1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,080 In addition to working as a central repository for the entire intelligence community, 2 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:08,400 CIA is also one of the only intelligence communities given the authority to collect 3 00:00:08,400 --> 00:00:14,480 what's known as human intelligence or humant. Humant is when a person like me or you 4 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:19,600 meets with another human being to steal that person's secrets, either through elicitation, 5 00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:24,320 through a formal agreement, through some act of digital or technical collection, whatever else it 6 00:00:24,320 --> 00:00:30,400 might be. Most of the other agencies like NSA or NRO, they're collecting signals or they're 7 00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:38,560 connecting radio transmissions or they're actually picking up pieces of paper or using imagery from 8 00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:44,000 a satellite to glean intelligence. Those are all different types of intelligence, different types 9 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:50,640 of ints. But humant or human intelligence is one of the most dangerous and most expensive 10 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:54,880 types of intelligence to collect, which is why very few organizations get to execute. 11 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:59,920 Yeah. And in that you wouldn't you wouldn't call the FBI an intelligence agency. They're 12 00:00:59,920 --> 00:01:04,320 more like part of the Justice Department. Correct. Because they're obviously doing person to person. 13 00:01:04,320 --> 00:01:08,400 Correct. They're law enforcement. While FBI does have an intelligence capability, 14 00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:12,960 their intelligence capability is what's known as counter intelligence, meaning they're combating 15 00:01:12,960 --> 00:01:18,000 intelligence officers from foreign countries who are trying to steal secrets from the United States. 16 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:22,960 The intelligence, as you would imagine, the intelligence capability of FBI is really focused 17 00:01:22,960 --> 00:01:28,640 on criminal investigations. It's more of an investigatory or interrogation based intelligence 18 00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:33,440 collection, which is not clandestine in nature. You know when you're being interrogated. Right. 19 00:01:33,440 --> 00:01:37,760 You know when you're being investigated. It's a disclosure. Whereas when you're actually being 20 00:01:37,760 --> 00:01:44,000 collected upon clandestinely, you are not aware that your secrets are being collected. Got it. So it's sort of 21 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:49,680 like I didn't really understand it. So it's a repository of all the collection and information 22 00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:53,840 that's collected and then sort of working for the executive branch. So the highest level of clearance, 23 00:01:53,840 --> 00:01:59,600 the president, the executive branch, et cetera. You didn't say it's a government organization. 24 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:01,600 No, I thought I did. It is a government organization. 25 00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:07,360 It is a go. So it is a division. It is a part of the US government. It's not under the executive branch, 26 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:10,880 under the executive branch. Correct. Which is important to understand. And most people don't 27 00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:15,440 recognize that there are three branches in government, right? Those three branches are 28 00:02:15,440 --> 00:02:19,200 supposed to have checks and balances over each other, but they're also supposed to work independently. 29 00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:24,800 The CIA does not work for the American people. It does not work for the legislative branch. 30 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:28,880 I don't know why people think that it should, or people have the expectation that it's there to 31 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:33,200 support the American people. The CIA is not there for the American people. The CIA is there for the 32 00:02:33,200 --> 00:02:40,480 president for the matters of national security that command the executive's attention. If you don't 33 00:02:40,480 --> 00:02:47,200 like the executive, CIA doesn't care. Their job is to support the executive. This is what happened with 34 00:02:47,200 --> 00:02:53,360 the Trump administration in 2016. When the CIA did not cooperate with the executive in 2016, 35 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:58,880 the executive said, well, to hell with you. All of your funding, all of your utility, all of your value 36 00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:03,120 is here for me. So if you're not going to listen to me, then I'm not going to use you. And that's 37 00:03:03,120 --> 00:03:09,600 why from 2016 to 2020, there was all this consternation between Donald Trump and CIA. 38 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:14,400 What people are concerned about in the new election in 2024 is the same thing happening again. Even 39 00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:18,160 worse, now that Donald Trump has been convicted in New York, people are afraid that he's going to 40 00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:24,800 somehow use the CIA under his executive privilege to essentially become a clearinghouse for working 41 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:29,440 against his internal domestic opponents. Sort of like we've already seen, but that's a whole 42 00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:34,000 nother story. We'll come back to that maybe a little bit later. But so it is a government 43 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:41,040 organization. I was going to ask you if it's maybe somewhat of a rogue government institution, 44 00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:44,320 which you kind of already said it was in the instance, it wasn't working directly with the 45 00:03:44,320 --> 00:03:50,000 executive in that example. No. So it's there. It serves at the behest of the executive. It's 46 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:55,920 important to understand. And I want to make sure that I say this clearly. CIA has no rogue capabilities. 47 00:03:55,920 --> 00:04:00,560 It operates under a set of legislative authorities. Those legislative authorities 48 00:04:00,560 --> 00:04:06,240 are what controls it, keeps it in check and balance with the legislative and the judicial branches. 49 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:10,480 Right. Right. It can't just do what it wants. If it tries to do what it wants, 50 00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:21,760 the legislative or the judicial branch will come after it. 51 00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:39,440 Thank you.