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Big Intel: How the CIA and FBI Went from Cold War Heroes to Deep State Villains
Shocking, illuminating—and filled with exclusive interviews with leading CIA figures themselves—Big Intel recounts the dramatic story of the rise and Cold War heroics of the CIA and the American intelligence apparatus followed by its unfortunate slide into Marxist-influenced Deep State dysfunction as BIG INTEL became BAD INTEL.
How the Left Subverted the CIA
It wasn’t a foreign power that subverted the CIA, turning the world’s best spy agency into a bumbling—and dangerous—tool of the federal deep state. It was internal corruption driven by leftist ideology.
The left used to loathe the CIA. And with good reason. Our intelligence agencies were known for their anti-communism. But those days are gone. Convinced that conservatives are a greater threat to our security than foreign adversaries are, CIA bureaucrats are happy to meddle in domestic politics.
Dr. J. Michael Waller, an intelligence veteran, reveals how the CIA—once stocked with daring and patriotic liberals dedicated to protecting America’s interests—became just another bureaucracy, with ominous consequences. From its dramatic beginnings in World War II, he traces the history of the CIA to its back-alley fighting against communists around the world to its notorious intelligence failures and its secret successes.
What went wrong? Relying ever more on machines instead of human beings, the CIA absorbed the values of Big Tech. An obsession with wokeness drove out talented spies and analysts, and soon the agency was running domestic political operations against the American people themselves.
Thoroughly documented and based on exclusive interviews with many leading CIA figures, Big Intel provides shocking revelations about a powerful government agency gone rogue.
How the Left Subverted the CIA
It wasn’t a foreign power that subverted the CIA, turning the world’s best spy agency into a bumbling—and dangerous—tool of the federal deep state. It was internal corruption driven by leftist ideology.
The left used to loathe the CIA. And with good reason. Our intelligence agencies were known for their anti-communism. But those days are gone. Convinced that conservatives are a greater threat to our security than foreign adversaries are, CIA bureaucrats are happy to meddle in domestic politics.
Dr. J. Michael Waller, an intelligence veteran, reveals how the CIA—once stocked with daring and patriotic liberals dedicated to protecting America’s interests—became just another bureaucracy, with ominous consequences. From its dramatic beginnings in World War II, he traces the history of the CIA to its back-alley fighting against communists around the world to its notorious intelligence failures and its secret successes.
What went wrong? Relying ever more on machines instead of human beings, the CIA absorbed the values of Big Tech. An obsession with wokeness drove out talented spies and analysts, and soon the agency was running domestic political operations against the American people themselves.
Thoroughly documented and based on exclusive interviews with many leading CIA figures, Big Intel provides shocking revelations about a powerful government agency gone rogue.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published January 16, 2024
10 people are currently reading
239 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 9, 2024
The best book I’ve read in a while. It’s a book that starts at the beginning of the FBI and CIA.
It doesn’t sugar coat the agency’s history of corruption and favoritism.
It doesn’t sugar coat the agency’s history of corruption and favoritism.
May 24, 2024
A fair amount of Waller has some bad paranoia, but occasionally he's very insightful.
Just read some of his wild and crazy over the top essays, one of these days. He's got some pretty wacky essays at the Center for Security Policy, which has a few oddballs there.
He's the kind of guy where, you admire some of his facts, but he'll have these James Jesus Angleton like theories of a woke conspiracy right out of the KGB.
One of these guys where you like 27% of his material, but some of the reasoning and certainty is one hop away from Glenn Beck meets J. Edgar Hoover.
So, i'd give him 3 stars for some material, but a zero for trusting his analysis on a bad day.
Well read, insightful and sometimes, totally nuts.
Just read some of his wild and crazy over the top essays, one of these days. He's got some pretty wacky essays at the Center for Security Policy, which has a few oddballs there.
He's the kind of guy where, you admire some of his facts, but he'll have these James Jesus Angleton like theories of a woke conspiracy right out of the KGB.
One of these guys where you like 27% of his material, but some of the reasoning and certainty is one hop away from Glenn Beck meets J. Edgar Hoover.
So, i'd give him 3 stars for some material, but a zero for trusting his analysis on a bad day.
Well read, insightful and sometimes, totally nuts.
