The CIA under Trump: "the dangers are immense"

[mainer]

A sobering, vital read.

The dangers of a secret intelligence service in an American democracy governed by a lawless president are immense.

The greater danger now is that the president of the United States is dismantling the architecture of American national security created after World War II to protect the United States and its allies against, among other things, Russian imperialism.

There has been a purge at the CIA, the FBI, and the Pentagon of anyone unwilling to swear fealty to Donald Trump. Anyone who worked on the investigations into Russia’s interference in our elections. Anyone who supported Ukraine. Anyone who opposed Russia...

I don’t think this book could be reported now. This ideological purge sweeping the CIA, the State Department, the Pentagon, and the entire national security and intelligence establishment is increasing the risk of a catastrophic, systemic intelligence failure of the kind we’ve experienced before.

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/03/17/the-cia-since-the-turn-of-the-century/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

[underpants]

1. I can't recommend this enough. Great read. Very insightful

Thanks. Bookmarked

[maxsolomon]

2. OK. What's to be done?

There is nothing in our Constitution that can stop an ideological purge of the Intelligence agencies. It's happening at the DOJ, too. In every department in the Fedrul Gubmint.

The DOGE firings weren't just ideological; they were a purge of bureaucratic competence and institutional knowledge.

The Legislature can't/won't stop it. Judges barely stand in the way as the GQP stacked the Courts. They've got 2.8 more years to enact their purge.

We live in Hell.

[Kid Berwyn]

3. Tim Wiener is TOPS!

"The American attack was justified by lies. Iran doesn’t have the bomb and it wasn’t about to make or test one. As with Bush and Iraq, Trump invented a threat to start a war."