War, the Intelligence Community, and the Deep State

Judging Freedom in America

BILL ASTORE

AUG 24, 2025

Last Tuesday, I appeared again on Judge Napolitano’s show. We talked about the Russia-Ukraine War and President Trump’s efforts to foster a peace deal, as well as the so-called Deep State and (briefly) the CIA.

The show’s lede raises a provocative question: Can America be rid of the CIA? Anything is possible in theory; the problem is the sprawling size and enormous power of the so-called intelligence community, or IC. (This idea of “community” was already a euphemism in the 1970s, as the movie “Three Days of the Condor” reveals; I’ve always liked how Robert Redford’s character scoffs at the “community” conceit.)

There are eighteen (18!) agencies that make up the IC with a combined yearly budget just north of $100 billion. For all that spending on intelligence, America has not fared well in recent wars in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. A bureaucracy of that size and reach is difficult to corral and control, especially since its budget keeps rising. Threat inflation is a major component of these rising budgets; you’re not going to get a threat assessment from the IC that says, well, actually, America’s pretty safe, let’s spend money on infrastructure, education, and social uplift.

As Chuck Schumer once said about Trump’s efforts to challenge the IC, the community has “six ways from Sunday” to get back at the president. That is, of course, more than worrisome. POTUS is supposed to command the IC; the IC is supposed to serve the president while upholding the U.S. Constitution. The IC shouldn’t scheme to “get back” at the president—any president.

My guess is that Trump has learned that lesson from Schumer. He’s appeasing the IC by giving it more and more money. Meanwhile, a Trump loyalist, Tulsi Gabbard, is trying to exert a measure of control as DNI, or Director of National Intelligence. I can’t imagine the in-fighting going in within the “community” as Gabbard releases files that suggest elements within the IC put their thumbs on the scale against Trump’s runs for president.

Eighteen agencies, $100 billion, and less than impressive results suggest a deep state that is out of control and in urgent need of major reform. Meanwhile, Edward Snowden’s revelations show a power structure that is more than willing to illegally spy on and surveil Americans.

For democracy to prosper, Americans need privacy and the government should be transparent to and controllable by the people. Instead, the IC is shrouded in secrecy and Americans are the ones whose lives are transparent to and controllable by the IC. 

Of course, I’m not suggesting the IC is peeking under every door—unless you’re some kind of crazy dissident who believes genocide is wrong and the military-industrial complex is dangerous. You know—someone like Dwight D. Eisenhower.

2 thoughts on “War, the Intelligence Community, and the Deep State”

  1. [From my Substack entry]

    Two related points:

    “Threat inflation is a major component of these rising budgets; you’re not going to get a threat assessment from the IC that says, well, actually, America’s pretty safe, let’s spend money on infrastructure, education, and social uplift,” and…

    “Meanwhile, Edward Snowden’s revelations show a power structure that is more than willing to illegally spy on and surveil Americans.”

    Now note the overlaps between those two and their intersection with the plumbing – and plundering – of personal data by the likes of Facebook, Amazon, Google, Planatir, all in an environment of weakened and weakening privacy protections, and you have more than Stasi on steroids.

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  2. Bill, if you have not read Ari ben Menashe’s book, “War for Profit” you should, it backs up your stand against all the money that goes for weapons, but it adds a wealth of information on how profitable it can be to supply arms under the table.

    Israel made a huge profit supplying weapons to the Iranians (!!!) during the Iran-Iraq war while the US was “tilting” toward Iraq. By comparison the Iran/Contra operation was peanuts. The US knew what was going on. Because Iran was desperate for weaponry and Israel was determined that Iraq lose the war, a regular pipeline was developed where Israel scoured the world (Pakistan, E. Europe, North Korea) for weapons and the marked up the price to make a huge profit that went into what Menashe calls a slush fund to be used freely as the Likud government of the time wished.

    The slush fund provided campaign funding for the Likud party and to provide money for settlement building in the West Bank.

    Remember the Israeli attack on the Osirak reactor in Iraq? Iran was a partner with Israel on that. After failing twice to take out the reactor, Iran asked Israel to do the job and provided an air strip in Iran where the Israeli planes could land if they ran into trouble.

    Remember the killing of Leon Klinghoffer on the cruise ship Achille Lauro? It was set up by Israel with the goal of giving the Palestinians a reputation as ruthless terrorists. It was achieved by paying off a Palestinian in service to Israel who agreed to find Palestinians willing to do the dirty work, they not knowing Israel was behind the plan. Menashe gives all the details.

    It is well known that Israel will supply any country with any weaponry for a price, but then the US is hardly an innocent on that score. Israel even supplied Iran with several C-130 aircraft by going to Vietnam and obtaining them, relics of the Vietnam War, getting them operational for $2 million per plane and the making a killing on the sale to Iran.

    With Iraq out of the way, no surprise that Israel turned on Iran.

    It is an eye-opening book.

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