OPINION:
The criminal leak case against a CIA contractor reveals more about how Washington works than just one deep state actor and one journalist.
On Oct. 23, the Trump administration charged Ian A. Brinksman with unlawfully transmitting national defense information to his girlfriend, a journalist who posted news stories within hours of receiving his phone call briefings. Several media outlets have identified the woman as Aida Chavez, who publishes the Substack newsletter Capital & Empire.
It turns out her posts offer a peek inside the CIA’s Directorate of Analysis, and it is a branch of the agency that does not seem to like Israel.
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An FBI agent’s Oct. 23 affidavit did not disclose the journalist’s name, but the stories and publication dates it cited match those on Ms. Chavez’s site.
The affidavit states that Mr. Brinksman, a CIA contractor with a top-secret security clearance, kept a desk at the agency. He periodically entered a sensitive compartmented information facility to access top-secret reports on Israel and the Middle East that showed up in Ms. Chavez’s stories.
An old intelligence hand once told me that to understand the CIA, you must remember that the operational branch is filled with patriots — while the analysis directorate ensconced at Langley is much like a college campus.
I kept that in mind while reading Ms. Chavez’s posts, including her Oct. 5 story, which also appeared on another liberal site, Drop Site News.
The lede: “Israel is at risk of civil war or state collapse, a classified CIA assessment warns, as years of genocide in Gaza and war in Lebanon and Iran deepen political, economic, and social fractures within the country.”
First, I doubt that a CIA report would use the word “genocide,” a daily left-wing talking point. There was no genocide as part of the Israel Defense Forces’ invasion of the Gaza Strip after Hamas killed more than 1,200 Jews on Oct. 7, 2023.
Let us assume that Ms. Chavez’s lede accurately reflects the CIA’s view. It is a ridiculous assessment.
Now, in its 79th year, Israel has repelled a series of invasions and terrorist attacks while building one of the world’s most enduring free-market democracies. Anyone who walks the streets of Tel Aviv finds a beautiful, prosperous city inhabited by friendly, patriotic people.
The CIA paper seems designed to influence anti-Israel policymakers to argue that the U.S. must reassess the aid flowing to the country.
A “state collapse” means America’s exported arsenal would be at risk of falling into terrorists’ hands.
Always keep in mind that the political left wants the U.S. to abandon Israel and champion the cause of Palestinians and their death cult, Hamas.
Another anti-Israel CIA report depicts Israel working behind the scenes to make sure the U.S. can never break the alliance. Ms. Chavez’s lede on July 29: “Israeli officials know they’re losing the American public. Panicked that America’s political consensus on Israel is collapsing, they’re pursuing a long-term strategy to permanently enmesh Israel within America’s military, intelligence, and defense establishment.”
CIA deep thinkers are ignoring a giant fact: Israel is already “enmeshed” with the American military and intelligence services. Israel buys U.S. weapons with U.S. money — more than $3 billion a year — while developing defense systems bought by the Pentagon.
Israel’s air force is led by American-made fighters: the Lockheed Martin F-35I, the Lockheed Martin F-16 and the McDonnell Douglas F-15.
Israel’s Iron Dome, which saves civilians from regular missile attacks from Iran and its stooges, Hezbollah and Hamas, started receiving interceptors a year ago from a Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Raytheon assembly line in East Camden, Arkansas.
If anything, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is moving in the opposite direction of what the CIA describes. He said in January that he would like to phase out the $3 billion in U.S. military aid the country gets in favor of a more self-sufficient Israel.
What do you know? On Tuesday, President Trump took him up on his offer and said the aid would end after this year. Israel will spend its own billions.
Ms. Chavez conveys the CIA report this way: “The spy agency believes that Israel is seeking to insulate the U.S.-Israel alliance from America’s changing political landscape by replacing highly visible foreign aid with deeper, longer-lasting forms of military and industrial integration.”
Here is another CIA brain burst. A CIA report, cited by Ms. Chavez on May 13, states that Persian Gulf allies are split over how to handle Mr. Trump, Iran and the oil funnel known as the Strait of Hormuz. Some are hawks; some are not. The implication is that without Israel, there would be unity.
As Ms. Chavez wrote, “A secret CIA assessment found Washington’s Gulf allies are split over how far to back the U.S. militarily in the Strait of Hormuz.”
If you wanted that insight, no need to sign into a SCIF. All you had to do was read the news.
The Trump administration fears that Mr. Brinksman and his wealth of intelligence data will flee the U.S. He holds dual American and British citizenship.
“The defendant is a dual citizen who has spent the last approximately 6 years working with some of the most highly sensitive, classified material; he has counter-surveillance training, and — now that he has been charged and his employment terminated — possesses the motive to trade on that intelligence for money or means of escape,” a Justice Department court filing reads.
Yet on Oct. 28, U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga affirmed a magistrate judge’s order releasing Mr. Brinksman on the condition that he surrender his passport and be subject to electronic monitoring.
• Rowan Scarborough is a columnist with The Washington Times.
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