UPDATE: 8pm ET password removed.
Remember, in this series my goal is more to describe the needs of some critical Executive Branch positions from a very practical, non-pretending, perspective of what happens within specific offices. This outline is going to be a little odd, because almost no one knows what the position of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is about.
The ODNI was created as an outcome of the 9-11 Commission recommendations. In the era shortly after 9/11, the DC national security apparatus was constructed to preserve continuity of government and simultaneously view all Americans as potential threats.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) were created specifically for this purpose.
Washington DC created the modern national security apparatus immediately and hurriedly after 9/11/01. DHS came along in 2002, and within the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 the ODNI was formed.
When Barack Obama and Eric Holder arrived a few years later, those newly formed institutions were viewed as opportunities to create a very specific national security apparatus that would focus almost exclusively against their political opposition.
Here is the weird part. The ODNI was formed in 2004, with the intent for the office to be the pivot point of a national security radar. The DNI was intended to provide information to domestic agencies about foreign terror networks that would prevent something like 9-11 from happening again. However, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has never, not for one day, operated on this intent. This is why they are such a critical position from my perspective.
The office was new, not established yet as a functioning silo, when Barack Obama and Eric Holder arrived in 2009. They quickly dispatched an idiot, James Clapper, into the operation so they could weaponize around the offices’ fulcrum point.
Prior to the DNI office existing, the CIA radar would sweep externally and then report to the Office of the President. The DNI was intended to take external radar sweep (CIA) and make it a full 360° circle, adding a sweep inside the USA that would be handled by the Dept of Homeland Security.
The DHS sweep and the CIA sweep would then be combined into a central collection hub called the ODNI. Everyone with responsibility for “national security” could access the ODNI material. Essentially and presumably, post 9-11 nothing like jihadists practicing to fly airplanes would be missed again; at least that was the intent.
The weird part is that because the DNI was immediately weaponized, the office has never functioned to the purpose of its intent.
No one truly knows what the office possibilities consist of because no one has ever seen anyone try to functionally control the hub. If you think I’m joking about the intent of Obama and John Brennan using the DNI watch this video. This is before Brennan became CIA Director, this is when Brennan was helping Barack Obama put the pillars into place.
.
For the intents of this outline the takeaway is how the DNI office has never been used for good. In a strategic way, that can be used to our advantage if you are talking about leveraging silos against each other.
Example: The DNI can assemble material from any silo. Meaning the DNI can reach into any IC silo and extract anything they want. Under the original authorities given to the DNI, this authority exists. So, let’s spread the wings on this office and do exactly what it is permitted to do, only this time extract for the purpose of showing the President what is happening in every silo.
In essence, the DNI *CAN BE* deployed like a super strong cross-silo inspector general’s office. Force the other IC silos to comply with the demands of the DNI. This has never been done. But the DNI has this unique power.
The DNI can make the FBI, DOJ, DOJ-NSD, DoD, DoS and CIA provide anything and everything they demand. Instead of the other silos using blocks and threats against the office of the President, use the authority of the DNI to get them without confrontation. Then use the DNI to declassify the documents (if requested by potus), instead of the originating silo.
Can you see how the DNI office can be repurposed to be a seriously strong weapon in the toolbox of the President, against the schemes of those inside the various IC silos. The DNI becomes much more important than the CIA Director, NSA Director, FBI Director, Attorney General, etc, because the DNI can just show up and say, “give me this.” That’s the whole functional purpose of the DNI office that has never been exerted; let’s flippin’ use it.
Let’s use the office of the DNI as the central information hub that takes information from inside the corrupt silos, then provides that information to the President who puts sunlight upon it. Each corrupt silo penetrated with disinfectant. This could begin a process to pull down the shadow operations and let the American public see what has been happening inside our IC apparatus.
To accomplish this approach the National Security Advisor to the President (NSA), would be the person who tells the DNI exactly what they are looking for.
How does the NSA know what to look for? Because the National Security Advisor is the head of the National Security Council (NSC).
Now you see why I say put the strategic scruffy people like Mike Flynn, Kash Patel, etc etc in a stripped down NSC.
Let the NSC monitor the silos with specific intent, then provide Trump’s NatSec Advisor with details on what appears to be happening and where. With the approval of the President, the NSA then turns to the DNI and says, “POTUS wants this, go get this.”
Raw, unfiltered, unredacted information. The silo administrators end up in a fight with the ODNI, not the office of President Trump. President Trump then uses the power of his office to support the demands of the DNI.
