Retired CIA station chief Scott Uehlinger claims there is a “Deep State.”
He argued, “The Deep State is made up of thousands of similarly credentialed,
remarkably “un-diverse” civil servants and political appointees who saw
themselves promoted rapidly during the eight years of the Obama administration.
The appointees have left, but make no mistake — the progressive civil servants
remain.” Uehlinger is correct except for the fact that he exaggerates the
role Obama has played in its creation. The “Deep State” had its greatest
growth during the Roosevelt Administration when bureaucrats like Soviet
asset Harry Dexter White recruited large numbers of
communists and progressives to man the government. Most of the communists
were eventually weeded out of government but the progressives for the most part
remained. These progressives gradually gained control of most of the
federal bureaucracy. Under President Obama, even many of the conservative
holdouts were driven from the government.
Interior Secretary Ryan
Zinke claims nearly one-third of the employees at his department are
not loyal to him and President Trump. He claimed, “I got 30 percent of
the crew that’s not loyal to the flag.” Either the Department of Interior
is a radical exception or Zinke is being extremely optimistic. There are
a large number of professionals in the Department of the Interior who will
carry out orders regardless of the administration directing them. There
are even some extremely patriotic employees. However, particularly in the
leadership, there is a significant number of progressives who will actively
sabotage efforts by a conservative administration to curtail government interference
in the lives of its citizens. What percentage of the upper echelons of
the federal bureaucracy voted for Donald Trump? That number is
exceedingly small.
One of the most crucial fields that a president must rely upon is
intelligence. The NSA, FBI and CIA are in many respects the eyes and ears
of a president. These agencies are also the most compromised. The
heads of each of these agencies have intentionally misled the public and even
lied before Congress. CIA directorJohn Brennan lied when he claimed, “Let me assure you
the CIA was in no way spying on [the committee] or the Senate.” He was
later forced to apologize for his statement. Director of National
Intelligence James Clapper told the Congress that the NSA was not
collecting information on millions of Americans. Documents leaked by
Edward Snowden revealed that he had lied. FBI DirectorJames Comey lied to Congress about his decision not to
recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton.
The departments that oversee these agencies are also
compromised. This was illustrated by the recent release of Department of
Justice documents by Judicial Watch. These documents showed strong support
by top DOJ officials for former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates’ refusal to
enforce President Trump’s Middle East travel ban executive order. Andrew
Weissmann, one of Robert Mueller’s top prosecutors applauded Yates emailing: “I
am so proud. And in awe. Thank you so much. All my deepest respects.”
Yates was subsequently fired for disobeying a direct order from the
President. The documents contain numerous emails sent from official
Justice Department email addresses. One was from DOJ Civil Division
Appellate Attorney Jeffrey Clair who wrote, “Thank you AG Yates. I’ve been in
civil/appellate for 30 years and have never seen an administration with such
contempt for democratic values and the rule of law. The President’s order is an
unconstitutional embarrassment and I applaud you for taking a principled stand
against defending it.” Of course Clair wrote this before the Supreme Court ruled that the travel ban was
constitutional.
John Dietrich is a freelance writer and
the author of The Morgenthau Plan: Soviet Influence on American Postwar Policy
(Algora Publishing). He has a Master of Arts Degree in International
Relations from St. Mary’s University. He is retired from the Defense
Intelligence Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.
