Holy S**t, Batman
Or, The Joker really means it
The Senate Intelligence committee has just advanced the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to the Senate floor for confirmation as the US Director of National Intelligence. Let me count the ways this is a terrible idea, not just for the United States, but for Canada and other close US intelligence partners. Gabbard is entirely unqualified to be the senior most intelligence official in the US. That is, unless you count the qualities that matter most--her political opportunism and loyalty to the big man in the White House. As the Washington Post’s veteran intelligence reporter, David Ignatius, put it: “Even by Trump’s standards, this is a crazy choice.” [1] The Canadian media has paid little attention, with the exception of an excellent report by Evan Dyer for CBC News. [2]
Gabbards’ geopolitical views are noxious and her leanings towards Kremlin propaganda (Hilary Clinton once referred to her as a Russian asset) spell trouble for the US approach to the Ukraine war. She is prone to conspiracy theories. She is alleged to have been connected to some weird cult in Hawaii (not surfing). She was even once put on a US watch-list! She has no evident political or moral compass.
This is the package that will sit on the US National Security Council, be perched at the right hand of Donald Trump for intelligence briefings, and will be the gatekeeper making decisions on what the President should or should not see and read. The deep politicization of US intelligence is upon us.
As the old Mad Magazine used to say, ‘what me worry?’ Well, for Canada, there is plenty to worry about. Let’s start with the imminent destruction of an intelligence relationship that dates back to the Second World War. By destruction, I mean destruction of trust, which is the absolute beating heart of any sensitive intelligence relationship. Who would trust Gabbard and whoever she instals in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to handle Canadian secrets? Who would trust whatever flow, likely diminished, of secrets Gabbard permits the United States to share with Canada. Who could want to engage in joint intelligence operations with US counterparts, which in the past have been crucial to law enforcement, counter-terrorism and signals intelligence missions to name a few?
If you have put your hand up, give your head a shake.
On top of the news of Gabbard’s success, comes a leak to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) from officials indicating that a buyout has been offered to all CIA employees, to clear the ranks of anyone not completely onboard with the Trump agenda.[3] A buyout for a workforce that numbers c. 22,000! There is also, reportedly, a hiring freeze in place, again to ensure loyalty and dismantle any fictional “deep state.”
The CIA website describes the Agency as follows:
“CIA is an independent agency responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior US policymakers. “ [4]
Independent no more. Ability to produce national security intelligence—bullet-ridden.
The buyout offer is likely illegal, and may be resisted, but the damage has been done. Turning the CIA into a toadying intelligence organization, along the lines of Putin’s FSB, may be easier than you think.
It gets worse. According to an aide cited in the WSJ report:
“Trump’s CIA will have a greater focus on the Western hemisphere, targeting countries not traditionally considered adversaries of the United States. For example, the CIA will use espionage to give Trump extra leverage in his trade negotiations, potentially spying opn Mexico’s government amid the ongoing trade spat.”
Take no comfort in the fact that Canada was not mentioned as being potentially in the sights of the CIA. We are pretty squarely in the Western hemisphere and not traditionally an adversary. Should we see the Agency covertly running around in Canada, it would break a covenant at the core of the Five Eyes partnership—'thou shalt not spy on your closest friends.’ Would Trump care about such a covenant? Will leave you to answer that one.
Ramping up the intelligence enterprise in the Western hemisphere is also likely to bring back the practice of covert operations aimed at regime change. Panama, anyone? Cuba? Venezuela? And this just for starters. Where is E. Howard Hunt when you need him? Bring on the Bay of Pigs.
How should Canada respond to the wrecking ball that is being taken to the US intelligence community and, by implication, to the Canada-US intelligence partnership.
I have said it before, and I will say it again. It is vital that the CANADIAN INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY STARTS PRODUCING HIGH-QUALITY ANALYTIC REPORTS ON DEVELOPMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES, INCLUDING SENIOR OFFICIALS’ PROFILES.
Sorry Trumpian CAPS suddenly seized my keyboard!!! Will exercise more control in what comes next.
