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Home Front: Politix

Trump Will Face a Huge Challenge with U.S. Intelligence If He Wins

2016-08-19

The Washington Post's intelligence reporter Greg Miller reported on July 28 that a senior intelligence official told Miller privately that he would refuse to brief Trump because of concerns about Trump's alleged admiration of Russian president Putin and because "he's been so uninterested in the truth and so reckless with it when he sees it." Reuters ran a similar story on June 2, reporting that eight senior security officials said they had concerns about briefing Trump; Reuters did not indicate how many of the officials cited were intelligence officials or Obama appointees.

These calls to deny intelligence briefings to a presidential candidate are unprecedented, but they also reflect a serious problem within the U.S. intelligence community that awaits a possible Trump administration: the politicization of American intelligence by the Left.

I saw this constantly during my 19 years as a CIA analyst. CIA officers frequently tried to undermine CIA directors Casey and Gates because they disagreed with President Reagan's policy goal of defeating the Soviet Union. Several testified against Gates's nomination to be CIA director in 1991 by lodging false claims that he and Casey had politicized intelligence. Former senator Warren Rudman, a moderate Republican who headed President Clinton's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, described these attacks by CIA analysts as "an attempted assassination, an assassination of [Gates's] character . . . McCarthyism, pure and simple."

No briefing? No problem. Obviously you can't be fired, but your annual bonus is now ZERO! Have a nice day. Next briefer please.

Always okay to politicize briefings, actions and the whole agency. It just always has to favor the Democrats...

Posted by:Blossom Unains5562

#14 Assign them to weather stations and/or forest ranger stations out in the boonies. Kind of like the old joke about assigning USAF officers as weather officer in the Aleutians when they annoy higher ranks... Customs officer for a one airplane bush airfield in Montana is also good.

Posted by: magpie 2016-08-19 21:22

#13 Good eye Bushman.

Posted by: Besoeker 2016-08-19 18:52

#12 Nice pic Besoeker! I thought Koevoet at first, but the shorts say Selous Scouts.

Posted by: bushman 2016-08-19 16:33

#11 #9 Nah, weather's too nice, I'm sure there's someplace lots nicer, like Barter Island at the old DEW station. Oh and they can eat MRE's daily.

Hey now, I'm sure there are still some
K-rations left over from the Big One.

Why be wasteful?

Posted by: charger 2016-08-19 16:19

#10 CIA needs a Northern Alaska field office and staffing should begin early next year.

If a senior intelligence official really told Miller privately that he would refuse to brief Trump because of concerns about Trump's alleged admiration of Russian president Putin than the guy was pulling Miller's leg or the guy needs to be in prison.

Posted by: rjschwarz 2016-08-19 14:39

#9 Nah, weather's too nice, I'm sure there's someplace lots nicer, like Barter Island at the old DEW station. Oh and they can eat MRE's daily.

Posted by: Silentbrick 2016-08-19 14:23

#8 Find a warehouse, fill it with desks and chairs. No phone, no internet. That becomes their duty station.

On Johnson Atoll.

Posted by: Besoeker 2016-08-19 13:28

#7 Find a warehouse, fill it with desks and chairs. No phone, no internet. That becomes their duty station.

They report everyday, and they sit. No talking, no cell phones and no distractions. Yank their clearances.

Make them an offer, sit here day in day out until retirement. Or, resign with some severance or other financial inducement. Rinse and repeat as often as required. Across all Federal Agencies.

Posted by: Spinesing Gray3122 2016-08-19 13:17

#6 Unattributed sources, as usual from the Washington Post.

Posted by: Glairong Sforza7574 2016-08-19 10:33

#5 Yet he has no problem briefing Obama. A known associate of a pair of domestic terrorists.

Posted by: CrazyFool 2016-08-19 08:33

#4 You just go visit the actual analysts in their offices. Management by walking around. I recall a visiting IG pulling some troops aside and taking them to the day room for a 'private' talk. Amazing how rattled that made some people. Do that one or two times and the word gets out.

Posted by: Procopius2k 2016-08-19 08:21

Strange the spoor, it all appears to lead back to McLean, Virginia.

Posted by: Besoeker 2016-08-19 08:10

#2 Well O never paid attention to them. Big deal.

Posted by: Dale 2016-08-19 08:00

#1 Well if there's one place that's failed and needs a clearout it's "intelligence".

Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2016-08-19 07:54

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