Update: CIA’S Deputy Director Suddenly Decides to ‘Retire’
by Brad ThorIn a follow-up to my story this morning and my ongoing series about the CIA’s viscous war on the Department of Defense, the Washington Post is reporting that the CIA’s Deputy Director, Steven Kappes will “retire.”
While I have been adverse to mentioning Kappes by name, when I was informed last night that the CIA had leaked to the New York Times the names of Americans covertly providing Force Protection to our troops in Afghanistan and that the Times was going to run with those names, I couldn’t hold back any longer.
As the Agency has blindly followed what has become known as the “Kappes Doctrine” it has made mistake after mistake after mistake; all underscored by the horrible F.O.B. Chapman attack, one of its most deadly. Something tells me that there won’t be anyone baking any cakes for Mr. Kappes’ sendoff.
There are lots and lots of problems at the Central Intelligence Agency and Kappes’ fingerprints are all over them. He had become toxic not only for the CIA, but for the Obama Administration, which explains why, after my piece ran this morning, the bus was warmed up and Kappes was told to lay down in front of it. Ask anyone in the intelligence world – there are no such things as coincidences.
Things at Langley need to change. Getting rid of Kappes is a good start, but there’s A LOT more people in the Agency’s dysfunctional leadership and its cover-your-ass management who need to make up their minds about whether they are going to be defined by getting promoted or by doing their jobs and keeping America safe.
Let’s hope the pending Kappes’ vacancy makes room for one of the latter.
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49 Comments
Pre. Obama, Sen. Schumer, Sen. Gillinbrand, Rep. Hall
July 31, 2009
Dear Sir/Ma’am:
In the past six months I have witnessed various attacks on what makes up a thin and fragile line between order and chaos in a free society; from the Central Intelligence Agency to a local Massachusetts police officer. This must stop. The men and women of these agencies and services step forward, and serve this country in various forms without regard to their personal or economic well being; they do it because they possess an ember that provokes in them a desire to protect the American public, and by extension our way of life, that is, freedom. In short they have the “right stuff” and they prove it every day they infiltrate dangerous organizations hell bent on horror, or keep a once idiotic teenager, like yours truly once was, from violating the vehicle and traffic law. I think it is high time for a little reminder of what these men and women endure to get where they are to do their jobs, and maybe in doing this all of you who are in charge will stop dumping on all of them.
In order to become and remain a CIA agent one must continually lie to their family and friends, pass a vigorous background check, endure a training program that is psychologically as well as physically grueling, all the while living under a microscope for months where every emanation is recorded, reviewed, and discussed ad nauseam with people you have never met. Assuming one makes it to graduation, the new agents are then given assignments all over the globe in an effort to widen our intelligence net; to enable all of you to make wise choices as to how to react to the challenges this nation is, and will face. As far as a personal life or marriages, rarely do they endure, and children are difficult to have if you and your spouse are separated by continents for months on end. The penalty for detection in many of these regions is an excruciatingly painful death; the best these captured agents can hope for is to die while being tortured. You can bet Kim Jung Whack Job is not following the United States Army Field Manual.
In order to become a police officer and remain one, one must have and continue to live on the right side of the law and pass psychological testing. They must train for dangerous and unpredictable situations that they will most likely face alone. The men and women of the thousands of police departments risk their lives to enforce the law while simultaneously respecting the constitutional rights of citizens so that the law abiding can live freely. Every day hundreds of thousands of police officers kiss their wives and children goodbye; put on twenty to forty pounds of gear including a loaded weapon, and earnestly set forth to enforce the law and protect the public, sometimes even protecting a citizen from his or her own stupidity; all the while knowing that for a handful of officers this will be the last day they every see their children, wife or husband on this earth. Recently a Massachusetts police officer was dispatched to respond to an alleged break-in in progress; this particular officer, arrived on the scene; proceeded in accordance with his training; to secure, apprehend potential suspects, and to every extent possible maintain the scene for a potential prosecution of as yet undetermined suspects – and he was viciously attacked for it.
How can all of you expect that we will attract and retain the best individuals this nation has to offer if you attack them? In the recent past Speaker Pelosi accused the CIA of lying or President Obama last week automatically assumed a police officer is acting “stupidly” after declaring he did not know the facts. President Clinton spent his terms in office declaring a world at peace and cashed the peace dividend on top of the CIA and the defense of this nation; that brought us the loss of lives on September 11, 2001; decimated our economy and brought us a war that has no end because we have not yet begun ramping up to attack the wider enemy; an enemy who you can all bet will attack us again. All of you at a bare minimum would serve this nation far better if you supported, and when ever possible, celebrated the efforts of all of these men and women in their efforts to do their vital jobs. As far as doing your jobs; any government that is accruing a Seven Billion Two Hundred Million dollar debt ($7,200,000,000) every twenty-four hours against a rapidly shrinking economy, while contemplating spending hundreds of billions of dollars on everything from taking over the health system to “cash for clunkers” is clearly not doing its job.