March 17, 2024
Ridiculous garbage: combining a very flawed take on history, bizarre conspiracy theories, and extremely impractical recommendations. If you are a conspiracy theorist, enjoy your red meat (not surprised Tucker gave a supporting blurb for this book). Since I can’t go lower than one star, this is the highest rating it deserves.
August 12, 2024
I had no idea that CRT( critical race theory) was from the 30’s. The Nazis used CRT in schools to turn countries into a communist regime. And the Democrats are doing it today saying it’s all for democracy. But really it’s all for turning the USA into a communist country. Don’t forget the US government brought the Nazis into the US to live in our society when the Hilter regime fell. So many wolves in sheep clothing in the Democrat party!
August 31, 2025
4.5 rounded up. Packed full of details, but it sometimes reads as a text book. This is an eye-opening book about the history of the CIA and FBI, and how both agencies have devolved into a morass of corruption and contempt for the American people. The Office of Strategic Services, a precursor to the CIA, was formed in 1942 to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines. The U.S. actively recruited communists throughout the 1940s for their language skills, but also for their historical knowledge of political weaponization. Senator Joseph McCarthy has long been derided for his so-called "witch hunts" of communists during the 1950s, but he had good reason to be concerned about communists within our government. The Army Signal Corps unmasked some 350 Soviet spies in the U.S. government by breaking the codes of 5,000 pages of wartime communications during WWII.
Antonio Gramsci, Italian Communist Party figurehead, advanced the Marxist movement in the 1920s by advocating the destruction of Western civilization itself. Forget about taking control of government, let's just burn the whole thing down. Sound familiar? He wrote: "In the new order, Socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches and the media by transforming the consciousness of society." These ideas were imported to the U.S. by German Marxists, which eventually spilled over to the cultures of the FBI and CIA.
Comintern's Institute for Social Research and its Frankfurt School attracted American intellectuals during the 20s and 30s. Comintern enlisted radical Marxists to study at seminaries to infiltrate churches as Catholic priests and professional clergy in Europe and the U.S.! The Institute of International Education (IIE) relocated hundreds of scholars to positions of professors in the U.S. during the 1930s. The gradual destruction of the country has been ongoing for a hundred years. We are just now witnessing an explosion of that damaging belief system due to the infusion of money into NGOs by George Soros and other billionaires.
Government agencies have drifted in the direction of radicalism for decades, but the movement really picked up steam after 9/11, when Congress and George Bush created multiple new agencies and added thousands of public employees who are beholden to few, if any. Then, Obama issued Executive Order 13583 "Establishing a Coordinated Government-wide Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce" in 2011. This is a Stalin-type method to divide the masses and ensure compliance. Most of the wise, older members of the agencies left in droves, but the young radical millennials, schooled by the leftist universities, lapped up the indoctrination as good lap dogs do. The actions that have occurred during the last 10 years indicate that many government employees are compromised by their ideology and cleaning out the departments is a necessity if there is any hope for the future of our country. President Trump and his administration have begun that process, and hopefully it will continue for some time.
Waller closes the book by writing: "The only way to fix the FBI is to take it apart, parcel out the useful functions, and close down the rest. Now it's time for a good national discussion about how to do it." Great reporting from someone on the inside!
Antonio Gramsci, Italian Communist Party figurehead, advanced the Marxist movement in the 1920s by advocating the destruction of Western civilization itself. Forget about taking control of government, let's just burn the whole thing down. Sound familiar? He wrote: "In the new order, Socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches and the media by transforming the consciousness of society." These ideas were imported to the U.S. by German Marxists, which eventually spilled over to the cultures of the FBI and CIA.
Comintern's Institute for Social Research and its Frankfurt School attracted American intellectuals during the 20s and 30s. Comintern enlisted radical Marxists to study at seminaries to infiltrate churches as Catholic priests and professional clergy in Europe and the U.S.! The Institute of International Education (IIE) relocated hundreds of scholars to positions of professors in the U.S. during the 1930s. The gradual destruction of the country has been ongoing for a hundred years. We are just now witnessing an explosion of that damaging belief system due to the infusion of money into NGOs by George Soros and other billionaires.
