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Home Front: Politix
New Senate intel chief wants to reimagine 'decimated' spy agency
2021-02-05
[Politico] Some Democrats may be eager to use their newfound power in Washington to investigate the misdeeds of the Trump era. But Mark Warner isn’t interested in performing an autopsy of the last four years in the U.S. intelligence community.

The Virginia Democrat and newly installed chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee doesn’t believe he would best serve the country by launching probes into the political pressure spy agencies faced under former President Donald Trump, who labeled elements within the intelligence community part of the "deep state" and clashed with them over issues like Russian election interference. Instead, Warner would rather focus on depoliticizing and rebuilding the clandestine organizations.

"I’ve thought about it, obviously," Warner said when asked about the possible investigations during a nearly hour-long interview in his Senate office this week. But, he added, "I don't know if that's really the best use of the committee's time."

In particular, the government’s top spy agency — the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — emerged "decimated" and "in shambles" from the last four years, he said. Trump frequently targeted the office, whose last two chiefs, Richard Grenell and John Ratcliffe, had little experience in intelligence but were close allies of the former president.

Weeks before last year’s election, Ratcliffe declassified unverified Russian intelligence over the concerns of the CIA and National Security Agency in order to boost Trump’s unsubstantiated claims about the federal government’s efforts to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Related:
Mark Warner: 2020-12-06 Pompeo pulls visas for agents of China’s United Front ‘magic weapon’
Mark Warner: 2020-10-10 Fantastic Catch – Senate Intel Russia Report Shows Committee Allowing Dan Jones, Fusion-GPS and Cody Shearer to Avoid Questioning
Mark Warner: 2020-09-24 Senators: Intel community weighs more disclosures on foreign meddling
Posted by:Besoeker

#9  He will build it up to hunt for all those domestic terrorists
Posted by: DarthVader   2021-02-05 10:03  

#8  focus on depoliticizing

and we know which politics would be purged, yes?
Posted by: Mercutio   2021-02-05 08:14  

#7   ...in order to boost Trump’s unsubstantiated claims

I saw quite a bit of substantiation over the past four years; what about you guys?

Maybe Politico should go look under some rocks.
Posted by: Raj   2021-02-05 08:05  

#6  $60 billion/year is decimated? That doesn't count another $20 billion for military intel. That equal to total General Motors US sales. I know which one I'd rather have.
Posted by: Tyranysaurus Untervehr6044   2021-02-05 07:39  

#5  Does anyone think that Warner is going to investigate himself?
Posted by: b   2021-02-05 07:33  

#4  if the reimagining involves something along the night of the long knives, i'm all in.
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136   2021-02-05 06:53  

#3  Comey, Clapper, Brennan, successors de facto of


Posted by: Phomogum Sforza8505   2021-02-05 02:49  

#2  He's the Man who imagines more than You or I -



Posted by: Dopey Thrusogum2813   2021-02-05 01:41  

#1  Sounds like a job for Brennan, Clapper, and Comey. Name a committee and fund it immediately. Hurry, their five year clearance bring-ups are approaching.

"decimated" and "in shambles"

Translation: 'Exposed'
Posted by: Besoeker   2021-02-05 01:16  

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