It has been 40 plus years since we last took a firehose to the stables of the “intelligence community.” Human being are still fallen, not new and improved. Our institutions, our creations, reflect our individual and collective limitations, our flaws. All conservatives used to know this, with the phrase “if men were angels…” not so far in the back of mind. Yet, for the past two decades, we have been treated to the doubtful claim that we can trust all our government employees to be faithful and wise servants.* The past few years, at least since the IRS assault on the Tea Party, have provided significant evidence to the contrary, and suggest that we need something like new Church Committee hearings.

The acting Director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire, implausibly testified to Congress that the “whistleblower” had integrity and no political intent. Anyone who read the declassified complaint, even without reading the telephone conversation memorialization, knew this was disingenuous nonsense. As has been laid out since Maguire’s testimony, this complaint was obviously fabricated by a lawyer or team of lawyers, not an ordinary CIA officer.

A former senior intelligence official, Fred Fleitz, puts it this way: