Annie Jacobsen

And so to be selective about what works and what doesn't work is to me as dangerous as a situation as we are in now.

And I know that's a little bit skirting away from, you know, giving you an answer as to why

what was done was done or whether it's a good idea or a bad idea.

It just simply is very interesting to me because I can't help but see, you know, being a subject matter expert on the history of the CIA in particular, I see these actions as,

where it is presidential authority driven since the end of World War II.

And to me, that's what this action looks like.

So we're in the new era where we are in, which I find interesting, is where the president of the United States can essentially take what would historically be a covert action operation.

You wouldn't even know about it.

That would be the idea.

Instead—

announcing it as a military program.

So he's merging the legal authorities of Title 10 and Title 50.

What's that?

And, of course, the average person in the United States isn't like, oh, wait a minute, he's merging those authorities because— What are the Title 10 and Title 50?

Well, Title 10 is the military must follow certain laws of war.

Okay.

And Title 50 says if the president decides it is a national security threat, he can use the CIA's paramilitary—

That is an actual military force.

They sheep dip tier one operators over from the military and take the patches off their shoulders, put them in non-military clothing and send them out to do military type work.

Yes.