海角大神

President Donald Trump first referred to the 鈥渄eep state鈥� in June 2017, and he has grown increasingly fond of the phrase. The president and his supporters repeatedly utilize it to signify a cabal of unelected government officials bent on undermining Trump鈥檚 presidency.聽

The term 鈥渄eep state鈥� is as vague as the shadowy conspiracies it is meant to evoke. Into these murky waters wades The New Yorker鈥檚 David Rohde, whose compelling and timely new book, 鈥淚n Deep: The FBI, the CIA, and the Truth about America鈥檚 鈥楧eep State,鈥欌�� aims to determine whether in fact a deep state exists. The author鈥檚 short answer is that no, the United States鈥� intelligence and military apparatus is not plotting a coup against a duly elected president.

The longer answer, however, is more complicated, as unelected officials have throughout history run secret and illegal operations, but most often with the knowledge of the president. Rohde, who was awarded one of his two Pulitzer Prizes for reporting on the massacre of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica for 海角大神, begins in the mid-1970s, when journalists revealed allegations of illegal spying by American intelligence agencies. Post-Watergate, trust in government was already at rock bottom. The resulting Senate investigation uncovered decades of astonishing abuses by the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the National Security Agency, from political assassinations abroad to, at home, reading Americans鈥� mail, infiltrating student activist groups, and tapping the phones of political organizations. The Senate鈥檚 Church Committee made a raft of recommendations to reform the intelligence community.

The remainder of the book鈥檚 first half is a brisk run-through of presidential administrations from Gerald Ford to Barack Obama, assessing the efficacy of the Church reforms, the clashes over executive and congressional power, and the mixed records related to oversight of intelligence agencies. While any one of these short chapters could be the subject of a shelf of books, together they sketch the broad outlines of the power struggles within recent administrations.聽

While Jimmy Carter welcomed oversight, the belief in a strong executive gained renewed currency under Ronald Reagan. (One young Reagan staffer, future Trump attorney general William Barr, argued forcefully for a reassertion of presidential power.) The Iran-Contra affair during the Reagan administration saw government officials secretly selling arms to Iran to fund a rebel group in Nicaragua. At the end of his administration, George H.W. Bush pardoned several Reagan officials involved in the scheme who鈥檇 been convicted of lying to Congress. With those pardons, Rohde writes, 鈥渢he core goal of the Church reforms 鈥� public oversight of secretive intelligence agencies by elected representatives 鈥� had been thwarted.鈥澛�

The Clinton years showed the risks of investigative overkill in undermining public trust in Congress. Independent counsel Ken Starr鈥檚 wide-ranging investigation, which led to Bill Clinton鈥檚 impeachment, did little to dislodge public support for the president: Clinton鈥檚 job-approval rating actually climbed during the impeachment hearings, although they dropped afterward. Rohde sees the 9/11 attacks as further strengthening the presidency, with the broad support of Americans who were fearful of future attacks. The George W. Bush administration, Rohde notes, 鈥済ranted vast authority and resources to the CIA, FBI, and NSA, broadened the use of secrecy, and flouted congressional oversight.鈥� Overseas, CIA agents abducted and tortured terrorism suspects, while at home, the NSA engaged in secret, illegal wiretapping. Most damaging, the U.S. invaded Iraq based on faulty intelligence. Joan Dempsey, a former CIA and Pentagon official who is one of Rohde鈥檚 sources in the book, says the botched intelligence resulted from analysts鈥� sincere desire to prevent another attack: 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 a conspiracy to doctor intelligence. We were leaning far forward and we fell.鈥澛�

While Obama claimed to welcome transparency and oversight, his administration increased CIA drone strikes and expanded NSA surveillance, again in the name of keeping Americans safe. Many on the left criticized him, but the right in particular painted him in dark, authoritarian tones. In the second half of the book, devoted to the Trump administration, we see how that vision of Obama evolved into the broader vision of the 鈥渄eep state.鈥� Shortly after the 2016 election, Breitbart News, then edited by Trump strategist Steve Bannon, published a lengthy polemic by an author using a pseudonym that claimed the existence of an entrenched, bureaucratic deep state at war with Trump.聽

The notion resonated with President Trump. From Benghazi to the Mueller investigation to the impeachment hearings, Trump has publicly attacked the work of career government officials in the intelligence agencies, the Justice Department, and the State Department. Trump has assailed former FBI director James Comey and other members of the intelligence community; when they鈥檝e taken the bait and responded in kind, Rohde notes, they give ammunition to those who see their organizations as biased.

Rohde, in his epilogue, flatly declares that 鈥渢here is no 鈥榙eep state.鈥欌�� While acknowledging that the FBI and CIA have been guilty of grave abuses, he concludes, 鈥淧resident Trump, as he often does, is exaggerating.鈥� It is perhaps unknowable the extent to which Trump believes in the deep state or simply understands the term鈥檚 political usefulness. Whichever the case, the issues raised by 鈥淚n Deep鈥� are particularly urgent.