Hoff: CIA reasserts position as leading spy group
Dr. Samuel B. Hoff is a George Washington Distinguished Professor Emeritus of history and political science at Delaware State University. He is a previous recipient of a national security law fellowship from the University of Virginia.
Welcome back, CIA. After being blamed for the failures of 9/11, having a new department take its place as the coordinator of the entire intelligence community and seeing some of its prior duties transferred elsewhere, the agency has recently again demonstrated its value as a part of the toolbox of American foreign policy. It’s about time.
The invaluable role of the CIA in negotiating the Aug. 1 prisoner swap with Russia was meticulously explained in a New York Times article published a few days after the event. Even if their respective elected leaders do not trust one another, the American and Russian spy personnel evidently did enough to arrange the exchange involving several countries.
Since its founding in 2002, the CIA University has added to education about the U.S. intelligence community. It recently expanded the courses available, as part of a recruiting campaign. One area in which the agency realized its own shortcomings and acted was in the technology realm: As part of the 2015 reorganization, a Directorate of Digital Innovation was created.
Despite criticism that it is outside its purview, the CIA continues with paramilitary operations and training, such as with the current funding for Syrian rebels. After all, it is that type of activity that led to the successful CIA-Navy mission that took out Osama bin Laden in May 2011. In other cases, those functions have been returned to the CIA after having been transferred elsewhere; that is certainly the case with drone targeting of terrorists.
As part of its analytical functions, the agency routinely publishes an annual “World Factbook,” containing vital information on nations around the globe. As of last August, it added a new section to the book, one that assesses the history and milestones of space agencies in the 90 countries where they exist.
Even though technical innovations, along with a recent pandemic, seem to have diminished direct, in-person contact in other areas, there is no question that the CIA’s greatest strength has always emanated from human-derived intelligence. Accordingly, there must be an acceleration in the security clearance process for new employees.
While it took time for officials to admit, the establishment of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks was a mistake, more punitive anti-CIA than constructive. Ironically, of all documents, the chapter on intelligence in the Project 2025 tome gets it right: The office has become a bureaucratic behemoth that needs to be pared down (read: “terminated with extreme prejudice”).
The CIA has had its share of chicanery, leaks and scandals in its 77 years of life, with more to come now that trials of the 9/11 planners have been allowed to proceed. There will be tales of torture at foreign black sites and all that. So be it: That is old news, and the agency can take it. What it cannot do is show shame. For as nasty and dirty as the agency is often viewed stateside, its mission properly understands the malevolent environment in which it works. That is how secrecy and a constitutional republic can repel one another yet co-exist for a common end.
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