An Intelligence Officer’s Guide to Dissent

| Steven Ward
Steven Ward
Former Senior Analyst, CIA

This column was originally published in December, 2016 in The Cipher Brief and served as a guide to outline the ways in which intelligence officers could responsibly respond to what they considered potentially questionable directives, if ordered.  It was written when President Trump was still President-elect and had made questionable comments about using torture to gather intelligence and killing the family members of terrorists – neither of which – as far as we know – he has directed since becoming President.  This guide was also written before Lt. General Michael Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI in December, 2017.

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The Author is Steven Ward

Steven R. Ward is a retired intelligence officer and former member of CIA’s senior analytic service who specializes in Iran and the surrounding region. A retired U.S. Army Reserve lieutenant colonel and graduate of the United State Military Academy at West Point, he currently is a contract historian for the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint History Office. Between 2010 and 2012, he was a CIA Visiting Professor to the US Naval Academy at Annapolis. From 2005 to 2006 he served as the Deputy... Read More

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