Against the backdrop of Tulsi Gabbard resigning her position as Director of National Intelligence, there is an opportunity to explain how the Washington DC Intelligence Community functions in real life.
ODNI Tulsi Gabbard has rightly been receiving a lot of praise for her efforts at removing the shroud of secrecy that is often used by an intensely territorial IC network. Simultaneously, she has received criticism or what Machiavelli called, “the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution”; because, in reality Tulsi Gabbard might be considered the first functional DNI.
One of the reasons Tulsi Gabbard was effective was her willingness to answer this question:
It was DNI Tulsi Gabbard who released the receipts showing how the CIA and IC ran an impeachment operation against President Trump. CIA operative Eric Ciarmella, ICIG Michael Atkinson and HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff all collaboratively involved.
Here it becomes more important for the next sequence of events to fully understand what it was about Tulsi Gabbard in the position of DNI that made such a big difference. What was it about her approach to the office of the DNI that made Gabbard stand out? This is a discussion worth having.
You may have seen reports of the CIA essentially spying on Tulsi Gabbard. However, no one running with that narrative realizes how silly that sounds to those who understand how the silo system works within the intelligence community.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is a hub, an interface, a central repository for all intelligence information that can be viewed, analyzed and shared with federal law enforcement, specifically the FBI. The ODNI operates on essentially the same system as the CIA and NSA for intelligence information. These sub-silos/offices are territorial yes, but they are not adversarial.
Tulsi Gabbard is not fighting with CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and the CIA doesn’t need to “raid” anything because the DNI and CIA are using the same information network interface. The DNI works within the CIA database. Yes, on paper both the CIA and NSA report to the DNI, but they do not operate disconnected information systems. The CIA, NSA and DNI work through the same computer interface, with varying levels of access.
HISTORY: 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.
Porter Goss was the last director of Central Intelligence (DCI) from 2004 to 2005. He then became the first director of the Central Intelligence Agency following the passage of the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, which abolished the DCI position and replaced it with the Director of National Intelligence on December 17, 2004. [Goss resigned as Director of the CIA on May 5, 2006.]
The first DNI was former U.S. ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte who was appointed on February 17, 2005, by President George W. Bush. On February 13, 2007, Mike McConnell became the second director of national intelligence, after Negroponte was appointed Deputy Secretary of State. On January 29, 2009, retired Navy admiral Dennis C. Blair became the third DNI on after being nominated by newly inaugurated President Barack Obama. President Obama dismissed Blair whose resignation became effective May 28, 2010. Obama then appointed an intentional doofus, James Clapper.
Thanks to the manipulative efforts of then Vice-President Mike Pence, the fifth DNI was fellow Hoosier, Dan Coats, who was a former member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI). Coats left after the 2019 impeachment began. The sixth DNI, John Ratcliffe, was confirmed May 21, 2020. The seventh DNI was Avril Haines, who took office on January 21, 2021 and stayed throughout Biden’s term in office until January 2025.
The important takeaway here is to understand that none of these former officials to hold the DNI position every fulfilled the legislated and authorized function of the DNI as the top of the Intelligence Community system. Instead, they ran the DNI office as a separate silo disconnected from the other legacy networks. All of it was essentially status quo, until Tulsi Gabbard arrived.
[NOTE: Throughout 2024 you may even remember CTH outlining how the DNI position had power that was never fully understood, because it was never activated. All of the IC silos fall under the ODNI, yet none of the prior Directors used the power of this office. CTH made the case of the DNI position being a great possibility for change. The DNI can reach into any IC sub-silo, extract any intelligence product, review it and declassify it with the support of the President. That’s exactly what Tulsi Gabbard started doing.]
Now, because the DNI is a hub – the office operates in a full 360° spectrum over both foreign and domestic intelligence affairs.
On the domestic side, Tulsi reached into the HPSCI for the Atkinson transcript, because the Intelligence Community Inspector General (IC IG) works for the DNI. Working with CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Tulsi also took control of the President’s Daily Brief (PDB) and also took the Intelligence Advisory Board out of the CIA and put it under the ODNI.
