Remember, in this series my goal is more to describe the needs of some critical Executive Branch positions from a very practical, non-pretending, perspective of what happens within specific offices. This outline is going to be a little odd, because almost no one knows what the position of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is about.
The ODNI was created as an outcome of the 9-11 Commission recommendations. In the era shortly after 9/11, the DC national security apparatus was constructed to preserve continuity of government and simultaneously view all Americans as potential threats.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) were created specifically for this purpose.
Washington DC created the modern national security apparatus immediately and hurriedly after 9/11/01. DHS came along in 2002, and within the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 the ODNI was formed.
When Barack Obama and Eric Holder arrived a few years later, those newly formed institutions were viewed as opportunities to create a very specific national security apparatus that would focus almost exclusively against their political opposition.
Here is the weird part. The ODNI was formed in 2004, with the intent for the office to be the pivot point of a national security radar. The DNI was intended to provide information to domestic agencies about foreign terror networks that would prevent something like 9-11 from happening again. However, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has never, not for one day, operated on this intent. This is why they are such a critical position from my perspective.
The office was new, not established yet as a functioning silo, when Barack Obama and Eric Holder arrived in 2009. They quickly dispatched an idiot, James Clapper, into the operation so they could weaponize around the offices’ fulcrum point.
Prior to the DNI office existing, the CIA radar would sweep externally and then report to the Office of the President. The DNI was intended to take external radar sweep (CIA) and make it a full 360° circle, adding a sweep inside the USA that would be handled by the Dept of Homeland Security.
The DHS sweep and the CIA sweep would then be combined into a central collection hub called the ODNI. Everyone with responsibility for “national security” could access the ODNI material. Essentially and presumably, post 9-11 nothing like jihadists practicing to fly airplanes would be missed again; at least that was the intent.
The weird part is that because the DNI was immediately weaponized, the office has never functioned to the purpose of its intent.
No one truly knows what the office possibilities consist of because no one has ever seen anyone try to functionally control the hub. If you think I’m joking about the intent of Obama and John Brennan using the DNI watch this video. This is before Brennan became CIA Director, this is when Brennan was helping Barack Obama put the pillars into place.
For the intents of this outline the takeaway is how the DNI office has never been used for good. In a strategic way, that can be used to our advantage if you are talking about leveraging silos against each other.
Example: The DNI can assemble material from any silo. Meaning the DNI can reach into any IC silo and extract anything they want. Under the original authorities given to the DNI, this authority exists. So, let’s spread the wings on this office and do exactly what it is permitted to do, only this time extract for the purpose of showing the President what is happening in every silo.
In essence, the DNI *CAN BE* deployed like a super strong cross-silo inspector general’s office. Force the other IC silos to comply with the demands of the DNI. This has never been done. But the DNI has this unique power.
The DNI can make the FBI, DOJ, DOJ-NSD, DoD, DoS and CIA provide anything and everything they demand. Instead of the other silos using blocks and threats against the office of the President, use the authority of the DNI to get them without confrontation. Then use the DNI to declassify the documents (if requested by potus), instead of the originating silo.
Can you see how the DNI office can be repurposed to be a seriously strong weapon in the toolbox of the President, against the schemes of those inside the various IC silos. The DNI becomes much more important than the CIA Director, NSA Director, FBI Director, Attorney General, etc, because the DNI can just show up and say, “give me this.” That’s the whole functional purpose of the DNI office that has never been exerted; let’s flippin’ use it.
Let’s use the office of the DNI as the central information hub that takes information from inside the corrupt silos, then provides that information to the President who puts sunlight upon it. Each corrupt silo penetrated with disinfectant. This could begin a process to pull down the shadow operations and let the American public see what has been happening inside our IC apparatus.
To accomplish this approach the National Security Advisor to the President (NSA), would be the person who tells the DNI exactly what they are looking for.
How does the NSA know what to look for? Because the National Security Advisor is the head of the National Security Council (NSC).
Now you see why I say put the strategic scruffy people like Mike Flynn, Kash Patel, etc etc in a stripped down NSC.
Let the NSC monitor the silos with specific intent, then provide Trump’s NatSec Advisor with details on what appears to be happening and where. With the approval of the President, the NSA then turns to the DNI and says, “POTUS wants this, go get this.”
Raw, unfiltered, unredacted information. The silo administrators end up in a fight with the ODNI, not the office of President Trump. President Trump then uses the power of his office to support the demands of the DNI.
Under this approach the DNI has a lot more power; yet funnily, it’s power they already have – yet have never utilized.
Unfortunately, the DNI needs to be confirmed by the Senate Intelligence Committee – so, this factors into who could achieve the position. [NOTE: Ric Grenell is too valuable in another position.] John Ratcliffe might be a possibility, but I’m not sure he would be strong enough to go up against the system he knows well (and on a character issue he’s bff’s with Trey Gowdy).
Preferably we really want an outsider in this role, yet any true outsider is going to face massive scrutiny getting through the nomination filter. My gut tells me that Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey might be a strong candidate, and as DNI he can build on his reputation for confronting DHS manipulation.
AG Andrew Bailey exposed the DHS manipulation of social media and has pushed the envelope against the Deep State/Lawfare attacks against Donald Trump. Bailey has used the power of his office for good purposes, and that provides me with cautious optimism he could do the same at a federal level in the position of Director of National Intelligence.
[The next position to outline be a combination. The Secretary of State and the CIA Director. The U.S State Dept and CIA operation is like a restaurant. The Dept of State is the front of the restaurant, with the Secretary as the Maitre D’. The CIA is the back of the restaurant, the kitchen. The Director is the Chef. The consulates are the wait staff. USAID are the food runners. The Dept of Defense are the bus boys. Ukraine is a big tipper.]
Thanks for making this understandable 😎