Pry endorses Fleitz for DNI

Originally posted on Newsmax

President Trump, according to recent press reports, is thinking of firing Dan Coats as Director of National Intelligence (DNI), and replacing Coats with former National Security Council Chief of Staff — Fred Fleitz.

If it happens, and I pray it does, it will be a giant step toward making America’s Intelligence Community great again.

I have nothing but respect and admiration for Dan Coats’ long and distinguished service as a conservative Republican U.S. Senator.

But Coats has been a disaster as Director of National Intelligence.

The DNI is supposed to be America’s — and therefore the Free World’s — top spy and intelligence analyst, responsible for overseeing the Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, and some score of other departments and agencies (like the Secret Service, Treasury Department, and Coast Guard) that play lesser roles within the Intelligence Community.

The DNI was established as part of broad Intelligence Community reforms recommended by the 9/11 Commission to facilitate coordination, cooperation, and information sharing among the nation’s far flung spies and intelligence analysts to prevent another catastrophic surprise — like the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, on New York City and the Pentagon that killed 3,000 Americans.

Unfortunately, DNI Coats has neglected desperately needed reforms of the entrenched intelligence bureaucracy that has become deeply politically biased and ideological.

DNI Coats was appointed by the anti-establishment President Trump to fix an Intelligence Community corrupted and broken by President Obama. Instead, Coats parrots disinformation and fantasies masquerading as intelligence designed to promote the agenda of the Washington establishment and Far Left. For example:

— DNI Coats “stands by” the Obama Administration’s National Intelligence Estimates, written by Trump-haters former DNI James Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan, falsely claiming Russia “hacked the 2016 elections” to elect President Trump. Not only has Coats failed to recall these obviously politicized NIEs, he has not even challenged their veracity with a Team-B to re-examine evidence.

— DNI Coats lets stand unchallenged the Obama Administration’s Intelligence Community fantasy that the greatest global threat is climate change.

— DNI Coats let stand unchallenged the Obama Administration’s Intelligence Community estimate North Korea was many years from ICBMs, and a decade from the H-bomb, until North Korea developed both in 2017.

— DNI Coats endorses the Obama Administration’s Intelligence Community fantasy that Iran is in compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action, despite compelling evidence of violations, including an ongoing nuclear weapons program.

— DNI Coats stands by the Obama Administration’s deeply erroneous assessment of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) threats, ignoring Congressional EMP Commission rebuttals and corrections. Coates refuses meeting with EMP Commission experts despite President Trump’s March 26, 2019, Executive Order to protect the nation from an EMP catastrophe.

Fred Fleitz is the best possible man to serve as DNI, and long overdue to rescue and rebuild our badly broken Intelligence Community.

No stranger to the White House, in 2018 Fleitz served as a Deputy Assistant to President Trump and as Chief of Staff to National Security Advisor John Bolton. So Fleitz won’t have to learn on the job as DNI — he continues helping the White House play the international chess game that is national security.

Unlike Dan Coats, Fred Fleitz is an intelligence professional, having spent his entire career first working within the Intelligence Community, and later utilizing Intelligence Community products as a senior policymaker. He served in U.S. national security positions for 25 years with the CIA, DIA, the Department of State, and the House Intelligence Committee staff.

Fleitz has extensive national security experience with the executive and legislative branches of government. His work for the CIA included serving as a political analyst, military analyst, analyst of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and intelligence collection officer (spy).

Fleitz supported intelligence collection to defend against WMD attacks with the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center at Fort Detrick, Maryland and MASINT collection projects against WMD targets for CIA and DIA.

Fleitz served for four years as Chief of Staff to John Bolton when he was Under Secretary of State for Arms Control. Fleitz was a U.S. delegate to several major international arms control conferences, including the International Atomic Energy Board of Governors, the UN General Assembly First Committee and the Biological Weapons Convention Review Conference.

Fleitz, during his 5 years with the House Intelligence Committee staff, was senior aide to Chairman Peter Hoekstra and the committee’s expert on Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs.

Fleitz is an intelligence and national security scholar. His books include:

— “Putin’s Reset: The Bear is Back and How America Must Respond”

— “China Prepares for Conflict and Why We Must Do the Same”

— “Obamabomb: A Dangerous and Growing National Security Fraud”

— “The Coming North Korea Nuclear Nightmare”

Fred Fleitz appears frequently on TV and has the gift — crucial in a DNI — of being able to easily and eloquently explain complex strategic and technological concepts to policymakers and the American people.

Perhaps most importantly, having known Fred Fleitz for many years, he is the worst enemy of “political correctness,” utterly unafraid of facing facts, and a lion for truth.

Dr. Peter Vincent Pry is executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security. He served on the Congressional EMP Commission as chief of staff, the Congressional Strategic Posture Commission, the House Armed Services Committee, and the CIA. He is author of “Blackout Wars.” For more of his reports, Go Here Now.