Again, working collaboratively, Gabbard pulled the background material behind the CIA’s 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) out of the CIA declassified it any gave it to the public. She also released the HPSCI report on the ICA highlighting the politicization of it. Additionally, she released all the background material showing how John Brennan, James Comey and James Clapper coordinated with the Obama White House on the Trump targeting effort.
All of that was simply by using the power of the office that always existed but had never been used.
On the international side of the ODNI authority, often people get confused about how this all works, so I tried to create an analogy that would help make it easier to digest. You have heard me say for years now, about the restaurant analogy for the Dept of State.
♦ Historically: The Secretary of State is the maître d’. DoS/CIA personnel are the wait staff. The CIA Director is the chef in the kitchen. USAID were the food runners, and the Dept of War were the bus boys. Every nation gets a different menu…. and, the important part, Israel has a table in the kitchen.
Congress eats for free, and for the past several years the ever-arbitrary client Ukraine was the biggest tipper who obnoxiously reminded the staff.
Notice. No where in this analogy do you see the DNI.
There’s a reason for that.
Until Tulsi Gabbard entered the IC system, no DNI ever engaged in this process. [REMINDER HERE] Tulsi Gabbard did. Strongly. As a consequence, everyone within that historic operation viewed Mrs. Gabbard as a threat.
Gabbard walked into the restaurant, selected her own seat, started to look at the menu options, and began closely watching how the employees were interacting and asking what their functional value to the American people who are paying the bills.
Tulsi Gabbard didn’t do this arbitrarily. Again, look at the operation described. In 2025, Marco Rubio is the maître d’, and John Ratcliffe is the chef. It was all of the people who “profit by the preservation of the old institution” who immediately became the people who freaked out.
♦ Sticking with the metaphor, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) is like the public Health Dept. They are supposed to do the food safety and quality inspections.
Unfortunately, the SSCI inspectors are easily bribed and as a consequence there is no oversight per se. The Restaurant donates to the health inspectors, provides them influence and affluence, and like a mafia operation the inspectors fear the restaurant owners they are supposed to oversee. [Schumer: “Seven ways from Sunday”]
For decades the multinational restaurant business operated without interruption. Each maître d’ simply smiled and casually palmed the indulgency bribes from the arriving guests. The status of the restaurant expanded with everyone making bank.
Tulsi just walking in and sitting down was like Eliot Ness casually walking into Al Capone’s favorite speakeasy. The IC equivalent of a WTF moment.
Now, here it becomes important to think about the technical processes that were used with the ODNI was created, and how Tulsi essentially is the very first DNI that wasn’t appointed purposefully just to retain the Patriot Act status quo.
From that perspective, America’s first fully matriculated DNI is Tulsi Gabbard. The rest were placeholders for the status quo; inserted to retain the power of the CIA and the systems of their familiarity.
During the Bush, Obama, Trump (T1) and Biden terms, the IC interface never changed. The basic way the IC system operated was the same. The Dept of State did their thing; the CIA was inside and part of the support system; the FBI/DOJ did their corrupt Lawfare stuff domestically and the DNI was irrelevant.
Go back and look at it. It was only after Tulsi Gabbard became DNI that the office truly opened up, and the long-neglected, albeit new systems meant to run the control mechanisms were finally dusted off and put to use.
I’m certain, much to the dismay of the DC stakeholders, a lot more information will become public in the next 30-days.
Remember, we are inside every facility, every institution, every meeting, every moment of their existence – and we notice everything. We are there when they do not expect, and we melt away before they notice our appearance. We see what they hide, we hear what they whisper, we decipher their codes, and we understand the complexity they create in their effort to conceal. We go to the places we know they will travel. We have allies and resources inside the core of their machinery. We understand what and why everything is being constructed, and we share all the information we discover. The truth isn’t mean; it’s just The Truth. Oh, and yeah, when I was a kid, Porter Goss was my neighbor. ~ Sundance
PRESIDENT TRUMP – “If I make a deal with Iran, it will be a good and proper one, not like the one made by Obama, which gave Iran massive amounts of CASH, and a clear and open path to a Nuclear Weapon. Our deal is the exact opposite, but nobody has seen it, or knows what it is. It isn’t even fully negotiated yet. So don’t listen to the losers, who are critical about something they know nothing about. Unlike those before me who should have solved this problem many years ago, I don’t make bad deals!” ~ President DJT