Imagine the file on Tulsi Gabbard, or the olfactory assault that is Kash Patel. How do you document lick-spittle (hello John Ratcliffe, CIA Director)? Wouldn’t a report on the meaning of America First be useful, or a thoughtful reflection on Trump’s enthusiasm for the 19th century doctrine of Manifest Destiny, just in case either one hammers us?
What else? Well, there are lots of things that will have to happen to enhance Canadian sovereign intelligence capacities and diversify our intelligence relationships to fill the global gap left by an untrustworthy United States.
But for starters, I would recall all Canadian liaison officials in Washington, and personnel embedded in US intelligence agencies, for discussions and the framing of new guidance on intelligence sharing.
I would ask all embedded US intelligence officials working inside Canadian intelligence agencies to stay at home for now. Put a hold on their TS clearances.
I would urgently convene a meeting, hosted by the NSIA, of senior leaders from the intelligence communities of the other Five Eyes partners—the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Even if this produced, at the outset, nothing more than shock therapy and grief counselling, it would still be useful.
I would also take a lead in generating a more national intelligence organization by appointing senior “watch” officers, with staff, from Ottawa to all the provinces and territories to liaise with provincial and territorial counterparts, share intelligence, become more familiar with the security concerns of provinces and territories (responses to the Freedom Convoy protests showed real gaps) and gain from anything they are learning from their own cross-border engagements. I would start by establishing watch offices in the three northern and Arctic territories—Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Arctic security is (in future) us.
A strong response to Trump threats, diversification, removal of barriers to inter-provincial trade (of intelligence). Sound familiar?
[1] David Ignatius, Washington Post, “The three strikes against Tulsi Gabbard,” January 29, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/01/29/tulsi-gabbard-dni-nominee-trump-vote/
[2] Evan Dyer, CBC News, Februray 1, 2025, “https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tulsi-gabbard-director-national-intelligence-1.7447616
[3] Wall Street Journal, “The CIA is about to get a Trump makeover,” February 4, 2025, https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/the-cia-is-about-to-get-a-trump-makeover-16fc0cbf
[4] CIA website, “CIA Organization,” https://www.cia.gov/about/organization/
All this calls for a quick and sudden maturing of the overall Canadian Intelligence Enterprise (CIE), necessarily involving a new, cohesiveness across governments at all three levels, federal, provincial/territorial, and municipal. Think of this as the intelligence equivalent of breaking down provincial trade barriers.
Let's not get overly wrapped around the axle of nonsense in Washington for its own sake. The idiocy rampant in the White House and elsewhere is simply a good kick in the #$&@s for us to grow up and finally decide to do our own thing.
Not only is the Trump circus chaos personified, it will not be over in four years, for two reasons. First, I see no credible opposition from any American element. The population seems to have gone 'turtle.' Second, wait for it, at some point Trump will steamroller over constitutional provisions prohibiting a third term... or any term limits. This is a new game. We need new rules and different equipment in Canada.
A re-vamped CIE on its own is not enough. In fact it is one component that is necessarily derived from a true omnibus national security policy, implemented by a truly whole-of-society grand strategy that engages all elements of Canadian national power. But here's the rub... we have never had a government with the intellectual power to think beyond the next election and craft truly enduring Canadian political goals. Past policy statements are all tasteless pablum describing action to be taken, without any definition of what is to be achieved.
Even today, we hear about more drones on the border, two new helicopters, more CBSA officers, more RCMP, but we don't hear about any RESULTS. SHOW us the Chinese gang members and Khalistani militants in handcuffs, being led away by burly RCMP Officers. Show us the burned out remains of a drug lab in a BC forest. Show us the American criminal caught smuggling guns into Canada being tossed into the back of police van.
Enough of the pep talk. Let's do something, beginning with everything prescribed by Dr. Wark.
It has come to this. Eighty years of close postwar intelligence cooperation down the White House sewer. Of course there were blips and squiggles before (the suicide of Herbert Norman, etc.) but nothing to shake the foundations. Until now.
You ask, sarcastically, in passing: "Where is E. Howard Hunt when you need him?"
How about: "Where is Lee Harvey Oswald when you need him?"