Under this approach the DNI has a lot more power; yet funnily, it’s power they already have – yet have never utilized.
Unfortunately, the DNI needs to be confirmed by the Senate Intelligence Committee – so, this factors into who could achieve the position. [NOTE: Ric Grenell is too valuable in another position.] John Ratcliffe might be a possibility, but I’m not sure he would be strong enough to go up against the system he knows well (and on a character issue he’s bff’s with Trey Gowdy).
Preferably we really want an outsider in this role, yet any true outsider is going to face massive scrutiny getting through the nomination filter. My gut tells me that Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey might be a strong candidate, and as DNI he can build on his reputation for confronting DHS manipulation.
AG Andrew Bailey exposed the DHS manipulation of social media and has pushed the envelope against the Deep State/Lawfare attacks against Donald Trump. Bailey has used the power of his office for good purposes, and that provides me with cautious optimism he could do the same at a federal level in the position of Director of National Intelligence.
[The next position to outline be a combination. The Secretary of State and the CIA Director. The U.S State Dept and CIA operation is like a restaurant. The Dept of State is the front of the restaurant, with the Secretary as the Maitre D’. The CIA is the back of the restaurant, the kitchen. The Director is the Chef. The consulates are the wait staff. USAID are the food runners. The Dept of Defense are the bus boys. Ukraine is a big tipper.]
~ Support CTH HERE ~
Sundance, you really need to look more deeply into the matter of the creation of the state and local fusion centers, and the intent to create a system that allowed the national systems (CIA,NSA, ODNI, FBI etc) far more granular and direct access to the criminal intelligence, gang intelligence and Serious Incident Reporting systems at the local level. Having OCONUS (foreign) visibility from the alphabet soup agencies generally stopped at the waters edge, and the internal databases and systems at the local LE level were far more fragmented, less sophisticated, less searchable or even linked. Additionally, the whole issue of classification and searchable access by locals was virtually non-existent. In initial concept, the depth of the granularity of local law enforcement files, when searchable and able to be worked by second, third and even fourth order link analysis programs in the national systems, would produce a far better counter-terrorist landscape awareness and allow predictive analysis. That was the intent that produced hundreds of fusion centers nationwide link the ones in California.
https://ncric.ca.gov/ncric/ Northern CA Regional Center
https://calstas.org/ CA State Threat Assessment System
Thank you Sundance.
God bless you and all you Treepers!
Interesting Sundance. As a former spook, my 2 cents.
When I was there, post Church commission reforms, post Director Turner mass firings (don’t say it can’t be done!), Langley was very aware of the new law preventing any domestic operations. We were told in the onboarding (under Director Casey), don’t do it, and if you do, you will get caught, fired and probably go to jail. So don’t get sucked into anything (the agency is very compartmented – and people take it seriously) on domestic spying and tell the IG, as you must under our rat rule. This caused the so called fire wall between CIA and any follow up domestic chasing – in short, no hot pursuits – gotta hand off to FBI.
Oh, and CIA – you had one job – to stop another Pearl Harbor scale event (because you were created to challenge the stove pipe thinking of the various DOD intel agencies) – and you failed. Of course, as per government, no one gets fired. Footnote: This IC ‘consensus’ Vindman BS is not just wrong, but dangerously wrong thinking. The agency was created to challenge conventional wisdom and consensus – a big justification for it’s very existence.
IMHO, instead of lifting the statutory ban on CIA domestic (hot topic), the easier path was to create the new ODNI. I admit to not having read the authorizing statute, but i would bet that ODNI is not subject to the domestic restrictions that still constrain CIA to this day. Of course, when I was there the FBI was still a crime fighting and investigative organization, but they did have the counter-intelligence division (Hanson, Strokz (sp?)), you know – the spy catchers. And those guys were very certainly doing a lot of domestic surveillance.
The patriot act, however, very much changed FBI into an MI-5 – a total domestic spy, patriot act database data mining, surveillance and counter-terrorism (plots to kidnap Whitmer!) agency. And as noted here is THE hotbed of domestic political surveillance. Footnote, I don’t think the new DHS is subject to domestic surveillance prohibitions either.
Further, as to whether DNI can command and control the purported reporting agencies – it’s all about the money in DC. If DNI commands the money flow, then they can control. If not, they cannot. Here is where the gang of 8 construct hijacks everything. See also, for example Charlie Wilson’s War where some guy on the appropriations committee can ear mark an entire covert war. As shown, money and a small compartmented team can run an entire insurgency. And obviously at this point each gang of 8 member is tripping on the power of foggy bottom and langley sucking up and ‘involving’ them in foreign affairs and operations – like their own little ego presidency.
