictitious threat.
Do we realize the same IC people at Dan Bongino’s ‘global security conference‘ are the same IC people who stimulated the threat response noted above?
Do we realize the same industry professionals now control the election outcomes in Brazil, France, Romania, Germany and 2020 USA?
Those who benefit from fear, claim it is a scary world out there. However, be careful about hiring some entity to protect you from it; and ask yourself quiet questions about the rules they show up with.
What exactly is this global security network protecting us from? And why do we need to be protected from it?
Ask Jair Bolsonaro. Ask Marine LePen. Ask Donald Trump. Ask Romania. Ask the AfD party in Germany. As we are witnessing in real time, the western global security network is protecting us from all of these ‘threats.’
Some nervous people say, “trust the plan.” I ask the simple question, “why do we need a plan“?
Think about it.
So, there’s 24,000 of those.. Seriously?
Langley is tiny compared to the Ft Meade operation (NSA). In fact, it’s the largest employer in Maryland (and that’s not even secret). HUMINT is hard work (that is why it is so easy to stray from the mission), Ratcliffe is directly on point.
Half those at Ft Mead don’t actually contribute anything to the operation they are tasked with.. Most show up for work at 9. Waddle downstairs to stand in line at the Starbucks for 45 minutes at 10.. are toddling qback down stairs for lunch at noon return from lunch at 1330.. Attend a meeting at the Starbucks at 1445 come back from the meeting at 1545 go home for the day at 1630.. perfectly normal day.. if they ever had to scan themselves in and out of the floor the are assigned to they might be held accountable for job performance..
That’s the Dept.of Edumencation schedule from 2012 when I was in their El Efant location.
The cafeteria was like a 5 star hotel, minus waiters of course.
That sounds exactly like about half of CA State workers….. and that’s the ones that bother to show up!
Someone close to the family used to be in one of the services. They work at the largest Intel gathering site in the US. They too worked for NSA and were in direct communications with them, so the NSA workforce mentioned is the tip of the iceberg. This individual states that all the talking points for the White House are created at NSA.
Yeah, it’s hard to believe that 1200 people is only 5% of the CIA work force. No wonder they have so much power. Well, this downsize is a start anyway/
It should be a MINIMUM of 5,000…for starters.
Look at it this way – let’s say we have 65 countries that are either hostile or in which we have very important national security interests with (resources mainly) in the world out of the 193 total (1/3rd of them) which we need to keep tabs on (including all of Europe). A 50% decrease still leaves over 180 people PER COUNTRY for CIA operations of intelligence – MORE than enough.
Remember, there is also intelligence gathering by satellite, by the military, by the State Department, and by NSA…one hundred and eighty people per country for CIA ops is more than enough – even that is hard to justify in light of all the other intelligence gathering means – which don’t even take into account shared information by our ostensible allies.
Sundance hasn’t commented on this ‘peace department’ I never heard of.
Four staffers at USIP deleted TERABYTES of information? And made a backup to an external device? (Theft?)
DOGE reportedly recovered the data. Will Pam Blondie aggressively prosecute, and find out who gave the orders to destroy government property?
amuse@amuse
“DOGE: The United States Institute of Peace was a vipers den of secrets. Hoards of weapons, cash, and when they were about to be exposed at least four individuals began deleting terabytes of data. The DOGE team even found multiple secret bank accounts. The FBI and DOJ is investigating.”
https://x.com/amuse/status/1918335171511701638
And lieing to FBI investigators, in and of itself is a felony, 1001 violation, and any employee taking the 5th is automatically canned.
This could get interesting, along with Okeefes OMG undercover which he says is bigger than anything he has done before, and has people on camera admitting to embezzling muches of boney,..
That’s only if you’re a (genuine) Conservative!! 😉
Harmeet Dhillon has already had resignations, and / or forced out, over 100 attorneys at the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ. Some were transfered into undesirable positions (ahem), so they resigned.
She is implementing President Trump’s vision.
Tulsi Gabbard whacks 25% – good job.
What are Blondie and Las Vegas Ka$h up to?
Hopefully working 24×7 on building RICO case that involves 10K+ fed, ngo employee indictments, arrests, convictions that include former and current Congresscritters, DHS, FBI, DOJ, CIA, judiciary etc
That would be nice however, I think it’s wishful thinking
AG Bondi and director Kash are doing the bidding of their boss…
POTUS.
Who has usurped the sovereign Constitutional authority of We The People…
And ceded Our unalienable Rights…
To a judge.
POTUS has chosen to put Government {mob} first…
As OPPOSED to securing Our unalienable Rights and respecting Our sovereign authority {consent of the governed}.
POTUS is aiding and abetting a enemy to The United States of America…
The corrupt, money laundering {RICO}, currency manipulating, {inflation}, enemy aiding and abetting {Chyna} criminal enterprise known as the…
Federal Reserve Bank {mob}.
