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2019-12-04 Home Front: Politix
Former US intel official sez POTUS would often push back in briefings, ask questions, challenge briefers
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Posted by Besoeker 2019-12-04 02:46|| || Front Page|| [8 views ]  Top

#1 Because of the president’s business background, "we were scrambling a bit to try and produce intelligence that was foundationally useful for someone who is interested in making trades and deals," she said.

"Making trades and deals".... as opposed to conflictual regime change? How out-of-the-box. How innovative.
Posted by Besoeker 2019-12-04 03:01||   2019-12-04 03:01|| Front Page Top

#2 This reinforces the fact that this is the President America had been waiting for.
Posted by Dron66046 2019-12-04 03:09||   2019-12-04 03:09|| Front Page Top

#3 Guess they got used to never being questioned during the Obama tenure.
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2019-12-04 03:10||   2019-12-04 03:10|| Front Page Top

#4 Questioned? Soetoro frequently gave them the 'wave off.' He wasn't interested. No need for time consuming briefings, PPT's, written summaries and updates. He took his orders 'back channel' from Brennan.

Morning intelligence briefings are quite the challenge, when you sleep until noon.

Posted by Besoeker 2019-12-04 03:20||   2019-12-04 03:20|| Front Page Top

#5 "I'm not sure I believe that"
"Why is that true?"
"Why are we there?"
"Why is this what you believe?"
"Why do we do that?"

All very good challenges.

Susan Gordon
Posted by Skidmark 2019-12-04 05:24||   2019-12-04 05:24|| Front Page Top

#6 SusanM. Gordon served as Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) until August 15, 2019.[1][2] Prior to assuming that role, she was the Deputy Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), having assumed the position on January 1, 2015.[3] Before joining the NGA, she served as director of the CIA's Information Operations Center and senior cyber adviser to the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.[4] Gordon worked for the Central Intelligence Agency for over 25 years.[5]
Posted by Frank G 2019-12-04 05:40||   2019-12-04 05:40|| Front Page Top

#7 > "he would challenge you,"

If this was novel it may be why the west has been declining...
Posted by Bright Pebbles 2019-12-04 06:39||   2019-12-04 06:39|| Front Page Top

#8 Ref #7: If this was novel it may be why the west has been declining...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles

Could it possibly be that the briefings were actually intended to be 'informational only' (non-OODA loop), at least until the Orange Man took office ?

Posted by Besoeker 2019-12-04 06:47||   2019-12-04 06:47|| Front Page Top

#9 If you couldn't challenge it, then it's opinion, not intelligence.
Posted by Bright Pebbles 2019-12-04 06:58||   2019-12-04 06:58|| Front Page Top

#10 General Tommy Franks and others like him would take briefings and then routinely ask the "so what" question.

Rule of thumb: Be prepared to go at least 3 levels deeper with the analysis.

Posted by Besoeker 2019-12-04 07:03||   2019-12-04 07:03|| Front Page Top

#11 Iran in flames and ‘experts’ didn’t foresee it due to Trump-hate blindness
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2019-12-04 08:07||   2019-12-04 08:07|| Front Page Top

#12 Aren't those questions on the checklist that is issued to every Intel Analyst, Jr Grade here at the 'Burg? It's stuff I would want to know.
Posted by SteveS 2019-12-04 10:04||   2019-12-04 10:04|| Front Page Top

#13 It's like an old arithmatic test. "Be sure to show me your work, off in the margin."
Posted by Besoeker 2019-12-04 10:30||   2019-12-04 10:30|| Front Page Top

#14 intelligence officials unsure of where else he was receiving information

Mr. Trump is a multibillionaire with business ventures around the world that are strongly affected by events on the ground. I have no doubt he has been paying for personal reports from private intelligence sources for decades, and his sons continue to do so as a standing business expense. As such he would know exactly what to expect in at least some of the places our former DDNI was reporting to him about, and could contrast his historic knowledge with what he was being told.

Gordon said that she found the president was "actually kind of a fun brief because he was interactive" and "he would challenge you," CNN reported.

I’ll bet. And an interesting contrast in tone to the rest, suggesting someone had an agenda.
Posted by trailing wife 2019-12-04 10:57||   2019-12-04 10:57|| Front Page Top

#15 Could be even simpler, TW. The man knows when he's being lied to.
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2019-12-04 11:08||   2019-12-04 11:08|| Front Page Top

#16 What TW said. This is standard experience for any executive overseeing any complex multinational organization, be it private, public, profit or nonprofit.

The executive has to sift and evaluate an extraordinary amount of complex information, presented to him or her by subordinates who have agendas, who are fallible and who themselves are processing and filtering information emerging from their own organizations.

In short a good executive has exceptional BS-detection skills and the ability to simplify and clarify extremely complex info.

Note that neither of Trump's two predecessors had any such executive experience prior to becoming POTUS. No wonder they were so easily gulled, and that they allowed the Deep State to accrete such monstrous influence on their (non-)watch.
Posted by Lex 2019-12-04 14:07||   2019-12-04 14:07|| Front Page Top

#17 He might believe some of the reports and just wants to test the person giving the report to make sure they know things and aren't just regurgitating. Do that once or twice and they'll start to become experts to avoid being humiliated.
Posted by ruprecht 2019-12-04 16:09||   2019-12-04 16:09|| Front Page Top

#18 The unspoken aspect of the PDB process, is the taskings the President adds to his briefing, concerning either more granularity on something that has been briefed to him, or something that he wants more information about based on other sources, including a wide-ranging awareness of OSINT (OpenSource). The pattern of those taskings points to his trust/and/or skepticism of the contents he is being fed. Any good exec knows after a bit if he is being led by omission of data or context. If that is suspected, ruthless crosswalking of secondary sources is needed to confirm it, and then quick defenestration if true.
Posted by NoMoreBS 2019-12-04 19:26||   2019-12-04 19:26|| Front Page Top

23:51 ruprecht
23:48 ruprecht
23:15 Lex
23:08 gorb
23:04 JohnQC
23:01 JohnQC
22:57 JohnQC
22:51 JohnQC
22:46 JohnQC
22:42 JohnQC
22:39 JohnQC
22:38 Raj
22:30 JohnQC
22:23 SteveS
22:09 gorb
22:00 gorb
21:52 Rob Crawford
21:46 Rob Crawford
20:25 SteveS
20:06 Zhang Fei
19:39 Herb McCoy
19:27 Zhang Fei
19:26 NoMoreBS
19:19 Frank G









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