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# The National Security Act of Bush..?
- URL: https://www.sigcryptal.com/the-national-security-act-of-bush/
- Published: 2026-07-31T01:24:07.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-31T01:24:07.000Z
- Author: Jacob Barrow
- Tags: News

That doesn't sound right, but that's exactly what happened in 2004 with the establishment of the Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). Since this creation, all of the presidents, including the infamous Trump, has doubled down on ODNI's role and influence: from whistleblower protections to cabinet-level positions. However, the people whom have served this role have horrendously let all the Presidents that they have served down.

**Reasons for this article**: convoluted history of why ODNI exists, how the role continues to be an absolute failure, what Russia did/what works, the value of ODNI moving forward.

1. The fight against home-grown terrorism has existed for a long, long time. Not the beards and turbans, but the granolas and ponchos. Little remember, nor care to look up, that the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) tapes may have bolstered the separation of the CIA as overseers of the President's report (moving from a Cold-War style brief to a "modern" one). Bush was so embarrassed by so called "enhanced interrogation techniques" that he created ODNI as a cover up to save face. Unfortunately, not only did these techniques end up being humane and justified to save American lives, but the ODNI position never went away. Bush's actions irrevocably corrupted our nation's situational awareness for a generation.
2. Russia realized that intelligence, even military intelligence, is mostly about economics. This was even before the Army coined the term Attritable TTPs. All intelligence products, contrary to what is believed, has some inherent monetary worth associated with it. Putting professionals in these senior-level intelligence positions without a financial anchor has demonstrated grave damage to all presidencies so far. It took Russia 18 months to learn this. While America continues to fail to learn this after 22 years.
3. Please either make ODNI the smartest person in the room, like Andrey Belousov, with hands-on industry and economic experience, or don't have the ODNI at all. I've continuously criticized Bolton and Gabbard as wannabe intelligence officers, which ended being true based on their job success rating. Trump was foolish to not heed my advice and to proceed with these individuals, even as the years and failures continued to pile on. Though I know little about Jay Clayton, he is the perfect candidate for ODNI that I've asked for since Russia's MoD shakeup in 2024\. It only took Trump a quarter of his second term to get the "Come to Jesus" moment.
  1. Mr. Clayton has worked in the industry, and more specifically, he has "handled Barclays's acquisition of Lehman Brothers, JPMorgan Chase's acquisition of Bear Stearns, and worked for Apollo Global Management". This is the most ideal ODNI candidate for Trump because of what intelligence is to Trump. I would argue that the most significant concern for Trump's tenure is Freddie Mac. Actualization of privatized Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) is more of a national security threat than anything Trump has and will do, and will be where he leaves his legacy.

## Side Notes

  
Intelligence should be sub-labeled every year for the financial worth of that information. This would be reflected based on the current leadership. Without this, generic classification labels are useless. What does TS even mean to a president?

As the CIA lost humint control, so did the Army. Both of these happened during my lifetime. However, only the CIA should control the President's brief, just as only the Navy and Army should control humint resources.

The first Fox News article on Clayton talked erroneously about the FISA surveillance act. Apparently Fox never read a history book on this information. Any CISSP would realize that the major telecommunications providers are required to comply based on several other laws in-place: such as the Wiretapping Act for telecommunications providers. If you consider the increased roving wiretap authorizations under the PATRIOT ACT, also required by the CISSP, then FISA does little for DHS. These laws are not affected by FISA. Fox News needs to vet their deductions.