God has provided Our solution,
CAPITALISM
The economic condition wherein The People own the “capital” {public Monies}…
And
The Government owns the “ism”.
Once one fully comprehends that all three branches of the Federal Government are beholden to the mob {Federal Reserve Bank}…
Then one can fully comprehend who is truly working for/serving America {We The People} first…
And who is working for/serving Government {mob} first.
Fascism requires funding…
And personality does not factor in mathematics.
Once more for the new kids…
If you want to get rid of organized crime…
Get rid of the FBI.
If you want to get rid of terrorism…
Get rid of the CIA.
Absolutely zero Constitutional authority for either “agency”.
Remember,
The Government declared war{poverty, drugs, terror} on US,
We The People of The United States Of America.
“Stand fast therefore in the Liberty wherewith Christ {Grace} has set US free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage {Law/mob}.
Gal 5:1
In God We Trust
{All others pay cash}
Trust God
Fear not
I Do not disagree with anything you have shared… with one exception .. your opinion about PT.
Common sense and some critical thinking would tell you that PT wants to, and has to, destroy the hold the IC/deep state/ Globalist have over U.S. and Worlds governments if he wants to make America Great Again.
PT knows there will be no United States, no freedom, no “real”Capitalistic Economy, no American Dream, and most importantly, no Trump Enterprise, unless someone steps into the breach.
How to go about winning …will not be conventional. I would think and it is JMO….he would have most of his policies in place before he challenges the demons to a dual.
If PT were to declare outright war on the guilty….he would be dead tomorrow.
Common sense would ask the question.. Why do it….why would PT risk everything , the good life, if he weren’t there to make change. Unfortunately, PT is at the end stage of life and time is precious wouldn’t he want to “live his best life”? PT knows, we know, that everything will be undone if the deep state remains.
Without hope in God we have nothing. I believe God led our President to do what he is doing in this moment in time where our country is in peril.
In God we trust… indeed.
The fact that we are not hearing about 1,000’s being fired at DOJ, informs that Blondi is in over her head. She’s in a pit of vipers – who watches the watchers? – and she is not decapitating. Does not bode well.
The 2 guilty agencies investigating themselves…that aught to go well.
DOGE are Special Government Employees and contractors serving the current US Government (USG) Administration.
The USG is considered corrupt.
Therefore, when DOGE claims some example of USG corruption, it is the corrupt USG reporting on itself.
Q: How can we know what to believe?
A: It doesn’t matter, the point is to maintain your focus on all the theater which you can’t do anything about, while the ship is being sunk. And keep the reader comments coming, this feeds the Big Brother data collection system.
Does anyone ever stop and consider where does Mike Benz get all this “super secret” distractions, I mean really super important info, that is vague and skeery and full of inuendo and supposition and all manner of intriguing?
That gets mileage and eyes and ears and gossip and money$$, I mean influencers, to pick it up and swirl it around.
While NOT talking about the incredible April jobs report, or the record amounts of money being invested in the USA, or the frenetic pace of rebuilding factories and other businesses, or the numbers and vicious types of illegal aliens being removed, or…..
Mike Benz is a spook.
“Mike Benz is a spook.”
No, he’s worse than a spook.
He’s a poser, a fake, a fraud.
“Who is “Mike Benz”?”Benz is a poser. He surely has all the hallmarks of an agent provocateur. Very much in the mold of Ray Epps–pushing for others to get out and do something.
He first hit the limelight in 2017 as an anonymous “content creator” on YouTube, using the name “Frame Game.” His schtick was “alt-right” criticism of Jews, and as a supporter of “white identitarian” issues. He hinted at his true identity, but never revealed who he was. Frame Game often shared his background as a Jewish attorney living in New York City and told interviewers he had studied psychology at an Ivy League college.
In a blog post from 2017, Frame Game described himself as “a Jew who is deeply sympathetic to the AltRight’s accurate depiction of the double-edged nature of Jewish influence on Europe and America.” A former self-described libertarian, Frame Game credited alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos as “putting the puzzle together” and opening his eyes.
After Benz was unmasked as Frame Game, “He said the account was a covert effort intended to somehow combat the anti-semitism it espoused.”
Full story:
https://kentclizbe.substack.com/p/mike-benz-is-a-poser?utm_source=publication-search
From your personal blog:
Sundance, who doesn’t reveal his own identity, hints that he has sources in the government. His analysis, though insightful and usually accurate, reveals him to lack personal experience in the federal sphere. This includes a lack of experience in military and intelligence circles. Since he lacks that experience, he seems to rely on some source(s), whom he never reveals. He took a trip to Washington DC once, and hints at a source there, who “slipped a note under my hotel room door.” Assuming good intentions of the source(s), this might be a good way to develop an understanding of DC and the Deep State. But it’s also a good way to be led astray, if your unvetted source has bad intentions.