Government agencies have drifted in the direction of radicalism for decades, but the movement really picked up steam after 9/11, when Congress and George Bush created multiple new agencies and added thousands of public employees who are beholden to few, if any. Then, Obama issued Executive Order 13583 "Establishing a Coordinated Government-wide Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce" in 2011. This is a Stalin-type method to divide the masses and ensure compliance. Most of the wise, older members of the agencies left in droves, but the young radical millennials, schooled by the leftist universities, lapped up the indoctrination as good lap dogs do. The actions that have occurred during the last 10 years indicate that many government employees are compromised by their ideology and cleaning out the departments is a necessity if there is any hope for the future of our country. President Trump and his administration have begun that process, and hopefully it will continue for some time.
Waller closes the book by writing: "The only way to fix the FBI is to take it apart, parcel out the useful functions, and close down the rest. Now it's time for a good national discussion about how to do it." Great reporting from someone on the inside!
April 22, 2024
finished 20th april 2024 good read three stars i liked it kindle owned purchased since none of the digital libraries had a copy and from time to time i enjoy a well-written non-fiction account from someone whose views seems in line with my own...not that i won't read a title that i know or suspect is biased...though one clearly biased won't be opened by me.
did not know going in what to expect, really...and what is recorded in big intel has left me thoroughly disgusted...so in that sense i hated it...remember the cartoon character from gulliver, "we're doomed! we'll never make it!" waller makes the point that it wouldn't matter who is elected in the coming cycle.
truly eye-opening. he begins with some broad strokes about the creation and origins of the c.i.a. and the f.b.i. and the creation or use of the frankfurt school one hundred years ago coupled with the comitern, communist u.s.s.r. and the big fur-clad heads there. move forward to our current status. covers brief episodes roosevelt, truman, eisenhower...and the brush-strokes thin until we come to obama's eight years when "the country fundamentally changed" including the two organizations of the title. the cia died from covid. paraphrased likely but a line from the work. and the f.b.i. is more concerned with diversity than crime fighting. parts of both played a role in election meddling during the last two presidential elections. i don't think any price has been paid for that...waller doesn't say...that i caught. maybe someone got fired at one point. you can't lie to an f.b.i. agent but the same people stonewalled congress when they tried to investigate.
highlighted quite a few passages. i guess i can watch the headlines in the coming years...see if anything changes. how many knew the c.i.a. has a pride day? we've seen the f.b.i. agents on their knees before protestors....or that the same agency investigated parents concerned about the children's welfare. waller has a relatively brief conclusion that the f.b.i. should be disbanded, its various branches provided to other agencies already doing the same work.
i suspect that nothing will be done, trump even if he is able to get elected, will have an uphill battle to do anything...but maybe he'll have more direction and cause if it happens. biden wins all bets are off. kiss the country good-bye. what the communists set out to do, what hoover warned about, has happened in both organizations and given the mindset of all of the true believers fully entrenched in the system expect more of the same and worse. all evidence has shown...
***addition 20 apr 24 having read child #44 from smith tom rob thought it good to come back here an add a bit more. waller writes some about antifa...this mantra that it only a thought not an organized movement...this despite the very organized movement from place to place to gather and destroy. in smith's story set in stalinist russia (stalin dies 1953 during the telling) it was telling that "there is no crime in russia" because it is a perfect society...and so a murdered is up to #44 simply because of their own ingrained cultural marxism...couple that with at least two instances in this country of one of the holy transgendered who commit horrific crimes and whose holy trangenderism is denied or not reported by the media darlings. and certain darlings from society don't have a rap sheet longer than my leg before they commit the next progressively evil crime and maybe some honest citizen puts them out of our misery. or how about the pos who is given bail in a capital murder case or two? that seems to be on the rise as well.
did not know going in what to expect, really...and what is recorded in big intel has left me thoroughly disgusted...so in that sense i hated it...remember the cartoon character from gulliver, "we're doomed! we'll never make it!" waller makes the point that it wouldn't matter who is elected in the coming cycle.
truly eye-opening. he begins with some broad strokes about the creation and origins of the c.i.a. and the f.b.i. and the creation or use of the frankfurt school one hundred years ago coupled with the comitern, communist u.s.s.r. and the big fur-clad heads there. move forward to our current status. covers brief episodes roosevelt, truman, eisenhower...and the brush-strokes thin until we come to obama's eight years when "the country fundamentally changed" including the two organizations of the title. the cia died from covid. paraphrased likely but a line from the work. and the f.b.i. is more concerned with diversity than crime fighting. parts of both played a role in election meddling during the last two presidential elections. i don't think any price has been paid for that...waller doesn't say...that i caught. maybe someone got fired at one point. you can't lie to an f.b.i. agent but the same people stonewalled congress when they tried to investigate.
