AUSTIN, TX– Last week, Mark Lowenthal visited Austin for an event with the Clements Center for National Security. Lowenthal has written many books on intelligence and national security, as well as a comprehensive history of US Intelligence, titled Vigilance Is Not Enough. He worked as the staff director of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the Clinton Administration and served as a Senior Specialist in US foreign policy at the Library of Congress.
His career was marked by significant shifts in US foreign policy, as his time as Director of National Intelligence at the CIA was marked by the events of 9/11 and the beginning of the global war on terror.
He described intelligence as a “business of access”, saying that many elected officials in the US government do not understand it. He remarked that presidential administrations have shifted in their hostility toward the CIA, and that the search for and use of intelligence starts and ends with the Oval Office. According to Lowenthal, the current Trump administration is one of the most oppositional the nation has seen in its history.
Lowenthal also issued a fiery criticism of Mossad, the intelligence agency of the State of Israel, showing disdain for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that Israel is the “sixth eye” of the Western alliance. This statement refers to the intelligence-sharing operations of the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, colloquially known as the “five eyes of intelligence”. Lowenthal described the Five Eyes as “not just a club you can join”, citing deep-rooted connections between the current member states hearkening back to the First World War. He claimed that Mossad has destabilized the Levant region, and that the organization has made it “more difficult to be honest to power.”
The comments come amid aggressive moves on the part of the Israeli government following a ceasefire brokered between Hamas and the Jewish state last week on the 13th. On Tuesday, the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, voted to give approval to a bill that would apply Israeli law in the West Bank, effectively annexing the land. Palestinian leaders claim the region as a part of their own state, recognized by 157 sovereign nations in the international community. The annexation move was strongly condemned by both Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Rubio. The Vice President called the move “a very stupid political stunt” that would threaten the plan for an end to the conflict in Gaza.
UNICEF has reported that the Gaza Strip faces the worst humanitarian crisis of the 21st century, calling it “unthinkable”. Restrictions on food and aid have made life in the Gaza Strip bleak. Civilians who have refused to leave their homes have pitched tents on the rubble. Aid groups have warned that a large-scale evacuation of the region would only exacerbate the already severe resource shortage. The official statement from UNICEF describes the hospitals in the region as “on their knees”, as only 11 are partially functioning. Incubators for babies are running at 200 percent capacity, and many patients are dependent on medicine that may run dry in the next week.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has released its analysis, declaring the situation a famine. Gazan health officials have reported that 370 people, including 131 children, have starved to death in the last two weeks, as the total death toll for the war reaches 68,000 civilians.
The region is currently held together by the most recent ceasefire, with Hamas returning the remaining 20 living Israeli hostages. In return, Israel released 1,700 Palestinian detainees and withdrew its army to the proposed “yellow line” within Gaza.
