During my 26-year career at the
Central Intelligence Agency
, my colleagues and I believed strongly in congressional oversight. As a case officer and then manager across three areas of responsibility (the Middle East, counterterrorism, and Europe), I spent considerable time with members of Congress and their staff. We always ensured that
Congress
was fully briefed on our traditional collection operations as well as covert action programs, and I considered Congress not as enemy territory but rather as national security colleagues. Congressional oversight is a key component of how the CIA operates. Most importantly, oversight can provide a solid mechanism for making the agency better, as Congress can be an effective change agent.
With that in mind, I’m concerned about House Speaker
Kevin McCarthy’s
possible creation of a MAGA-inspired subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee. A subcommittee that will go after the
FBI
, the Department of Justice, and the intelligence community. The name of this entity appears to be out of a bad spy novel – the committee on the “Weaponization of the federal government.” It bears memory of actions by another former member of Congress named McCarthy.
These developments are head-spinning if one knows the history between U.S. political parties and the national security establishment. Conservatives used to be the defenders of the FBI and CIA. The Left was the skeptic. What a flip. But what really matters is that a partisan circus around this Church-like committee will harm U.S. national security. Chinese intelligence is eating our lunch every day in the U.S. FBI Director Chris Wray has stated that the FBI opens an investigation on Chinese intelligence operations every 12 hours. So the GOP’s answer is to attack and defund the FBI? This is being tough on China, as the new GOP House majority insists it is? Give me a break.
Top line: a highly distracted FBI and intelligence community cannot do their jobs, which is to protect the people against threats from Russia, China, Iran, and terrorism. The manpower of our national security institutions is not limitless. Spurious fishing expeditions — which is not real oversight focused on specific concerns — will no doubt distract. We need FBI agents on the street, running surveillance operations against Chinese intelligence and recruiting their officers. We need the FBI and CIA penetrating terrorist groups. We need the NSA figuring out how to get inside encrypted Russian communication networks.
I also worry about what message this sends to those who are interested in national security careers. Look at the
terrible issues of hiring and retention
that police departments face after the nonsense of the “defund the police” movement. We don’t need this for those prospective FBI agents or CIA officers. Do we really want these talented young individuals to look at a Congressional charade and think, why bother?
Historians will note that the political Right has despised the Church Committee as having de-fanged the intelligence community and ultimately led to significant intelligence failures. In fact, howling that the CIA had lost its mojo prior to Sept. 11, 2001, conservatives pointed directly to the Church Committee.
What we need to see is moral courage by those in the Republican Party who understand that necessary oversight and partisan theatrics are not the same thing. They must step up now before it all goes totally off the rails. That means folks such as Brian Fitzpatrick, a former FBI agent. Same with Don Bacon, a former U.S. Air Force brigadier general. The head of the new China Select Committee, Mike Gallagher. Mike Waltz, a former Green Beret. Mike McCaul, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Will these voices speak up collectively as the 118th Congress takes shape? Will they vote against this rules legislation this week, or force the speaker to make changes?
Moral courage is required to make sure this charade doesn’t get dangerous. I’m all for congressional oversight. The existing intelligence oversight committees do that effectively. But a new Church Committee is not the answer.
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Marc Polymeropoulos is a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. A former CIA senior operations officer, he retired in 2019 after a 26-year career serving in the Near East and South Asia. His book Clarity in Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the CIA was published in June 2021 by Harper Collins.