highlighted quite a few passages. i guess i can watch the headlines in the coming years...see if anything changes. how many knew the c.i.a. has a pride day? we've seen the f.b.i. agents on their knees before protestors....or that the same agency investigated parents concerned about the children's welfare. waller has a relatively brief conclusion that the f.b.i. should be disbanded, its various branches provided to other agencies already doing the same work.
i suspect that nothing will be done, trump even if he is able to get elected, will have an uphill battle to do anything...but maybe he'll have more direction and cause if it happens. biden wins all bets are off. kiss the country good-bye. what the communists set out to do, what hoover warned about, has happened in both organizations and given the mindset of all of the true believers fully entrenched in the system expect more of the same and worse. all evidence has shown...
***addition 20 apr 24 having read child #44 from smith tom rob thought it good to come back here an add a bit more. waller writes some about antifa...this mantra that it only a thought not an organized movement...this despite the very organized movement from place to place to gather and destroy. in smith's story set in stalinist russia (stalin dies 1953 during the telling) it was telling that "there is no crime in russia" because it is a perfect society...and so a murdered is up to #44 simply because of their own ingrained cultural marxism...couple that with at least two instances in this country of one of the holy transgendered who commit horrific crimes and whose holy trangenderism is denied or not reported by the media darlings. and certain darlings from society don't have a rap sheet longer than my leg before they commit the next progressively evil crime and maybe some honest citizen puts them out of our misery. or how about the pos who is given bail in a capital murder case or two? that seems to be on the rise as well.
April 21, 2024
Interesante recuento de cómo el marxismo cultural se ha establecido en los distintos órganos de seguridad nacional en los EEUU, siguiendo el proceso sugerido por Gramsci y otros pensadores de la escuela de Frankfurt: la imposición de la filosofía marxista de lucha de clases, no a través de revoluciones violentas (como en Rusia o China), sino a través de una "larga marcha a través de las instituciones". A diferencia del comunismo tradicional, el conflicto social se centra ahora no en la lucha entre el proletariado y la burguesía, sino en un proceso de liberación de la opresión ejercida por el patriarcado sobre una creciente lista de supuestas víctimas, que incluye a las mujeres y a las minorías raciales y sexuales.
La lectura de este libro ayuda a entender porqué, por ejemplo, las agencias de seguridad han fallado en contener (o inclusive han sido cómplices de) la explosión de actos de violencia e intimidación de los movimientos de antifa y BLM, al mismo tiempo que crece la persecución a cristianos tradicionales o padres de familia preocupados por la sexualización de sus hijos en las escuelas, a quienes el FBI considera como "grupos terroristas domésticos de extrema derecha", así como de cualquiera que cuestione la narrativa oficial alrededor de la elección presidencial o la imposición de medidas de control social y censura durante la pandemia.
La lectura de este libro ayuda a entender porqué, por ejemplo, las agencias de seguridad han fallado en contener (o inclusive han sido cómplices de) la explosión de actos de violencia e intimidación de los movimientos de antifa y BLM, al mismo tiempo que crece la persecución a cristianos tradicionales o padres de familia preocupados por la sexualización de sus hijos en las escuelas, a quienes el FBI considera como "grupos terroristas domésticos de extrema derecha", así como de cualquiera que cuestione la narrativa oficial alrededor de la elección presidencial o la imposición de medidas de control social y censura durante la pandemia.
May 17, 2024
I appreciated Waller providing the background and reasoning behind so much of what is now evident to most Americans in relation to the government agencies that were designed to protect our country and citizens. Without the long view and understanding of history, many fail to grasp the seriousness of what's happening both on the ground and within the agencies that is leading to the destruction of American society as we know it.
I was grateful that Waller not only pointed out the problems but also provided potential solutions, with the removal and overall of many of the government agencies. Our bloated federal government needs fundamental change, and Waller's research and work on the subject as it relates to the negative and destructive influences of the overarching intelligence body is a good place for people to start.
