Correspondence between senators and intelligence agencies is routine and generally unremarkable. There are, however, exceptions.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the longest-serving member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent a brief but provocative letter to CIA Director John Ratcliffe on Wednesday. It read, “I write to alert you to a classified letter I sent you earlier today, in which I express deep concerns about CIA activities. Thank you for your attention to this important matter.”
That’s not an excerpt from a longer piece of correspondence; that’s literally the entirety of the document.
We know about the document because the Oregon Democrat went out of his way to bring it to the public’s attention, issuing a press release about his two-sentence letter to the CIA director and posting a PDF of it online.
Subtle, it was not.
“This is how Sen. Ron Wyden clues the public into activity that he finds extremely alarming,” The New York Times’ Kashmir Hill noted. “He does a press release about a letter he sent to the director of the CIA that basically says, ‘I want to make sure you saw the classified letter I sent early today.’”
Writer Charlotte Clymer added, “Sitting U.S. senators don’t make letters such as this one public unless they feel a paper trail is needed to inform the public. Not great. Really not great.”
Ratcliffe hasn’t officially responded to the senator’s concerns, at least not publicly, but a CIA spokesperson told MS NOW:
During recent congressional briefings, CIA earned bicameral, bipartisan praise for its historic contributions and widespread recognition of the Agency’s exceptional performance under Director Ratcliffe. Ironic but unsurprising that Senator Wyden is unhappy. Badge of honor.
The response does not exactly inspire confidence.
Traditionally, U.S. intelligence agencies haven’t boasted when longtime members of the Senate Intelligence Committee raise concerns. If the agency believes Wyden’s alarm is unwarranted, it can say so, but to treat his alarm as a “badge of honor” reflects a CIA that’s been politicized.
Nevertheless, given Wyden’s track record, I have a hunch we haven’t heard the last of this one. Watch this space.
