Interesting piece on the intelligence community's push back against the Trump administration, written by former NSA analyst & counter-intelligence officer John Schindler.
How things are heating up between the White House and the spooks is evidenced by a new report that the CIA has denied a security clearance to one of Flynn’s acolytes. Rob Townley, a former Marine intelligence officer selected to head up the NSC’s Africa desk, was denied a clearance to see Sensitive Compartmented Information (which is required to have access to SIGINT in particular).
Why Townley’s SCI was turned down isn’t clear—it could be over personal problems or foreign ties—but the CIA’s stand has been privately denounced by the White House, which views this as a vendetta against Flynn. That the Townley SCI denial was reportedly endorsed by Mike Pompeo, the new CIA director selected by Trump himself, only adds to the pain.
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There is more consequential IC pushback happening, too. Our spies have never liked Trump’s lackadaisical attitude toward the President’s Daily Brief, the most sensitive of all IC documents, which the new commander-in-chief has received haphazardly. The president has frequently blown off the PDB altogether, tasking Flynn with condensing it into a one-page summary with no more than nine bullet-points. Some in the IC are relieved by this, but there are pervasive concerns that the president simply isn’t paying attention to intelligence.
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What’s going on was explained lucidly by a senior Pentagon intelligence official, who stated that “since January 20, we’ve assumed that the Kremlin has ears inside the SITROOM,” meaning the White House Situation Room, the 5,500 square-foot conference room in the West Wing where the president and his top staffers get intelligence briefings. “There’s not much the Russians don’t know at this point,” the official added in wry frustration.
None of this has happened in Washington before. A White House with unsettling links to Moscow wasn’t something anybody in the Pentagon or the Intelligence Community even considered a possibility until a few months ago. Until Team Trump clarifies its strange relationship with the Kremlin, and starts working on its professional honesty, the IC will approach the administration with caution and concern.
Last edited by direwolf; 02-12-2017 at 06:31 PM.
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I wonder what Trump's going to say/do about Flynn. I'm leaning towards they're just going to deny the accusations, call it a witch hunt, and keep on trucking.
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Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump
Just leaving Florida. Big crowds of enthusiastic supporters lining the road that the FAKE NEWS media refuses to mention. Very dishonest!
Still upset about the inauguration numbers. Poor guy.
What makes this so bad, to the point I almost wanna say it is trolling, is they got the first "too" right. English is taking a beating under this administration, and DeVos hasn't even started yet. Now taken down but was for sale for a bit so wonder if anyone will get this version
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Last edited by Senator Clay Davis; 02-12-2017 at 07:29 PM.
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Anyone see CeeLo Green's outfit at the Grammy's tonight?
Spoiler!
Someone photoshopped him into Trump photos.
Spoiler!
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Eat a salad, strategize with a foreign leader over the launch of a potential nuclear-capable missile while everyone else continues dinner, abandon prepared remarks, crash a wedding party and brag how much the bride's paid him. Just another day for the president!
Interesting piece on the intelligence community's push back against the Trump administration, written by former NSA analyst & counter-intelligence officer John Schindler.
Interesting piece on the intelligence community's push back against the Trump administration, written by former NSA analyst & counter-intelligence officer John Schindler.
This is pretty dangerous, and boarderline treasonous. The intelligence agencies need to be subservient to the president. Even if the president is a treasonous buffoon. If the intelligence community has concerns they need to convince congressional republicans rather than go rogue.
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This is pretty dangerous, and boarderline treasonous. The intelligence agencies need to be subservient to the president. Even if the president is a treasonous buffoon. If the intelligence community has concerns they need to convince congressional republicans rather than go rogue.
this is how military coups happen.
Intelligence community and armed forces start communicating around the executive branch out of self-preservation.
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This is pretty dangerous, and boarderline treasonous. The intelligence agencies need to be subservient to the president. Even if the president is a treasonous buffoon. If the intelligence community has concerns they need to convince congressional republicans rather than go rogue.
The Intelligence Community needs to be subservient to the law. If the President is treasonous or otherwise in violation of the law, then it is the duty of the Intelligence Community to disobey and investigate the President.
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The Intelligence Community needs to be subservient to the law. If the President is treasonous or otherwise in violation of the law, then it is the duty of the Intelligence Community to disobey and investigate the President.
Fair enough but withholding intelligence from the president doesn't seem like following the law. At that point they should be getting that intelligence to congress. That article to me sounds like an intelligence community deciding that they get to decide how to manipulate the president into carrying out what they want.
It needs to be an elected body or the judiciary not the intelligence community making that call. Congressional oversifht will be very important if they are keeping trump out of the loop.
Did you guys know today is the first weekday since President Agent Orange took office that he didn't send a tweet out before 8:15 am EST? Progress I suppose?
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Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump Feb 12
While on FAKE NEWS @CNN, Bernie Sanders was cut off for using the term fake news to describe the network. They said technical difficulties!
He's so dense he doesn't realize Sanders was making fun of him for saying "fake news" so much.
