ON SEPTEMBER 18, THE CIA turns 79.
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CIA → turn → SEPTEMBER
Whether it reaches 80 with its integrity intact depends largely on the man who leads it.
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who → reach → it
In an administration of amateurs, talk-show hosts, and relatives, CIA Director John Ratcliffe stands out by not standing out.
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Ratcliffe → stand → amateurs
He does not sound unhinged and has no obvious grift.
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He → sound → grift
Next to a former director of national intelligence whose guru scripted her talking points, an FBI director who chugged beer with the U.S. Olympic hockey team, and an acting DNI who used mortgage-fraud referrals against the president’s enemies, the CIA director looks reassuringly normal.
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director → script → enemies
A CIA director must be measured against the office’s demands: independence, intellectual honesty, and willingness to tell a president what he does not want to hear.
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he → measure → what
We spent decades at the agency—one running clandestine operations abroad, the other writing analysis and briefing presidents, including this one.
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other → spend → one
We took the same oath as Ratcliffe: to defend the Constitution, not a president’s agenda or grievances.
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We → take → Constitution
By that standard, John Ratcliffe is failing.
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Ratcliffe → fail → standard
By undermining the independence and credibility of an apolitical intelligence service, Ratcliffe is doing serious damage to national security.
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Ratcliffe → undermine → security
He has repeatedly used the agency’s authority and prestige to validate President Trump’s conspiracy theories: that Russia’s help in 2016 was a Democratic “hoax,” and that China “stole” the election in 2020.
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China → use → 2020
His misuse of declassification dates to 2020, when, as director of national intelligence, he publicly released unverified Russian intelligence about Hillary Clinton, even conceding that it might “reflect exaggeration or fabrication.”
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it → date → exaggeration
Declassification can serve legitimate ends, such as exposing misconduct or warning allies, as the United States did before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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States → serve → Ukraine
But a government need not fabricate documents to tell a false story.
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government → fabricate → story
It can release fragments, suppress context, and elevate disputed raw reporting over the analysis that interprets it.
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that → release → it
This is intelligence by collage: fragments assembled into the picture the president wants.
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president → assemble → picture
The country watched this on July 16, when Trump declared that China had conducted “the largest compromise of election data in history” and that the deep state “worked to actively suppress and downplay” it.
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state → watch → it
Trump claimed that troves of recently declassified documents would prove his claims.
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troves → claim → claims
What the documents actually proved was that the allegations were unfounded.
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allegations → prove → What
This is the administration’s signature move: announce the conspiracy at full volume, then release evidence that fails to support it.
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that → announce → it
The White House had bundled declassified memos with unrelated facts into “bombshell evidence” of “deep state suppression.”
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House → bundle → suppression
Election deniers proclaimed that CIA had validated their darkest theories.
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CIA → proclaim → theories
The release’s centerpiece was a CIA note titled “Sensitive PRC Reporting from 2018-2020.”
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centerpiece → title → 2018
The memo appeared purpose-built to support the president’s allegations, with no visible author, serial number, sourcing, or date.
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memo → appear → author
By contrast, the Venezuela note that Ratcliffe declassified the same month was produced under the deputy director for analysis: dated, attributed, caveated—and inconvenient.
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Ratcliffe → declassify → analysis
It found that Caracas could not “manipulate the outcome of an election outside of Venezuela.”
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Caracas → find → Venezuela
A comforting story holds that Ratcliffe is the adult in the room.
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Ratcliffe → hold → room
But the day of Trump’s speech claiming a Chinese election conspiracy theory, a CIA spokesperson said Ratcliffe had been “forward leaning in support of the President’s transparency effort,” and Ratcliffe said that he had “long publicly highlighted China’s nefarious efforts to influence the 2020 election against President Trump.”
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he → claim → Trump
Weeks later, a CIA spokesperson insisted that “career senior intelligence officials were involved in every step.”
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officials → insist → step
In other words, despite the Trump administration’s claims to have unearthed a deep state conspiracy, they had actually created one.
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they → unearth → one
Ratcliffe knows better.
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Ratcliffe → know → ?
He was director of national intelligence on January 7, 2021, when the intelligence community reported that no foreign actor had attempted to alter “any technical aspect of the voting process.”
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actor → report → process
He dissented, but neither his memo nor the minority view he backed claimed Beijing altered a single vote.
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Beijing → dissent → vote
He applied the same method to his 2025 review of the 2016 CIA assessment on Russian interference.
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He → apply → interference
Despite his claim of politicization of intelligence that was “unprecedented in American history” by the Obama administration, his review found nearly the opposite: “strong adherence to tradecraft standards” and analytic rigor exceeding most of the community’s work.
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review → find → work
The findings hardly justified the press tour—or the criminal investigation of a former CIA director—that followed.
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that → justify → director
Ratcliffe’s politicization, however, goes far beyond selective and misleading declassification.
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politicization → go → declassification
On his watch, a serving CIA officer was publicly named and pushed out, other intelligence officials were fired for speaking truth to power, and decade-old analysis was retracted because the administration didn’t like the topics.
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administration → serve → topics
In January, then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard stood beside FBI agents seizing 2020 ballots in Fulton County, Georgia.
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Gabbard → stand → County
Ratcliffe said nothing.
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Ratcliffe → say → nothing
…and 29 more, not listed.
