loading . . . The deep state’s stay behind program is so far being remarkably successful – the swamp is winning _“I can attest personally that in my work as the Director of National Intelligence, the deep state is fighting us every step of the way.”_
“You think the campaign was hard, you think what President Trump went through was hard? And it was – the road ahead will not be easy.”
“And it exists within every single federal agency. And so I feel the same frustration that I see many of you expressing on X or in different platforms about, Why aren’t things going faster? Why aren’t we getting results more quickly?”
“I feel this frustration every single day. We are pushing hard. Know that they are pushing hard back.”
Former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard
Tulsi is right. President Trump is in the White House. His appointees sit at the top of most federal agencies. Below that top level, where the work is done and power resides, the bureaucracy remains firmly under the control of the Deep State and those hostile to the America First agenda. They are working hard every day to ensure no real change is made and to pave the way for the recapture of the White House.
This is what we call a stay behind program in the world of special operations and intelligence. A “stay-behind” program is a strategy in which a country pre-positions secret operatives, special units, or clandestine organizations within its own territory. These assets are designed to remain active (or “stay behind”) if the territory is overrun or occupied by an enemy force.
_**In this case, Trump and his supporters are that “enemy force.”**_
The stay behind operatives gather intelligence and report to their superiors. They sabotage and disrupt the efforts of the occupying force. They form the nucleus of an underground movement and prepare for the day they will return to power.
The stay behind assets in Washington are being remarkably successful. Consider the case of the Intelligence Community over which Tulsi presided.
The center of resistance within the Intelligence Community is the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). You may read that and envision a group of hard, seasoned old case officers who want to control the U.S. Government from within. That is not at all what you are dealing with.
Today’s CIA is a creation of John Brennan. He was not a case officer. He was not an operator. He spent almost no time abroad. His focus was on climbing the ladder politically and acquiring personal power. He did that by attaching himself to Bill Clinton and aligning himself with the liberal Democratic Party agenda.
As Director of the CIA, Brennan worked overtime to weaken the Directorate of Operations (DO) and to sideline career case officers. He didn’t just do that on an ad hoc basis by virtue of who he promoted. He retooled the entire structure of the CIA to guarantee that his people, largely analysts, support personnel, and political appointees, were in control.
In March 2015, Brennan announced a “modernization” effort. Its goal was to sideline the Director of Operations and weaken the DO, the component within the CIA that actually runs all the operations and produces all the intelligence. Brennan created 10 new “Mission Centers.” These replaced the former operational divisions. They became the primary operational units. They integrated analysts, operations officers (case officers/spies), targeteers, and technical experts into “cross-functional teams” working on specific regions or threats. Mind you, prior to this “reorganization ” the case officers collecting information in the field already met with and worked closely with analysts and other experts inside and outside CIA – this was just to remove control from the Directorate of Operations and place it in the hands of those who knew nothing about human intelligence collection.
Before this change, operational personnel reported to and took orders from seasoned case officers. They worked in an environment wherein everyone around them came from the same culture, had the same background and training, and was held to the same standard. All of that now vanished.
The Mission Centers took primary responsibility for planning and executing operations, analysis, and covert actions. But the Mission Centers were, in many cases, not even run by operational personnel. They were run by analysts or support personnel, or in some cases, people brought in right off the street. All the centers reported not to the Director of Operations but to a Chief Operating Officer (COO) who might not even be a career CIA employee. Not a single one of the COO’s since Brennan’s reorganization has been an actual case officer, what the average American would call a spy.
Brennan’s _**stated**_ goals were to break down long-standing “stovepipes” between spies and analysts, improve integration and accountability, speed up decision-making, and better address modern threats like cyber warfare and digital. His real goal was to destroy the CIA as an apolitical intelligence agency dominated by operational personnel and turn it into an overtly political organization. He did not care one whit about producing intelligence and protecting America. He was laser-focused on making sure CIA at the senior levels would align itself with the political agenda of ‘Permanent Washington’ and the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.
CIA was already in desperate need of reform. Brennan came close to killing it operationally. Operations that were already moving too slowly were smothered under new layers of middle management. Case officers who were still trying to run ops found themselves answering to analysts, bureaucrats, and support personnel who had no aptitude for the trade, no understanding of the risks involved, and very little interest in whether intelligence was collected or not.
That did not matter. What did matter was that CIA would do what was required of it inside the Beltway. Collection on the Iranian nuclear program took a backseat to covering up the origins of COVID-19, burying the truth about Hunter’s laptop, and peddling the fake Russian collusion narrative.
Brennan is no longer at CIA. The men and women he brought in as junior and middle-level officers are. They are now in top positions throughout the organization. They have their hands on the controls.
None of these people has been fired since Trump returned to the White House. None of Brennan’s changes have been rolled back. So far, the Deep State’s stay-behind program is being remarkably successful. The Swamp is winning.
Originally posted by AND Magazine
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Sam Faddis
**Senior Fellow**
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