US spies urged to refocus efforts on America's backyard, new House Intel chair says
The two-decade War on Terror in the Middle East has left America overlooking the security issues in its own backyard, at least according to the House's new Intelligence Chair Rick Crawford, R-Ark.
"We were so focused on the global war on terror, what that's done is opened up opportunities for countries like China," the Arkansas Republican told a small group of reporters as he laid out his priorities for the committee.
"But even going back before China, you know, obviously the Russians have been very aggressive in the hemisphere, in particular in countries like Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela and elsewhere," Crawford added.
"They've taken every opportunity to try to carve out a niche of influence in areas… in our backyard."
Since President Donald Trump took office, his administration has pushed a new Monroe Doctrine-like focus, most notably with Trump calling for the U.S. to take back the Panama Canal from China.
That call was answered with a deal for U.S.-based BlackRock to take over two ports of entry to the canal from Hong Kong-based C.K. Hutchison. Now, Chinese authorities are threatening to thwart that deal.
As China increasingly threatens U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific, Crawford believes the U.S. could win a war with the Chinese if it needed to — for now. "But we don't have a lot of time. We can't sit back and ponder the situation much more."
China and Russia are aggressively testing offensive capabilities in space, Pentagon officials have said, while China-watchers warn the CCP is ahead of the U.S. in shipbuilding capabilities, hypersonics, anti-ship ballistic missiles, cyber and is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal.
Crawford said the U.S. may need to rethink its policy from a focus that leans heavily on cybersecurity to one that considers offensive attacks.
Crawford's predecessor, former committee Chair Mike Turner, fired off an ominous public warning calling on President Joe Biden to declassify information about a threat that was later reported to be Russian anti-satellite capabilities. That warning and the public scare it caused later factored into Speaker Mike Johnson's decision to replace Turner as head of the committee in January, sources familiar with the situation have told Fox News Digital.
Crawford's views also fell closer in line with those of Trump than Turner's.
Asked if he shared Turner's concern, Crawford said: "Everything that Russia does is a concern to me as it applies to, you know, their belligerent behavior, the potential that they have."
"The reason they punch above their weight is, I mean, they have a GDP about the size of Spain. It's not that they're a huge economy, it's that they're willing to do things that other countries aren't, and they're willing to be belligerent. They're willing to invade their neighbor, and that's a problem."
It's a different message than one might expect to hear from a Trump-aligned Republican, amid a thawing in U.S.-Russia relations as Trump tries to negotiate peace between President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"[Russia's] willingness to do things that most civilized nations wouldn't do puts them in a unique category," Crawford said. "So let's engage in trying to end the hostilities in Ukraine, bring that to a peaceful end to the extent that we can. But, you know, as Reagan said, trust, but verify."
Crawford also said that the intelligence community [IC] needed a "retooling of the culture" to address recruitment and retention issues. He called the IC's handling of the Havana Syndrome a "slap in the face" to its sufferers.
The IC's assessment that Havana Syndrome, also known as anomalous health incidents (AHI) was likely not the work of a foreign adversary "missed the mark grossly."
"If we've got problems with recruiting and retention because the workforce doesn't think the seventh floor [where leadership sits] has their back, that's a real problem for national security."
Crawford continued: "If analytic integrity or lack of is driving that, that's something we're going to have to pay close attention to. And we're going to exercise rigorous oversight."
In December, Crawford's CIA subcommittee released a report finding it "increasingly likely" a foreign adversary had been behind a number of the anomalous health incidents, and that the IC's assessment finding just the opposite "was developed in a manner inconsistent with analytic integrity and thoroughness."
Trump officials have repeatedly stressed that this administration will put renewed attention on the Western Hemisphere, with an eye for what Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls "missed opportunities and neglected partners."
Crawford added that the U.S. needed to hold close to its relationship with Guatemala.
"Guatemala is probably our best ally in the hemisphere," he said. "They want to be a partner. There are others where we see some great opportunity — Guyana and Suriname are sort of beneficiaries of some huge mineral wealth that has developed in the last four or five years."
Venezuela, whose dictatorial leader Nicolas Maduro is backed by China, Russia and Iran, has claimed swaths of Guyanese territory as its own.
The U.S., which does not recognize Maduro's regime, removed sanctions loopholes for Venezuelan oil in January, and threatened to ramp up financial penalties even further if Maduro will not accept deported migrants.
For the U.S.'s northern neighbor, Crawford believes the current quarrel with Canada over tariffs and Trump suggesting it become the 51st U.S. state will quiet down due to the important national security partnership.
"We're having a little family spat here," Crawford said. "But you know, Canada is an important ally."
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