WASHINGTON TIMES: DAVID BOSSIE: The Senate must confirm Ratcliffe without delay
John Ratcliffe, President Trump’s exceptionally qualified nominee for director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said something that every American must be fully aware of at his confirmation hearing.
“Numerous terrorist groups,” Mr. Ratcliffe testified, “and other non-state actors — some of which have even crossed our southern border — still pose a persistent threat to our people and our homeland.” These words should serve as a sobering reminder that in less than a quarter century, we’ve come full circle as a country when it comes to the terrorist threat on our soil — and not in a positive way.
When President Clinton left office 24 years ago, on Jan. 20, 2001, Americans went about their daily lives believing that America was safe and secure and not at war with any foreign adversary. That assumption, of course, was dead wrong. As we now know, radical Islamist terrorists — and the al Qaeda terrorist network led by Osama bin Laden — had been at war with the United States for years. They bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, the Khobar Towers in 1996, our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and the USS Cole in 2000.
At the time, few could have conceived a catastrophic attack on American soil. The conventional wisdom was that vast oceans protected us, we had the strongest military and best intelligence network in the world, and the threat to the homeland was minimal. Then, on Sept. 11, 2001, less than eight months into the administration of President George W. Bush, al Qaeda launched a deadly terrorist attack on our country that killed nearly 3,000 innocent Americans.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle were adamant that the United States could never return to what was coined a “pre-9/11 mindset.” This meant the American government must remain vigilant to protect our citizens and that the Atlantic and Pacific oceans can no longer be relied upon to keep us safe. This modus operandi remained largely in place until Joseph R. Biden assumed the presidency in 2021.
Now, after four years of atrophy, the CIA must return to its vitally important core mission of stealing the secrets of our enemies, collecting human intelligence, covert action, and providing accurate and nonpolitical analysis. Sen. Tom Cotton, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, recently stated that it’s the CIA’s responsibility to provide “the president with timely relevant secrets,” and he’s correct. It’s absolutely essential for the CIA to be bold, aggressive, disruptive and forward-leaning to protect the United States in a very dangerous and ever-changing world.
The CIA must be on top of pending invasions, attacks and other deadly actions that aim to harm our country and the free world before they occur. This can happen only with a major refocus away from climate change, DEI policies and wokeism and getting back to what should be the CIA’s bread and butter: aggressive intelligence gathering. John Ratcliffe will make it happen.
When FBI Director Christopher Wray said last year that “as I look back over my career in law enforcement, I’m hard-pressed to come up with a time when I’ve seen so many different threats, all elevated, all at the same time,” no one should have been surprised. While a vast majority of the threats are classified, we’ve seen an alarming number of headlines about terrorist activity in recent months. “Durham man arrested at RDU charged with supporting ISIS, planning to join terrorist group,” “Afghan national arrested for allegedly plotting ISIS-inspired Election Day terrorist attack” and “FBI arrests Houston man who allegedly wanted to commit a ‘9/11’ style attack in the U.S.” are just a few of the examples.
As Mr. Trump takes office, he’s fully aware of the dangerous situation he inherits. That’s precisely why he’s putting together such an outstanding national security team.
John Ratcliffe served as director of national intelligence in the first Trump administration. Mr. Trump thinks so highly of him that he gave him a well-deserved promotion.
Before he served as DNI, Mr. Ratcliffe was a respected three-term member of the House of Representatives, a federal prosecutor and the acting United States attorney for the Eastern District of Texas. In that capacity, Mr. Ratcliffe handled anti-terrorism matters, and he took that experience to Congress, where he served on the Homeland Security Committee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Mr. Ratcliffe is the right man for the job to deal with the elevated threat level facing the American people.
When Mr. Trump posted that Mr. Ratcliffe “will be a fearless fighter for the constitutional rights of all Americans while ensuring the highest levels of national security and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH,” he was exactly right.
The Senate must confirm John Ratcliffe for CIA director without delay so he can help President Trump eradicate the terrorist threat and make America safe again.
• David N. Bossie is president of Citizens United and served as deputy campaign manager for Donald J. Trump for President.
