Last month marked the CIA’s 75th birthday and the dedication at Arlington National Cemetery of a memorial to the Agency’s WWII predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services. What better time for former-insider insights on this controversial organization? Let’s start with two issues that often complicate conversations about the agency: accountability and evolution.
The buck stops at the White House. Unbeknownst to many observers, the CIA reported directly to the president of the United States, and its officers served at the pleasure of the Oval Office until 2005, when the intelligence community reorganized. Indeed, some of Langley’s most controversial programs, like the use of enhanced interrogation methods, were birthed at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. CIA now reports to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or ODNI.
Apprising the president of developments in global matters of national security — by stealing secrets and rigorously analyzing all-source reporting — is the CIA’s primary mission; it produced and delivered the intelligence community’s famous President’s Daily Brief before the ODNI began overseeing the process. (I was only 21 years old when I received a handwritten thank you note from former President George Bush (senior) for going into headquarters on a weekend to scratch his itch for informed evaluation of a breaking situation.) The organization’s smaller, secondary role is covert action — an ace up the sleeve of the head of our executive branch and commander in chief when diplomacy or military action will not do.
The president nominates the CIA’s director, who is confirmed by Congress. (From 2017-2000, it was elevated to a cabinet level position, and prior to 2005, it included oversight of the entire intelligence community through a secondary role: director of Central Intelligence). Outsiders are often brought in as director to provide objective oversight and remove concern about the potential for unhealthy levels of fealty to the organization. (Leon Panetta, known for colorful language, was my favorite to brief, but I won’t forget George Tenet — arm around my shoulder at a cocktail party — asking who I “pissed off” to land my latest assignment.)
“And evolution?” As a security organization in a world of ever-changing threats, the CIA is dynamic in structure, specifics of mission, and other facets. Discussions of “The Agency” that lump together the organization as it existed under William J. Donovan, Allen Dulles and today’s William Burns are, to a degree, flawed. Congressional oversight and presidential executive orders continue to mold the outfit to the changing needs of the nation, administration after administration.
OK. Chain-of-command and malleability established, let me highlight some things that you can look up to become the best-informed interlocutor on things Langley at your next luau.
The Ugly. Did you catch the Hawaii angle of the recent espionage conviction of former CIA ops officer Jerry Lee? Were you aware that one-quarter of the stars on headquarter’s entrance’s foyer wall (designating officers fallen in the line of duty) were engraved since 9/11? Have you seen the recent news reports about the unprecedented loss of human assets? Did you know that alcoholism and divorce among operations officers have for decades surpassed national norms?
The Bad. Volumes have been written about renditions and waterboarding and black sites, the “glass ceiling” class action lawsuit, Iran-Contra, the Phoenix Program, MKULTRA, The Bay of Pigs. Google ’em.
The Good. Did you know that algorithms used in mammography — to protect women from cancer — were developed by CIA photo interpreters to analyze KH-11 satellite imagery? Did you hear that headquarters last month unveiled a bronze statue of covert operator Harriet Tubman?
Can you believe that “normal, good” people — moms, soccer coaches, deacons, even college kids (like me, when I started) — walk the halls of Langely and that they voluntarily relinquish many rights and liberties enjoyed by U.S. citizens just to maintain the clearances needed for work? (For many, that is the least of their sacrifices.)
Whatever your view on the CIA, this platinum jubilee is a milestone. I’ll hold my informed, first-hand criticisms for the future, but — for now — let’s all consider raising a Mai Tai and uttering a quiet, “mahalo for your service,” if not for the organization, for our shadow civil servants.
J.P. Atwell is a former senior CIA operations officer. His two-decade career began as an intelligence analyst and took him to every continent, save Antarctica. He now calls Hawaii Island home. He welcomes your comments at island.intelligencer@gmail.com.
