Former FBI Spec Agent & Lawyer Explains Why it's a DUMB Idea to 'Abolish the CIA'...

[CousinIT]

..as some morons on Twitter are saying we should (because Sanders mentioned doing so in the 1970s and she explains THAT, too):

ORIGINAL Twitter thread:

Link to tweet

UNROLLED Twitter thread:

Oh good Lord. Have a seat while I explain a little history for you, and how our government actually works. This is generally covered in Week 5 of my National Security Law class (where I also assign the documentary, "The Man Nobody Knew" by Carl Colby -- worth watching)

Sean Biggerstaff
@Seanchuckle
What's bad about wanting to abolish maybe the most prolific and successful terrorist organisation in history?

Link to tweet

…

2. The CIA was created by the National Security Act of 1947. It essentially created a peacetime intelligence function, one that was already being conducted in wartime by its predecessor, the OSS. Its primary function is intelligence collection

3. Now, as intelligence agencies go, the CIA was a neophyte when it was created. Compare with, say, the British intelligence service which has its roots under Elizabeth I, or Russian intelligence, which goes back to the 19th century.

4. Intelligence collection is important. We need to get secrets from other countries in order to inform our own political diplomatic, and military activities. Even George Washington relied on spies in order to wage the Revolutionary War (I highly recommend Netflix's "TURN&quot

5. Now, intelligence collection is different from what we call "covert action." Covert action is an operation designed to achieve a specific policy objective. The origins of covert action in the U.S. goes back to something called the "fifth function" in the NSA of 1947

6. The "fifth function" was a vague provision which suggested that the CIA could engage in "other activities related to intelligence which the President may direct." Was Congress intending to authorize covert action? Unclear. But unsurprisingly, Presidents interpreted it so

7. Over the next couple of decades, administrations engaged in various types of covert actions to stop the spread of Communism. Many of these operations were unsavory, and had no oversight. I recommend Tim Weiner's @360rsd Legacy of Ashes for more

8. These operations -- in Latin America, East Asia, Africa, etc. are commonly what people refer to when they like to slam on the CIA. But there's a lot that happened after, if you've read anything and aren't frozen in the 70s

9. For one thing, following Watergate, the Church Hearings laid bare many of the worst activities of the CIA -- including assassinations, coups, and psyops. This led to much more oversight of these kind of activities. There was also EO 12,333, which spelled out parameters

10. Then, after Iran-Contra, there was even *more* oversight, and statutory limitations -- including written findings and approval by the President, transmitted to Congress, for any covert actions undertaken

11. In fact, the very fact that we know about the CIA's covert activities is the result of oversight. So it's facile to use historical events from the 50s-70s, which were under a different (read: nonexistent) legal framework to inform an opinion about CIA now

12. In any event, whatever you think about covert actions, it's completely idiotic to suggest that we should "abolish" the CIA and not have any intelligence collection capability. Intel, among other things, helped us find Bin Laden

13. And intel also helps us know when WE have moles who are working as double agents for other countries! The CIA knew we had a spy in our midst when their Soviet sources were being killed...which ultimately led us to find Robert Hanssen

14. In short, saying you want to "abolish the CIA," and you want Bernie to be POTUS, is saying that you want him to operate as President in a completely ignorant vacuum where foreign adversaries have an advantage over us. It's really, really stupid, and bad for the U.S. /END

[Kurt V.]

1. when someone smugly tells me to sit down and they'll teach me some history, i have to

ask... have they read *a people's history of the united states* .?

[mercuryblues]

2. Well then it a good thing she didn't tell you sit down

she told Sean Biggerstaff.

[Qutzupalotl]

3. In fairness to Bernie, it was 1974

and the CIA lacked proper oversight.

Link to tweet

[CousinIT]

4. Yes she pointed that out. People who open their mouths without knowing history

Regularly make asses of themselves. I'm not talking about Sanders. But rather the dopes on Twitter who are saying: "oh hell yea let's abolish the CIA!"

NO, dumbasses. We can't protect our national security without INTEL. Pfft. Derp.