Respectfully,
Thank God for you Mr. Thor and your commentator, who obviously knows what he or she is talking about –
You are both taking great risks to keep us informed. You have also accomplished a great deed to America by forcing Mr. Kappes out.
I'm sure your work will go largely unnoticed, but I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your work.
God Bless You.
I don't believe in coincidences in anything pertaining to National Security either Brad! You are so right here. Bye bye Kappes and don't let the door of the Puzzle Palace hit you in the behind as you skeddale out with your rat tail between your legs!
I have always held the CIA in high esteem, but have been puzzled by a organization populated by so many self sacrificing brave men and women to allow the sicking attacks of the likes of Pelosi, the Times and others to go unchallenged, they know where the skeletons are hidden, time to put a little fear in the hearts of American traitors.
The only reason this is embarassing to Obama is that it's exposed. It has his and podestas dirty fingerprints all over it.
Bye bye to the capering fool Kappes, lets see how long it takes him to write a book that tries to turn his administrations predatory anti-american practices into a story of his and Obamas victimhood at the hands of the evil CIA.
Let's see now:
we have dismantled our missile defense shield
we have taken nukes off the defense table
scrapped the moon trips.
Hell this makes perfectly good sense,…………….
why would a third rate nation need a CIA,…………???????
well done, Joe…
Viscoscity is a good thing. Oy vey.
despite it's shortcomings- and they are legion- the CIA is a necessary bulwark against both Islamic radicalism and fifth columnism- and once upon a time before the Reds took over, a decent anti-communist program as well. Far better than the State Department, that's for sure.
Recently the Company has fallenon hard times. Happens when libs are inoffice- see 1978 Jimmy 'Peanut' Carter and the Church commission. THAT fiasco put our humint in Latin America out of business for oh, 20 years. The left wants their show trials of Bush/Cheney/CIA so they can finish the job.
Of course that would leave us at the mercy of our adversaries. But liberals just know that there will be no foes once they strip the nation of it's ability to protect itself.
Right?
dcase, how very concisely you have stated the truth.
there won't be any foes. Countries that don't exist have no enemies.
How about "adverse" instead of "averse"?
Can't this guy be charged with anything?
A writer here myself, I know that Brad Thor knows more than many of us about the CIA and the fight. Thanks for your column, Brad.
Thor's hammer, well played.
A messy CIA and low moral was not unexpected, sorry to say. I mean, Leon Panetta as the head of CIA? This is a political man appointed to politicize the CIA instead of doing serious intelligence work.
Comparison is the DOJ, which way out of it's way to dismiss the case against the Black Panther billy clubbers — and demote the veteran federal white civil rights attorney who was just following the law and had the conviction.
The message being sent to the CIA and DOJ troops must have their heads spinning.
.
Make that the evil hands of Karl Rove.
Just what is Obama up to?
http://www.examiner.com/x-37620-Conservative-Exam...
God Bless America
We have a pres running amok, a congress and senate overspending, and now a attygen that has his head up his arse. When will it end? Hopefully with the next election cycle. I cannot wait to get rid of these dufuses! Glad I am away from Cal and their idiot profs – Missouri is fine with me~!
Probably because that is called blackmail. And what do you think would happen if the agents were caught? The ACLU lawyers would think they had died and gone to heaven… Now, don't get me wrong, I think you are right about fighting back, but doing it this way would be manna from heaven to the lefties who just love to say all gov't intelligence agencies want to do is spy on them.
Great letter. Too bad it probably fell on deaf ears. Barry can only fear rather than respect, & therefore be dismissive of, this kind of service, dedication, loyalty & sacrifice – because even as narcissistic as he is, he can never expect this type of fealty from anyone but his totally indoctrinated minions.
These American heroes you so aptly describe are our last, great hope if/when Barry creates an "emergency that's to good to let go to waste"….. God Bless you all!
From your lips to God's ears..
Brad thank you for your articles. Very enlightening – but terrifying. Most – if not all – of these a$$holes in & around the White House shouldn't even have security clearances!! To think they're meeting constantly at trumped up summits with enemy heads of state… God Help US!!!
80,000 troops vs 100 million militia….that ought to be interesting!
For the so-called political leaders, CIA stands for "'Cause I'm Anti-American"….He is smart to step down, before he mysteriously dies of cancer…
This goes further….GW Bush let 2 Border Patrol Agents languish in prison, plus there are military in prison now from Bush era on questionable charges.
The surest way to demonstrate the folly of President Obamas policy is to implement it.
Would it be fair to say that the 60's rejects that preside at 1600 Pennsylcania have infiltrated the CIA, a long time ago? They set George Bush up wirth erroneous or misleading info before the war. They constantly leaked info to the Times to discredit the Bush administration. Everyone "forgets" that no WMD were "found" but in the weeks before the war, the Russians were moving equipment and materials into Syria (all under the eye of our satellites.) The wmds are now in Syria and the CIA knows this. But paybacks are a bitch Law and order has broken down in DC and no one is even pretending anymore.
yes and was all Bush's fault for being so naive as to allow all theses clinton plants to remin in these positions.
