Veteran former FBI man: ‘Big Intel is a brilliant analysis of a serious issue facing our country.’

Editor’s Note: This piece by Thomas Baker is based on J. Michael Waller’s new book, Big Intel.

In Big Intel: How the CIA and FBI Went from Cold War Heroes to Deep State Villains, J. Michael Waller describes the crisis America is facing with the subversion of our intelligence institutions. Waller is the senior analyst for strategy at the Center for Security Policy and the president of Georgetown Research, a political risk and private intelligence company. He holds a Ph.D. in International Security Affairs from Boston University. Big Intel itself builds on Waller’s earlier Secret Empire: The KGB in Russia Today. That book predicted today’s gangster government in Russia, run by former KGB officers.

Waller’s analysis is deeply rooted in his own life experiences. Straight out of a John le Carré novel, he has had some very “up close and personal” brushes with spies and spycraft — beginning with early recruitment by that old Cold War warrior, Reagan CIA Director William Casey, which led to fieldwork in Latin America. Later studies and trips in the ’90s brought Waller to the Soviet Union, which placed him in contact with the notorious FBI turncoat Bob Hanssen, which in turn led to an awkward moment with FBI Director Louis Freeh. Most of this riveting biographical information is told in Big Intel’s first 30 pages, thus briefly establishing the author’s bona fides.

The bulk of Big Intel is two parallel — and occasionally intertwined — histories. The one is a tale of spies, spying, and subversion; the evolution of militant Marxist-Leninism into cultural Marxism as manifest in contemporary woke culture. The second history is that of the CIA and FBI, which originally fought the overt aggression of Marxist-Leninism but have now themselves been subverted by cultural Marxism in the guise of woke culture and the “diversity, equity, and inclusion” trope.

Waller begins with the behavior of the FBI, cheered on by John Brennan’s CIA, in the groundless Trump campaign investigation. We first see Peter Strzok, the FBI executive who began the Trump campaign investigation “Crossfire Hurricane,” both opening the case and then traveling to London to conduct the investigation, usurping the role of a field agent. Then we had Andy McCabe, the former FBI deputy director, who was acting director after James Comey was fired, ordering an investigation of Trump for obstruction of justice. Other than the firing itself, McCabe offered no predicate for this investigative initiative. The ultimate offender was former FBI Director James Comey. The abuse of power by Comey, McCabe, Strzok, and others has undermined public trust in the FBI.

Waller sees these abuses as far more dangerous than these agencies merely interfering in partisan politics. He sees these powerful agencies as being the spearhead of a foundational transformation of our country and society. His Big Intel answers the question, how did this happen? He takes us back to Moscow more than a century ago, before there was an FBI or a CIA.

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