Via Observer:
In a recent column, I explained how the still-forming Trump administration is already doing serious harm to America’s longstanding global intelligence partnerships. In particular, fears that the White House is too friendly to Moscow are causing close allies to curtail some of their espionage relationships with Washington—a development with grave implications for international security, particularly in the all-important realm of counterterrorism.
Now those concerns are causing problems much closer to home—in fact, inside the Beltway itself. Our Intelligence Community is so worried by the unprecedented problems of the Trump administration—not only do senior officials possess troubling ties to the Kremlin, there are nagging questions about basic competence regarding Team Trump—that it is beginning to withhold intelligence from a White House which our spies do not trust.
[…]
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.
In light of this, and out of worries about the White House’s ability to keep secrets, some of our spy agencies have begun withholding intelligence from the Oval Office. Why risk your most sensitive information if the president may ignore it anyway? A senior National Security Agency official explained that NSA was systematically holding back some of the “good stuff” from the White House, in an unprecedented move. For decades, NSA has prepared special reports for the president’s eyes only, containing enormously sensitive intelligence. In the last three weeks, however, NSA has ceased doing this, fearing Trump and his staff cannot keep their best SIGINT secrets.
Trump and co. leak worse than a sieve – They’re like a bucket without a bottom. Keep intelligence secrets? No way.
This is an extremely dangerous situation. Our intelligence community doesn’t trust the president with sensitive information.
Our intelligence community doesn’t trust the president with sensitive information. And I don’t blame them.
“Senior DoD intel official: “since January 20, we’ve assumed that the Kremlin has ears inside the SITROOM””
That seems wise.
And…
Discussed this in front of private servers.
The Hill provides a screenshot of the tweet of a Mar-a-Lago member who sent a picture of this out to the world.
Unbelievable.
Then we have the same Mar-a-Lago member who took a selfie with the officer who carries the nuclear football and then IDs him. IDs HIM. Which I think means that Trump has figured out how to monetize our National Security.
Never thought you’d see a president like Trump, now did you? It’s raced right past crazy to insane and seems to be getting worse. All the talk is of Flynn and Spicer, the real problem is his lordship Trump and there seems to be no fixing it.
Trump will “fix” it by blaming everyone but himself.