The times have changed and purging is the order of the day.
Does anyone really believe that Obama is formulating policy based on a Bush hire.
I believe Bill Casey was the last of the great CIA director. Despite the gutting by Church and his ilk, the CIAwas a place that real patriots thrived and worked hard to keep America safe. WTF happened since then? Klinton happened. Leon Pinheadah happened, and Nobama happened. Don't believe there still aren't patriots in the CIA. They're there all right. They're just being marginalized by careerists and America-haters like their wussy CIC and CIA Director. Good riddence to this schmuck. We'll fix this problem in Nov 2012. Till then, all you patriots in the CIA will have to hold on for two more years.
maybe asstern has his sights on that CIA gig.
Viscous war on the Department of Defense? Good grief.
So this website is against big government. This also means big defense and big military contractors too? I hope so because that's almost half the budget, even counting entitlements. Let's end these pointless wars and decrease the size of the government. Thank God for sites like these.
Once again you hit the nail right smack on its head!
The moral here is that the "sound bite" is mightier than honor or integrity. Just ask me, Bill Clinton.
What is the proper role of government? DEFENSE IS SPECIFIED AS ONE OF THE PROPER ROLES OF GOVERNMENT ACCORDING TO THE US CONSTITUTION. You are now dismissed.
Oddly enough, everyone here was attacking the CIA yesterday. Now you're defending them? HUH?
What are you babbling about?
Now the CIA are the good guys? Yesterday they were being called traitors for outing military personnel. Oh wait, I know, it was only Obama's friends in the CIA! Has nothing to do with the long running power struggle going on between CIA and DOD since 9/12/01 over who would take the lead in Bush's War On Terror. Jeesh. Do any of you idiots actually read? or do you simply get all your information from Glenn Beck? I think you would be wise to listen to one of your own, Tom Coburn, when he said there is more than one place to get your news besides FOX.
Careful Joe…your partisan agenda is showing. I think it outweighs your compassion for the police and CIA agents.
Where was all this right wing indignation when Valerie Plame was outed by the vice president's office?
It seems that ever since the end of the Cold War and the demise of the Soviet Union that our intelligence community has become increasingly politicized, regardless of who is sitting in the president's chair. I don't know if it because the bureaucrats in the organizations felt that playing ball with whoever is in charge was the best way to ensure career progression or if the organizations have truly been corrupted by individuals who don't view America as deserving of it's status as the big boy on the block. Whatever the reason it has reached a dangerous level with all of the leaks to news media of supposedly classified operations and operatives.
No Valerie Pflame was not an active agent. If she was she wouldn't have announced in the social pages of the Baltimore papers when she got engaged that she was an CIA employee. Oopsey.
I can not fathom what anybody could hope to gain by leaking information on active field agents. That would be like somebody giving the names of people in your HR department to the mob with instructions to take care of your problems. If you know what I mean. People you work with deliberately being set up for harm.
Sadly I don't think you can unpoliticize our intelligence community which is a shame and a dishonor for all of the good men and women who work there and put country first ahead of personal ambition.
Joe, I have always been awed and humbled by the sacrifices made by covert agents. My dad was a WWII vet who had a family late in life and I am so grateful that I missed having parents from the 60’s. My dad taught us that freedom had a great and often bloody cost. He pointed out that the reason we could travel by car or bus was because there were people willing to do the dirty work to keep us safe. He would point out how lucky we were to live in a nation where we didn’t have to worry about being blown up on the way to school. I know Pres. Obama and the rest of his cabal will never understand or appreciate what covert operators endure, only to be spit on when they come home. I appreciate that even though the CIA agents who risk it all for every one of us never wait around for gratitude, but I hope they know that there are many of us who will never get to thank them, but know we owe them a debt that cannot be repaid.
In an ironic twist of fate – it is all of this nations finest that make an "Obama" or a "Carter" even possible. We have let our guard down at home. No more, never again! Hit your local TEA Party today. Remember do not get provoked.
People, the Democrats have always attacked America's security apparatus. They will never stop until the Party disappears.
When did Dick Armitage become the Vice President? And Valerie Plame was not a covert agent, she walked into the CIA building's front door every day. Not to mention that all of the socialites in the DC party circuit knew she was CIA as well…
The CIA notwithstanding, Obama himself has rendered America less safe. See my post:
Obama's Cold War Encore? There must be 50 ways to duck and cover.
You forgot to mention that "entitlements" are NOT a proper role for the 'gubmint', no matter how many times the progressives say it is.
Wow, you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Are all of you this color blind?
[...] is an update from Mr. Thor: While I have been adverse to mentioning Kappes by name, when I was informed last night that the [...]
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