Subscribe to Receive the Daily Report

Saturday, September 23rd, 2023

Pentagon-funded Study Warns Dementia Among U.S. Officials Poses National Security Threat

Author:     Ken Klippenstein
Source:     The Intercept
Publication Date:     September 12 2023 | 3:17 p.m.
 Link: Pentagon-funded Study Warns Dementia Among U.S. Officials Poses National Security Threat
Stephan:  

If you look at McConnell, or Feinstein, and a number of others you can see that they are beyond their optimal age, and should consider resigning. It’s not just age, look at Nancy Pelosi, it’s cognitive competence. But age is an issue. We have the oldest government in our history. To quote the RAND study, “In 1981, only 4 percent of Congress was over the age of 70. By 2022, that number had spiked to 23 percent.”

If you would like to read the full Rand Corporation study upon which this article is based see:  Could Dementia in the national Security Workforce Create a Security Threat?

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., looks on during a news conference with Senate Republicans at the U.S. Capitol on July 26, 2023, in Washington, D.C. Credit: Drew Angerer / Getty

As the nation security workforce ages, dementia impacting U.S. officials poses a threat to national security, according to a first-of-its-kind study by a Pentagon-funded think tank. The report, released this spring, came as several prominent U.S. officials trusted with some of the nation’s most highly classified intelligence experienced public lapses, stoking calls for resignations and debate about Washington’s aging leadership.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who had a second freezing episode last month, enjoys the most privileged access to classified information of anyone in Congress as a member of the so-called Gang of Eight congressional leadership. Ninety-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., whose decline has seen her confused about how to vote and experiencing memory lapses — forgetting conversations and not recalling a monthslong absence — was for years a member of the Gang of Eight and remains a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on which she has served since 2001.

The study, published by the […]

Read the Full Article

2 Comments

  1. Mark on Saturday, September 23, 2023 at 6:56 am

    Just another reason for term limits. Not that term limits would necessarily resolve this issue but it would diminish its likelihood of occuring.

  2. Albus Eddie on Monday, September 25, 2023 at 6:08 am

    What the article documents is that this is the best the current system can generate. Think about that for a second: This is the best the current system can generate.