Sundance’s analysis of America’s intelligence community seems to show that he’s been led astray by his source(s). The gist of his flawed understanding is his contention that CIA = USAID = State. This conclusion, though it has a tiny thread of reality running through it, is flawed and fundamentally wrong. And the flaw in this analysis causes his conclusions on the IC to be “close, but no cigar.” This flaw warps all his conclusions and distracts from his overall message. Is/was Benz Sundance’s source on the IC?
When Benz suddenly popped into national prominence, maybe in the run-up to election 2024, was the first I’d heard of him, or of his messages. When I heard his message about the IC, the source of Sundance’s misunderstandings became clear. Benz’s message was/is: CIA = USAID = State, just like Sundance’s flawed analysis.
So, it appears that Benz is Sundance’s source, or one of them, for understanding the IC. While it was obvious to me that Benz was spouting nonsense, to someone with no experience in the Deep State, evidently, Benz’s schtick was convincing.
FYI:
Sundance has questioned Benz’ shtick and neither trusts him completely, nor relies on him exclusively or even extensively; you are reaching and drawing weak conclusions that you try to sell as if they are solid.
If your respect for Sundance and his work is this low, then the only reason you can have to read CTH daily is to ankle-bite.
Thanks for the clarity.
Interesting…
Way back in the day, (a few 100+ yrs) when downsizing a sensitive group within government they had a more permanant and practical way of dealing with the downsized portion other that let them seek employment elsewhere. It seems the sentiment of the 20-21 Century has softened mans mind past rationality, lol
I think it was Patton, correct me if I am wrong, that questioned how he went about accepting the surrender of Japan at the end of WW2 due to “Political Correctness” coming from the “higher ups”.
Patton had nothing to do with the Japanese in the Pacific Theatre of WW2.
F these Crap Weasels!!
Wolverines!!!
IC Silos have been up to no good. People were involved in “doing the no good”. Get rid of the people involved and what is left are people doing what they were supposed to be doing. The smaller the Silo the less mischief it will do. The Government is too big.
Promote fictitious threats to fear perceived evil activity, all while bringing about, spreading, and protecting actual evil activity.
thank you, sir! daily, I eagerly await what you post.
There’s money (and power) in paranoia.
You should also carefully learn about and study the science of propaganda.
I’ll take my travel 80’s back. The Kabuki theater at the airports preformed by overweight people with bad attitudes in village people attire preforming enhanced pat downs with the “back” of their hands, we can do without.
I give this remark my 100% endorsement.
Carter’s CIA Director, Adm. Stansfield Turner (1977-1981), removed all HUMINT from Iran facilitating the IRAN Revolution in 1979 that ousted Pahlavi and installed the mullahs. (Over the horizon monitoring, don’tcha know). A legacy of terror now being reversed.
1) How did we even exist as a sovereign nation without the services of an unaccountable clandestine agency running amok at taxpayer expense because “it’s classified”?
2) How come Kissinger ain’t dead yet?
‘Dark Invasion’ is a pretty good book about how we functioned without an IC, we used the NYPD and the treasury dept. Of course, kidnapping a stevedore and then beating them for 8 hours, he didn’t know nothing, boss how do you know? He would have told us. Go get another. Is probably not allowed anymore, unless you count waterboarding.
GOD already has the PLAN and I TRUST GOD’s PLAN doing my BEST each and every day to live my life wearing the ARMOUR JESUS gave to me as a reassurance that I will be warmly received into HIS KINGDOM at the END of MY time. I FEAR NO EVIL for he is with me ALL the days of MY life, AMEN.
God Bless and PROTECT ALL of US!
BTW, thanks Sundance & Menagerie for giving us a spiritual frame of reference to help keep us informed and therefore protected from the EVIL surrounding US.
Much of what is going on is out of our control.
The world is no friend to the people of God. In fact the agents in charge are outright enemies to those who would propose to live God honoring peaceful and quiet lives.
Yes, the architects of chaos, violence would put in a very complex system of surveillance to protect us because we are so vulnerable and so very afraid /s. But they don’t understand those who have traded this world for the world to come are not afraid. We are not ignorant of their devices. “He is no fool who gives what he can not keep for that which he can lose”
Wait a minute. They won’t tell us how many CIA employees there are, but we are supposed to accept there’s a 5% cut? Are they counting subcontractors in this cut? Is it only employees on US soil being cut? Has another country taken over the employees in Ukraine payment-wise? How much savings should this give the US taxpayers?
It’s the same old shit…no transparency whatsoever!
MAGA Wolverines!!
Fight!!
If 1000s of high ranking fed and ngo employees are NOT arrested in 2025 and IN 2026 convicted w max sentences then MAGA will need to become Bronson like vigilantes!
“shifting away from “analysts” (political operatives) and engaging in more ¹factual intelligence information.”
