John Gentry, a veteran of both executive branch and congressional intelligence agencies and now an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, also warns that the politicization of the intelligence community, particularly the CIA, created a problem that threatens American security to this day.
Created to be a strictly neutral service for both Republican and Democratic administrations, the politicization within the CIA first became an issue during the 1990s when CIA analyst Robert Gates ordered analysts to skew reports in favor of political narratives of elected officials, Mr. Gentry states in his book, “Neutering the CIA: Why U.S. Intelligence Versus Trump Has Long-Term Consequences.”
But what happened since 2016 has been far more serious and damaging to the agency’s role and mission, writes Mr. Gentry, a 12-year employee of the agency, including two years as a senior analyst on the staff of the National Intelligence Officer for Warning, who now teaches Missouri State University’s School of Defense and Strategic Studies. The author is also a retired Army Reserve officer who spent time with special operations and intelligence units.
“A new, dramatically stronger and damaging form of politicization — partisan, political activism willing to damage or destroy politically a sitting American president — had taken root in parts of the U.S. intelligence community,” Mr. Gentry writes. “It dwarfs the politicization episodes of the past in magnitude and importance, and it promises to have lasting, negative consequences.”
"This should be obvious to almost everyone by now, though it isn't, but I'm glad that someone respectable and high up in education, who has been around several relevant blocks for a long time is saying it so even the most resistant voters might open their eyes."
