Former CIA analysts: We can't trust Devin Nunes
By Jeff Asher, Nada Bakos and Cindy Otis
Updated 12:47 PM EST, Wed February 07, 2018
(CNN) Rep. Devin Nunes,
the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who recused himself from the
Russia investigation in April after investigators were asked to look into
whether he revealed classified information -- has demonstrated over the past
year he cannot be counted on to perform his critical duty within the committee.
And now, by voting to release a politically motivated, recklessly drafted memo, House Republicans on the committee have
demonstrated they are not reliable defenders of our nation's security.
As former intelligence analysts with
the CIA, we were trained from our very first days on the job to understand that
intelligence work is not a game. We received training throughout our careers on
how to recognize our own personal biases, including how to ensure that our
private political views did not color our analysis. When it comes to protecting
lives, including the lives and the programs behind our sources and methods, we
each became fierce defenders, and we expect our elected representatives on the
both congressional intelligence oversight committees to do the same.
While each of us can tell stories about
individual members of Congress trying to use intelligence for political
purposes, this series of events is wholly different. The intelligence community
relies on the congressional oversight committees to hold the community
accountable in mission, spending and legal authority. We know that both
political parties will have different views on each of these things, but we
expect the members to find a compromise that puts our national security first,
rather than their political agendas, for the sake of protecting American lives.
The precedent the Nunes memo has already set degrades the House Intelligence
Committee's effectiveness as an oversight body.
The memo itself would not pass a
college writing class because it does not support its main thesis, which
alleges that at the highest levels the FBI and Department of Justice
potentially abused their powers related to an October 2016 FISA warrant
application on Carter Page by relying too heavily on the Christopher Steele dossier. The problem is the
memo doesn't offer any evidence of the potential abuse and, in fact, the memo
undermines itself.
Nunes recently acknowledged on
"Fox & Friends" that the FBI did indeed disclose the political
origins of the Steele dossier, but he expressed his dissatisfaction that it was
in the form of a footnote. "A footnote saying something may be political
is a far cry from letting the American people know that the Democrats and the
Hillary (Clinton) campaign paid for dirt that the FBI then used to get a
warrant on an American citizen to spy on another campaign," he said.
Also of note, the Russia investigation
started in the summer of 2016, months before the Page FISA application was
submitted. The memo confirms that Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, not Page, provided the
impetus for opening the counterintelligence investigation.
Republicans promised the memo would undermine the Russia
investigation. But it did not live up to that promise. In fact, the memo
demonstrates that the FBI had more than enough cause to seek and receive
surveillance warrants against Page.
The House Intelligence Republicans are
not stopping here. Already, new reports indicate Republicans have potentially
up to five more memos showing
wrongdoing related to the Russia probe and investigations into President Donald
Trump's inner circle.
Meanwhile, the House Intelligence
Committee voted unanimously Monday night to release the Democrats' memo -- a 10-page, point-by-point
rebuttal to the Nunes memo. The Democratic memo will now be passed back to
Trump and has already been sent to the FBI and Justice Department for review.
In short order, Washington has turned the intelligence community into a
political football that will have far-reaching consequences for years to come.
No matter how many Republicans have
denied it, including the President himself, the motivation behind the Nunes
memo is clear -- it was a direct attempt to undermine the work of the FBI and,
in particular, the Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Beyond the actual release of the Nunes
memo Friday, many other troubling details have emerged in recent days that
uncover just how recklessly Republicans have acted. The memo did not stem from
a formal investigation by an unbiased governing body to prevent damaging
sources and methods through the release. In addition, the FBI was given limited
time to review the document before the House Intelligence Committee's vote, but
it had "grave concerns about material omissions of fact
that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy." And Nunes admitted he had not read
the FISA application that the memo discusses.
Republicans who were so concerned about leaks of
classified information during the last year are now pushing for the release of
top secret information to the public, cherry-picked to undermine agencies for
which they are meant to be stewards. From this point forward, the House
Intelligence Committee's assessment of the intelligence community should be met
with skepticism by the public and Congress alike. When we look back on this
administration in a few years, we believe this incident will be marked as one
of the worst cases of politicization of intelligence in modern American
history.
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