Webinar | Xi’s Dream: America’s Counterintelligence Nightmare

Can We Afford Lax Security Protocols in Time of War?

For virtually any American to have access to classified information, they must have both a validated need-to-know and be screened for a security clearance. Historically, an individual with close personal and/or family ties or an ideological affinity for hostile powers would be deemed a security risk and ineligible for such a clearance.

Surprisingly, an exception is made for elected officials. On the theory that they are vetted by voters, the President, Vice President and every member of Congress are not subjected to the standard background checks before being granted at least some access to state secrets and other sensitive information.

This practice is problematic under the best of circumstances. The voting public is rarely exposed to all the information that should go into a rigorous security evaluation, let alone equipped to conduct one. In time of war, such an arrangement is an invitation to disaster.

As the Committee on the Present Danger: China has long warned, the Chinese Communist Party has been waging “unrestricted warfare” against the United States since at least 1999. And in May 2019, the CCP actually declared a “People’s War” on America. And successive CPDC webinars have documented (for example, here, here and here), that Communist Chinese emperor Xi Jinping seems intent on launching an actual shooting war against Taiwan, perhaps other U.S. friends and allies and very possibly this country, as well, in the near future.

This week’s CPDC webinar examines the extent to which – under present circumstances – the American people and most especially those responsible for national security can safely ignore ideological, personal, family or other ties to the Chinese Communist Party of candidates for high office, as well as evidence of such problematic ties at present.

Moderator:

- Frank Gaffney, Founder and Executive Chairman, Center for Security Policy; Vice Chairman, Committee on the Present Danger: China, co-author, “The Indictment: Prosecuting the Chinese Communist Party and Friends for Crimes Against America, China, and the World”

Panelists:

- Charles “Sam” Faddis, Former Career Clandestine Service Officer, Central Intelligence Agency; Army veteran; author, “The Decline and Fall of the CIA”; editor, AndMagazine at Substack
• Topic: “Counterintelligence Threats and the State of America’s Defenses Against Them”

- Colonel John Mills, U.S. Army (Ret.), Veteran Special Operator; former senior official responsible for Cybersecurity Policy, Office of the Secretary of Defense; former member, the National Security Council staff and detailed to the Department of Homeland Security; host, “The National Security Show”; author, “The Nation Will Follow” and “War Against the Deep State”
• Topic: “The Counterintelligence Imperative in Time of War”

- Trevor Loudon, Author and filmmaker, “The Enemies Within” and “The Enemies Within the Church”; “Feinstein’s Spy: Russell Lowe and San Francisco’s Pro-China Left”; “Security Risk Senators: Part 1”,” “Security Risk Senators: Part 2,” “House UnAmericans: PART I: ALABAMA dist 7 – CALIFORNIA dist 18;” contributor, Epoch Times
• Topic: “Situational Awareness: Documenting Our Exposure to Enemies Within and Without”