The following is abridged from Tulsi Gabbard’s written opening statement to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Jan. 30.
I’m honored and grateful to President Trump for his trust and confidence in nominating me to serve our country as the Director of National Intelligence at a time when trust in the intelligence community is at an all-time low. Chuck Schumer admitted, “You take on the Intelligence Community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.”
For too long, faulty, inadequate, or weaponized intelligence have led to costly failures and the undermining of our national security and God-given freedoms enshrined in the Constitution. The most obvious example is our invasion of Iraq based upon a total fabrication or complete failure of “intelligence.” This disastrous decision led to the deaths of tens of thousands of American soldiers and millions of people in the Middle East; mass migration, destabilization, and undermining of the security and stability of our European allies; the rise of ISIS, strengthening of al-Qaeda and other Islamist Jihadist groups, and strengthening Iran.
Here are just a few other examples:
• The American people elected Donald Trump as their president, but the FBI and Intelligence agencies were politicized by his opponents to undermine his presidency and falsely portray him as a puppet of Putin.
• Title 1 of FISA was used to illegally obtain a warrant to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, using a Clinton campaign-funded false dossier as their so-called evidence.
• Biden campaign advisor Tony Blinken was the impetus for the 51 former senior intelligence officials letter dismissing Hunter Biden’s laptop as disinformation to help Biden win the election.
• Former DNI James Clapper lied to this committee in 2013, denying the existence of programs that facilitated the mass collection of millions of Americans’ phone and internet records—yet was never held responsible.
• Under John Brennan’s leadership, the CIA abused its power to spy on Congress to dodge oversight, lied about doing it until he was caught—yet was never held responsible.
• Under Biden, the FBI abused its power for political reasons to surveil Catholics who attend traditional Latin mass, labeling them “radical traditionalist Catholics.”
