Intelligence Reform: An open letter to new Director of National Intelligence the Honorable John Ratcliffe

Originally published by Real Clear Defense

Dear DNI Ratcliffe:

Congratulations on your appointment as the Director of National Intelligence, the nation’s top intelligence officer, responsible for overseeing and coordinating the intelligence community, comprising intelligence offices in 17 U.S. departments and agencies

Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Central Intelligence Agency
National Security Agency
Defense Intelligence Agency
Federal Bureau of Investigation
State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research
Department of Homeland Security
Drug Enforcement Agency
Treasury Office of Intelligence and Analysis
Department of Energy
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
National Reconnaissance Office
U.S. Air Force
U.S. Army
U.S. Navy
U.S. Marine Corps
U.S. Coast Guard

Condolences too, DNI Ratcliffe, on your appointment when the intelligence community is in a profound and unprecedented crisis, desperately in need of monumental reform.

Some of the most essential parts of the intelligence community were weaponized by the Obama Administration to frame President Donald Trump with false allegations of “colluding with Russia” to win election. They sought to delegitimize the Trump Administration, cripple President Trump’s ability to govern through endless investigations, and set-up a legitimately elected President of the United States for impeachment on false charges concocted by the intelligence community.[i]

Leaders of what amounted to an attempted coup d’etat against President Trump included DNI General James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan, and FBI Director James Comey. The coup attempt included a phony January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment designed to tar President Trump as Russia’s “Manchurian Candidate”—the spurious Intelligence Community Assessment has still not been recalled—and a so-called counterintelligence program “Crossfire Hurricane” of international dimensions.

DNI Ratcliffe, your job #1 should be to root out and purge from service in the intelligence community anyone who, knowingly or unknowingly, participated in the coup plot. Hundreds of agents and intelligence officers must have been involved. Their participation, wittingly or unwittingly, is a breach of their oath to uphold and defend the Constitution and signifies, at a minimum, judgment so harmful and so destructive that they might as well have been working for Russia and China.

DNI Ratcliffe, your job #2 should be to begin organizing the termination of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). The ODNI has not only failed in its original purpose to improve intelligence but has overseen a string of major intelligence failures, has politicized intelligence to support the “politically correct” worldview of the Obama Administration, which was probably a significant contributing factor to ODNI’s leadership of the coup plot. Only Congress can abolish the ODNI, but your support and preparation for abolition would help make it happen.

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