International affairs specialist and retired Naval War College professor Tom Nichols is astounded by reports that the FBI was demanding polygraphs for agents to prove their loyalty.
Speaking to host Katy Tur on Friday, Nichols and ex-FBI agent Jim Davidson, who leads the FBI Integrity Project, said that the ordeal must be leaving agents confused.
"There have to be people walking through the halls saying, 'Isn't our job to catch enemy agents and organized crime lords and terrorists?'" Nichols noted.
"This isn't McCarthyism. This is like KGB kind of level stuff," he added. "This is the death of Stalin stuff where, you know, you have expected one of these people to run down the hallway saying, I have documents on all of you! Because it's all about personal loyalty. And it does raise the question, well, while all this is going on, who's catching spies, who's who's chasing kidnappers?"
Nichols also explained that polygraphs are notorious for being inaccurate.
His comment comes on the heels of one ex-FBI agent who was shoved out for his friendship with Peter Strzok, another former FBI agent. During his first term, President Donald Trump demanded that Strzok be fired when text messages were uncovered that he was anti-Trump.
That Strzok friend, Michael Feinberg, told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace that he is worried about the work that is not being done to keep Americans safe.
"I still lie awake at night, worried that a bomb is going to go off or a secret is going to get stolen, because we took our eyes off the ball," he said.
Davidson mentioned Feinberg as well, noting that he speaks fluent Mandarin, went to a top-10 law school, but was fired because of a friendship.
"A friendship that really had nothing to do with work that he had maintained with Peter Strzok; he was just forced to resign," said Davidson. "And if we keep losing talent like that, if that is the criteria, if the criteria is loyalty as opposed to merit, you know, that is going to erode the expertise and the foundation of the agency itself."
A New York Times report this week revealed that "top agents in 40% of field offices have either retired, been ousted or moved into different jobs."
In June, NBC News reported that a former senior FBI official said he was aware of "at least 20 national security personnel who had left the bureau in just the last three months."
See the comments below or at the link here.