An unnamed source has confirmed to a veteran national-security journalist my reporting about who’s feeding Pres. Donald Trump intel that’s bolstering his casus belli against Venezuela.
Trump allegedly has deported hundreds of Venezuelans based on intel of ultimately unclear provenance, ordered the murder of 21 Venezuelans on four separate boats in international waters, and now reportedly is considering escalating militarily. U.S. Southern Command has sent eight warships to the region.
As I reported last week, former CIA official and station chief Gary Berntsen has partnered with a Venezuelan expatriate named Martin Rodil in feeding intel to the White House, apparently from dissidents with potential motive to peddle narratives supporting regime change.
Veteran national-security reporter Seth Hettena in a new report on Monday quoted an unnamed source confirming that Berntsen “is part of a package of people who have spent months transferring out information and proof into government hands.” Hettena described his source as someone “familiar with the effort who was also involved in the administration briefings.”
As I reported, those briefings apparently included Bertsen’s and Rodil’s claims that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro trained and deployed thousands of gang members to the U.S. to destabilize the country. There have been credible reports of Venezuelan officials retaining individuals from gangs or prisons to carry out hits in Venezuela, but the narrative of a sweeping, orchestrated effort in the U.S. has been found unconvincing by multiple U.S. intelligence agencies and estimates.
A former senior CIA official told Hettena, anonymously, that Berntsen’s claims are “bullshit,” accusing Berntsen of “self-promotion.” (My emails to accounts associated with Berntsen and Rodil were not returned.)
Berntsen, a decorated CIA veteran, himself has said he came forward in March only to refute New York Times reporting about the Trump intelligence community’s skepticism toward the narrative he has pushed.
Berntsen and Rodil appear to have considerable motive to promote themselves and their narrative. Rodil’s clients, some of whom reportedly pay him millions, include Venezuelans who might face jail time or asset forfeiture for their crimes — unless they can offer U.S. officials something worthwhile. Potentially, that could include anti-Maduro intel.
Both Berntsen and Rodil publicly went to bat, for instance, attesting to the value of a former Venezuelan intelligence chief (who was never, it’s worth noting, identified as their client).
Hettena’s sources aren’t the only ones questioning Berntsen’s and Rodil’s intel.
As chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell during the runup to the Iraq War, now-retired Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (U.S. Army) unknowingly relayed damning intel to Powell for his now-famous presentation about the supposed Iraq threat. Wilkerson didn’t learn until later that the CIA shared it with him without disclosing questions about its veracity.
Wilkerson later become a prominent critic of the war and the weaponization of intelligence. I asked Wilkerson about Berntsen and Rodil and their briefings for the White House.
Wilkerson told me he “could not help but compare” Rodil to Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi dissident — and convicted fraudster — who later said his flawed intelligence served the greater good of Saddam Hussein’s removal from power.
Wilkerson and Larry Johnson, a former CIA analyst who now posts commentary and analysis at Sonar21, responded to the details about Berntsen and Rodil with similar skepticism.
Johnson said, “This is Iraq 2.0 and Rodil is Chalabi.”
Wilkerson said he would consider their intel “very questionable.”
Johnson said, “I think it is highly likely that opponents of Maduro have ginned up the story about Tren de Aragua as his secret army or placing Venezuela as a major hub of narcotics activity. The latter is complete bullshit. Is Gary being played? I would assume so.”
Also referring to Berntsen, Wilkerson said, “Gary is not a very smart man and usually far too aggressive and convinced that only he is right. I would not be the least surprised that smarter men than he are leading him along.”
Johnson said he knew Berntsen from their time at the CIA. “He is always sure, but not always right,” Johnson said.
“He was pretty naive, despite his CIA experience, about Washington,” Johnson said, calling Berntsen “Very much an idealist” and adding, “I’m sure he genuinely believes what he claims.”
Wilkerson said he didn’t know Berntsen, “but was very much aware of the controversy associated with his brief presence in Afghanistan,” including “his firing (actually what it was)” as Kabul chief of station.
Wilkerson described Berntsen as “out of his element,” adding, “Even when he was right — not often — his irascibility kept positive action from being taken.”
Berntsen, in Wilkerson’s eyes, represented the worst of the CIA. “In many ways he was very typical of one breed of CIA individual — usually the very worst kind, the kind that for example, made [President] Harry Truman fight the agency’s creation tooth and nail.”
Referring to reports of Rodil working with Israel’s intelligence agency, Johnson suggested that “Rodil’s ties to Mossad means that Israel is pushing Trump to go after Maduro because of Iran’s relationship with Venezuela.”
Wilkerson said there’s considerable motive for Berntsen’s and Rodil’s Venezuelan sources to lie: winning amnesty and other favors from the U.S. in return for anti-Maduro intel.
Wilkerson said, “That is the customary practice with US efforts — not just those of Trump’s administration — to re-establish U.S. influence in South American countries in general and now Venezuela in particular because through two administrations, [late President Hugo] Chavez’s and Maduro’s — the contacts and influence have been largely severed.”
Wilkerson warned that the parallels to Iraq already include “intel” that “has led to war crimes on the high seas by the U.S. military.” He said “the present ‘intel’ on Venezuela” also stands to “further sour U.S. relations in its own hemisphere at a time when the rest of the world is rapidly turning against us already.”
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Whew. Thank You Jonathan.
JFC.