I met Sam Faddis this week at a cafe near Union Square, where we sat down to talk about intelligence reform and other topics—among them, Sam’s run for Congress. Although SOFREP doesn’t endorse political candidates, I’ve written a lot about intelligence and military reform here on SOFREP. This is an issue that Sam feels passionately about as well.

This fall, he will be up against an incumbent who has been in Congress for decades. If you read through Sam’s policy positions and think he is someone who could advance the conversation about intelligence reform, consider him as a potential representative in Congress.

For my part, I’ll be keeping a close watch on his political campaign in the coming months.

Press release

Charles S. (Sam) Faddis, former US Army officer and retired CIA operations officer, is running for Congress in Maryland’s Fifth Congressional District against longtime incumbent Steny Hoyer. Faddis spent twenty years undercover with CIA’s Directorate of Operations, most of that in the Middle East and South Asia. He took the first CIA team into Iraq in 2002, almost a year in advance of the invasion of that country. He retired in 2008 as head of CIA’s terrorist weapons of mass destruction unit. Since then he has written a number of books and commented widely on television, radio, in print and online on terrorism, national security and weapons of mass destruction.

Faddis has been a longtime critic of creeping bureaucratization and risk aversion in intelligence and special operations. His book, Beyond Repair, is a scathing critique of the state of American human intelligence capabilities and an argument for starting over at CIA.  He branded 9/11 not simply a failure to “connect the dots” but a failure to collect enough dots in the first place and has pushed for a more aggressive, creative approach to operations against rogue states and terrorist groups.

Faddis is the son of a career Naval officer, the brother of a retired Army colonel and the father of a decorated Marine infantryman wounded in action in Afghanistan. He was himself an Armor officer and JAG officer in the US Army. He believes we need more men and women on Capitol Hill who have worn the uniform and been in harm’s way. In his words, “when we have more people with skin in the game making policy we will see a lot more thought go into decisions about the use of military force.”

Faddis is also an opponent of social engineering and political correctness in the military. He believes that the purpose of the military is to keep the peace and to win wars not to effect social change. He warns that we are in danger of lowering standards to a point where they negatively impact readiness and cautions that if we are not careful we may find ourselves losing the next war outright.

Faddis is running against Steny Hoyer, who has supported President Obama’s feckless foreign policy one-hundred percent of the time. Hoyer’s unequivocal support of Obama and of Nancy Pelosi has resulted in him being rewarded the position of Minority Leader of the House…which means he spends most of his time advancing the agenda of the President.

This is exactly the type of campaign we should all be supporting and a perfect example of what happens to our country when a Member of Congress is too liberal, has been in office too long (Hoyer has been there 34 years) and generally is no longer in touch with the American people. I hope you will support Sam wherever you live financially and otherwise.

We need to take action and rally to Sam’s side immediately!

Individuals looking for more information on Faddis’ campaign or who are interested in getting involved can find additional information on the campaign website or by emailing the campaign directly at contact@samfaddis.com. Like his Facebook page and follow him on Twitter.