A recommended read.
I was grateful that Waller not only pointed out the problems but also provided potential solutions, with the removal and overall of many of the government agencies. Our bloated federal government needs fundamental change, and Waller's research and work on the subject as it relates to the negative and destructive influences of the overarching intelligence body is a good place for people to start.
A recommended read.
April 16, 2025
I do not want to be nasty and say this author has some sort of mental handicap, so let me be kinder and guess that this moron has much, is a conspiracy theorist, and probably, due to his reasoning abilities, he has probably enjoyed substances that could have impaired his brain.
This is one of the stupidest, most evil load of rubbish you’ll ever read.
The FBI and CIA did protect America. There was no conspiracy.
And all this conservative rubbish that diversity harms things.
Anyone who can critically think and doesn’t live in indoctrinated mad American areas will instantly see what is totally wrong with this book.
The man is a total moron, ok, he is a little less one than evil Kristi Noem, but wow America, let’s hope Maga doesn’t damage you too much in the next 4 years.
Oh and our song.
https://youtu.be/cwzOh9OH2yk?si=zjVbg...
This is one of the stupidest, most evil load of rubbish you’ll ever read.
The FBI and CIA did protect America. There was no conspiracy.
And all this conservative rubbish that diversity harms things.
Anyone who can critically think and doesn’t live in indoctrinated mad American areas will instantly see what is totally wrong with this book.
The man is a total moron, ok, he is a little less one than evil Kristi Noem, but wow America, let’s hope Maga doesn’t damage you too much in the next 4 years.
Oh and our song.
https://youtu.be/cwzOh9OH2yk?si=zjVbg...
January 21, 2025
This is a mixed bag for me... the ending is great... what to do with/about the FBI now that it's become hopelessly corrupt... Butt there's a large amount of rather queer background on the queer state of the FBI then and now. And it fills a lot of the book (more than I wanted to read). And the author appears not to notice that the Communists trying to Destroy our society are All adding rather queer DEI training to organizations like CIA and FBLies and ODNI etc. etc. and that Just Happens to be destroying their original/intended function... Also, the author appears more than just a little fond of J Edgar and Richard Cheney There are some interesting books mentioned (which always makes an OK book better). QED
June 10, 2024
The classic dystopian novel “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand expanded the thought process of many readers to contemplate a futuristic America in a different vein. When it comes to nonfiction, there appears to be no better book than “Big Intel”, which chronicles the timetable and hard facts that has created the ever-real decline of America from within. If you believe America is listing upside down this book will clarify answers as to who, what, where, why and how. One revelation that stood out midway through the book, was a quote by former President Barak Obama “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America” (October 30, 2008).
October 13, 2024
I have no problem with the facts presented and no reason to dispute his possible solutions. |But on a philosophical level I feel the lack of religion or cult exploration diminishes his urgency of exposing the collapse of our once powerful civilization.| He exposes the destruction of all institutions created from Judeo/Christian values but fails to show the connection to God and to good vs evil.
Not a waste of time and valuable in presenting the evil results from the communist coup d'etat.
Not a waste of time and valuable in presenting the evil results from the communist coup d'etat.
March 12, 2025
I was fifteen and apolitical when I saw Lee Harvey Oswald shot on live TV back when TVs still had rabbit ears. I wondered who wanted him dead. I never doubted the validity of that first question that popped into my mind, and over the ensuing decades added numerous other questions to my list of things that I will ask for answers to whenever I get to the next plane of existence. I can shorten my list a little after reading this book.
March 16, 2025
Rip-roaring story of how the US intelligence agencies formed across the flow of history since WWI. The main idea of how the Critical Theory of Herbert Marcuse, the Frankfurt School, and Communism are somehow behind destabilising the whole world is both intriguing and conspiratorial. Read it as a novel, and then take some ideas from it.
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June 8, 2024Just finished Surprise, Kill, Vanish by Annie Jacobson.
Cannot recommend enough. Heavily researched. Possibly more detailed than this book.
Although, I enjoyed both.
Cannot recommend enough. Heavily researched. Possibly more detailed than this book.
Although, I enjoyed both.
March 2, 2025
Interesting history about the CIA and FBI - a little dry at times.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews