Change for 100?

William Webster versus Patel and Gabbard

As the hearings for Trump picks gear up, Politico comes out with a report headlined “Former FBI and CIA head prods Senate to reject Patel, Gabbard,” with the subhead reading “William Webster, the only person to lead both the FBI and CIA, wrote that neither nominee meets the demands of top intelligence jobs.” William Webster turns 101 on March 6, and there’s a back story people should know.

Webster, Gabbard, and Patel

President Jimmy Carter picked Webster for FBI director in 1978, and he remained in the post until President Ronald Reagan selected him to head the CIA, where he remained until 1991, when he turned 67. Before assessing Webster’s centennial claims, the senators might review past actions of the two federal agencies he headed.

In 2020, 51 former intel bosses, including Obama CIA director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, signed a letter charging that the Hunter Biden laptop was “Russian disinformation.” That falsehood failed to prompt a warning from William Webster that the CIA was now peddling bogus information in a domestic partisan cause.

That was confirmed by former CIA analyst John Gentry, author of Neutering the CIA: Why U.S. Intelligence Versus Trump Has Long-Term Consequences. As the 2023 volume contends, the forces that triggered the attack on Trump “remain intact, available for reactivation in the event of another serious candidacy by Trump or the election of another Republican president.”

Consider also John Brennan, who titled his 2020 book Undaunted: My Fight Against America’s Enemies at Home and Abroad. In Brennan’s view, Islamic jihad is “a holy struggle in pursuit of a moral goal” and not at all violent. The “enemies at home” are politicians that Brennan doesn’t like, Donald Trump in particular.

Back in 1976, Brennan voted for Stalinist Gus Hall of the Communist Party USA, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Soviet Union. In 1980 the CIA hired Brennan and in 2013 President Obama picked him to run the place. William Webster, then 88, did not publicly lament that the CIA was now headed by a man who never should have been hired in the first place. Senators have a right to wonder what Webster knew, when he knew it, and what, if anything, he did about it.

In 2001, the 77-year-old Webster kept rather quiet about CIA and FBI failure to prevent the massive terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. In 2025, with confirmation hearings for Patel and Gabbard at hand, the 100-year-old allegedly writes: “I urge you to weigh the critical importance of nonpartisan leadership and experience. The safety of the American people — and your own families — depends on it,” and so on.

Consider also the vaunted FBI with a budget of $11.3 billion, 37,000 positions, 260 attorneys, and 13,606 agents. “The FBI’s mission is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States. The FBI’s vision is to stay ahead of the threat,” but the mighty bureau failed to prevent to the events of July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania.

A 20-year-old with no tactical experience avoided a Secret Service detail, gained a rooftop position, and got off eight shots, one hitting Trump in the ear and others killing attendee Cory Comperatore and wounding James Copenhaver and Donald Dutch. Days later, FBI director Christopher Wray testified that “there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear.” The FBI followed with a statement saying that the shooting resulted in the “injury” to Trump, implying that it was some sort of accident.

Former FBI boss William Webster knows the correct term for someone struck by a gunshot is wounded, but he issued no statement warning that Wray posed a danger to President Trump and the people. His centennial letter has him warning that Kash Patel is known for “executing the president’s directives,” meaning Trump. The people have cause to wonder.

In August, 2023, the FBI shot dead Craig Robertson, a 75-year-old woodworker, for threats against Biden he allegedly posted online. Webster issued no statement about FBI bosses carrying out Joe Biden’s orders. In 2022, the FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, with agents ransacking the closets of Melania Trump. William Webster failed to call out Wray for following the directives of Joe Biden and his handlers.

In 2017, Wray claimed that the FBI had not “spied” on candidate and President Trump, despite the actions of Peter Strzok and the FBI operations against Trump national security advisor pick Gen. Michael Flynn. In 2016, FBI boss James Comey claimed that no reasonable prosecutor would take Hillary Clinton to court for multiple felonies, effectively keeping the Democrat in the race. And so on, none of it prompting William Webster to decry FBI partisanship.

Senators can be forgiven for believing the Webster letter is bogus and that Democrats are more desperate than ever.