Listen here, pal! We’re dishin’ about the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) – the big cheese, the head honcho, the cat’s pajamas! But let me tell ya, this joint’s been hijacked by the slicksters and the high-hats.
*The Birth of the Beast*
After 9/11, the 9-11 Commission said, “Hey, we need a watchdog to keep an eye on those foreign and domestic wise guys!” So, in comes the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2002 and the ODNI in 2004. But, see, these new outfits were like a couple of palookas – they got muscled by the big shots!
*Obama and Holder’s Playground*
Fast forward to 2009, and those two, Obama and Holder, they’re like a couple of grifters, usin’ these agencies to keep their enemies in line. They put James Clapper, a guy with a rep like a snake oil salesman, in charge of the ODNI. And just like that, it’s their personal gumshoe operation!
*The Original Plan*
The ODNI was supposed to be the central hub, like a swanky nightclub, where all the intel bigwigs would gather. But, ha! It’s been a racket, a regular shell game!
*The Reality Check*
So, here’s the lowdown: the ODNI’s been a pawn in their game of political hardball. But we can change that, see?
*The Untapped Power*
This DNI gig’s got juice, like a Tommy gun! It can pull intel from any joint, and expose those fat cats at the FBI, DOJ, DoD, and CIA!
*The Strategy*
Here’s the plan, gumshoe: use the DNI to get the real scoop, and present it to the Prez. It’s like a sting operation, but instead of gettin’ pinched, these agencies’ll be singin’ like canaries!
*The Ideal Candidate*
We need a straight shooter, like Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who’s got a rep for takin’ on the DHS bullies. He’s the kinda guy who can handle the heat!
*Conclusion*
So, there ya have it, folks! The DNI’s got the potential to be a real game-changer, like a wild card in a poker game! Let’s use it to clean house and bring some transparency to this whole shebang!
Clever. Film noir in the swamp.
Are you mocking Sundance? I thought it was insightful and an operational strategy. But keep in mind, the agency is very compartmented, VERY compartmented. It’s in its DNA. As a practical matter, having been in the matrix, I can’t fathom ODNI having access to compartments just because, you know, it wants to know something. Because that defeats the entire purpose of having compartments.
I really like Harriet Hageman and Eli Crane. They seem on the ball and could be a terrific fit in an important position. Also, Ken Paxton AG-TX comes to mind. I may not know enough about any given individual especially as a researcher i.e. Sundance, but just throwing out some people I really like and think are MAGA. What ever happened to Mike Rogers, the Naval Commander who whistle blew the entire FISA illegal surveillance scheme? Just curious…
There’s some interesting comments about Adm. Rogers earlier in this thread. Check previous pages and you will find them.
I’m trying to figure out Vivek. A buddy of mine is all in and thinks PDJT should listen to him; however, I get the feeling there’s something off with Ramaswamy and, deep down, he’s not America first.
Well we both could be wrong, but your hunch may be correct. Probably a globalist with a thin American First veneer.
I think he is true believer that government is too big and screws up everything anyways, and is on the constant march to expand subject matter jurisdiction. Its public choice theory writ large at this point. I can’t think of a single agency that is ‘on mission’ because the mission is usually harder that attacking phantoms like lack of diversity.n Same reason public school teachers don’t teach, straw men are easier to burn, than your actual job of teaching.
Andrew Bailey’s predecessor was Eric Scmitt. He may make an even better AG than Andrew, in my opinion, and I am from MO.
Billionaire and Ashley Madison client, Rex Sinquefeld runs the show for Rino candidates in Missouri and he is a never-Trumper all the way (think Karl Rove). Bailey is his boy. See the Tennesseestar article on Pfizer choosing sides in the MO Republican primary. Seems Ken Paxton would be a much needed top cop.
If you review Missouri Ethics Commission, Bailey’s PAC, “Liberty and Justice PAC” received $1.7 million from Rex Sinquefield between March 29 and August 5 of this year. Word on the street is that Lt Gov Kehoe (who won Rep Gov in primary) and AG Bailey will owe a lot of favors to Sinquefield and others. Of course this is common in politics, but it does not incentivize political leaders to listen to the will of the people but rather the will of their paymasters.
This is not a deal breaker on having trust for Baileys abilities, background and experience, but it does bring out curious cat.
Receipts: https://mec.mo.gov/MEC/Campaign_Finance/CF_SearchLrgContr.aspx