Sounds like a good start.
I hear what you are saying very clearly. However, the way to a hammer everything is a nail, to every FBI/IC/PO who see the
darkness in people and the horrible things they do every day, everyone is a potential criminal/killer/bomber.
How about the word SAFE!! How overused was that during the virus hysteria. Helping customer service people on the phone use it still, and at the cash register too!!! STOP IT ALREADY!
I thoroughly enjoyed your stroll through what it looks like going back to life in the 1980’s & that would suit me just fine, and what I wish my grandkids could experience. They were 4 and under during the hysteria and are fearful children now.
Life – growing up late 50’s to late 80’s – was FREE, and fun, and loving.
Back in the old days when we got rid of CIA guys we blew them up. You think they do it differently now?
Interesting long view of history (relevant to those in the IC community and their role) describing those whose systematic means and methods of infiltrating and corrupting nations extracting their wealth and resources (winners and losers both referenced) here: https://tomluongo.me/2025/05/01/podcast-episode-216-em-burlingame-and-how-to-kill-the-financial-kill-chain-of-europe/
EM Burlingame’s substack article describing the Financial Kill Chain: https://substack.com/home/post/p-162618255
Luckily the Agency has its own funding, so…
Problem is these people are trained to be whatever they need to be.. The visible are the ones not so good at being bad while the actual leaders of it all stay hidden. The only way to actually clean a house filled with rot is to completely tear it down and start over.
When I think about the amount of “data” that these agencies are obsessively vacuuming up, I think that I should have invested early in storage-device companies. I know that they are now being filled up and stacked in warehouses, for Indiana Jones’ “top … men.” 🤡
And why is there still NATO ? Because the beast runs on money.
“Ike” Was Right!™
Zero fund and terminate this rogue, unaccountable agency.
Do federal agencies work for the people, or not? Agencies that answer to no one need to be *terminated*. Federal agencies esp larger ones are immune to efforts at ‘reform.’
Shut it down move on to the next unaccountable agency. This is the opportunity, perhaps the final one, to downsize government, reduce influence of the IC and police state, and curb unsustainable ridiculous levels of spending, corruption, waste, graft, and more.
You would think our Congress would cooperate in doing just that….but we don’t see that …..especially when they should consider they are not immune to all this control and loss of freedom. /s Wait they think they are immune.
Didn’t they vote themselves protections from the crappy healthcare ACA that we have. Didn’t they vote themselves immune from mandatory vaccines. Didn’t they vote themselves a nice raise, pensions, working less than part time. Don’t they have the ability to do insider trading, reaps loads of money from donors. They are told to sit back and ignore the people.
The only dangers worth being concerned about at a national level are biological and to a lesser degree nuclear.
Biological, because the reach can be global. The surveillance areas for that are state and research entities.
Nuclear, because the reach can be regional. The surveillance areas for that are state entities.
Beyond that, the rest falls to the man in the street to be concerned about: other men, individually. You don’t need a national listening post surveilling all citizens in the lookout for common crime.
WaPo claims “national security” is being compromised by downsizing.
But isn’t WaPo proving the opposite? If the agency had been operating in secret, as designed, the WaPo would have no information from either before or after the cuts on which to base their claims.
It’s a shell game. Cut the permanent govt employees and rehire them as contractors. They lose their govt pensions/benefits, but they are well-compensated as contractors. Everyone wins! (Except us.)
It works the same for retireees. They retire on Friday with a nice award and a box full of their personal belongings from their desk. On Monday, they return with a nice new contractor badge.
Making HUMINT great again is a long process that will require skills that have to be learned/developed.
They just lost 3500 premium subscriptions
Oh, come on … ‘Factual intelligence information’, from the CIA! Hahaha, no one will ever believe them. They’ve killed too many people.
It’s a strange world. We applaud the selection of Patel and Bongino, and they almost immediately disappoint. We question the choice of Rubio and his 99-0 Congressional acceptance, and he becomes a shining star.
Patel and Bongino appear to be lost. Rubio is running for President…
POGO was right; it’s US (and the people we hire to represent us).
If any cia employee might be at risk of being recruited by communist China if they are relieved of their jobs, it goes without saying that they should have never been hired into the agency in the first place. By all means, let all of those risky spies go, and track their whereabouts if they are suspect. Treason is a serious crime.
Human intelligence was always better than using satellites to spy on your enemy. However, satellites were cheaper and people couldn’t get caught or shot down, so they all thought it was better. SIGINT has it’s place, but it will never replace HUMINT as the primary means of gaining information on your opponents. And with a bit more HUMINT, our intelligence services wouldn’t miss things like the fall of the Berlin wall, or the Russian attempted coup, or 9-11, or many other important happenings in the world.
As leaky as the IC is, why would any member of a foreign govt/military ever consider becoming a source for us?