I follow the Twitter account of John Sipher, ex-CIA (perfect name, right?), whose articles on intelligence are excellent in all respects — well-written and easy to understand, knowledgeable and trenchant.
In response to the recent John Ratcliffe, i.e., head of our intelligence community, decision to restrict intelligence briefings to Congress to written instead of oral briefings, John Sipher writes this, in the New York Times.
One of his key points is the neutrality intelligence professionals must and do practice. He gives us a terse, dark history of what happened when there was no such mandate, and no Congressional oversight.
It’s very important.
After reading it, I did my usual: went into the readers’ comments, because I enjoy seeing what is in effect a citizens’ debate over important issues.
And I saw this:
Derek Stevens, Las Vegas
We all know Trump projects on others what he is most guilty of himself, and that projection is a tried and true tool of dictators. When Trump complains about the deep state, it is because he wants to create one for himself, loyal to only him. Demanding loyalty of Kelly if he accepts being FBI director. Demanding loyalty from Comey. He now has his Roy Cohn in Bill Barr, who lied about the Mueller report. Now he has Ratcliffe who will commit lies of omission about Election intelligence to keep the dear leader in power. Let’s call this what it is. Fascism, pure and simple; hiding in plain sight.