Trump’s bizarre reluctance to criticise Russia and his dismissal of intelligence agency reports in unprecedented. It’s not just Trump being Trump, there is something that needs to be explained here.
Now maybe its just that Trump has had a great experience in his Russian business dealings and has warm fluffy feelings towards Russia in general. Or Maybe it’s that his companies are massively in debt to Russian owned companies. Or maybe it’s that they do have video of him in a room with prostitutes pisssing on a bed that Obama slept in (Plenty of smart people are saying that!).
Trump could alleviate some of these concerns by releasing his tax returns and handing his business interests over to a blind trust, but he doesn’t seem to believe he should do that since “he won”… So yeah, I’m going to choose to believe he’s a turned foreign asset, it makes the most sense to me.
How would the President know that the head of the CIA is not showing him information? You would need to know what the head of the CIA knows, in order to know that he was holding stuff back.
That Putin belongs in the Evil Genius Hall of Fame. 8 years ago he decided Obama wasn’t going to work out for him so he decided to take a goofy looking celebrity and turn him into the next president of the United States. And it worked!
Trump was elected POTUS. He gets to decide who the US shares intelligence with. It’s not the position of intelligence people to make this decision. They work for the government, which is headed by the POTUS.
To me, a US intelligence person advocating that another country not share intel with the US because they oppose the decision of the POTUS as to who to share it with sounds like treason or something.
Certainly, at the least, it’s a frightening prospect that the US intel community would regard themselves as not being subject to the authority of the Executive Branch, and being essentially an autonomous entity that makes their own decisions.
The above is true regardless of what you think of Trump specifically.
I’m certainly no expert either. But ISTM that insubordination in these areas, when dealing with your country’s actions vis a vis allies and adversaries gets close to treason.
Imagine during the height of the Cold War, and the US government has decided that the Soviets were our adversaries and NATO was our allies. And some element in the intelligence community decided that no, they felt the Soviets should be our allies and NATO our adversaries. So they actively undermined US intelligence gathering based on the notion that the US might share such intelligence with other NATO members.
Again, I’m no expert on such matters, and perhaps it’s not treason. But it seems pretty bad to me, in any event.
Treason is strictly defined in the constitution. Withholding info is not the same as giving info directly to an enemy with the intent of harming the US. Insubordination would be the charge, maybe even of the “gross” kind.
They are also not withholding information. If Israel takes the advice, then it will be Israel withholding information.
I could see being upset with officials for offering that advice, and I would be surprised if they keep their jobs.
At the same time, I do not see that the advice is needed. I imagine that without prompting, most other countries will stop sharing their intel with us, for the very good reason that they don’t trust trump with it.
He may be able to push around our security agencies with his office, but he has a bit less control over other nations, as he will soon discover.
I’m pushing for Agent Orange as a nickname. It’s a triple play: “Agent” for being a Russian asset, “Orange” for obvious reasons, and the combination representing one of the most notorious chemicals used in recent warfare…
Their plan wouldn’t remotely have to begin with them wanting Trump as president.
“Hey, we have this information on you, start this birther shit to question Obama’s legitimacy”
“That’s working out, now run for president and talk shit about mainstream GOP nominees to discredit them.”
“That’s working out, now question the integrity of US democracy so when you lose people will question it”
“That unexpectedly went well, when you’re sworn in withdraw support for Ukraine and push to recognize Crimea as Russia territory.”
“Enough speculation”? Or is this another attempt to spread fake news? An unnamed source told another unnamed source about the inner feelings of some unnamed sources in the U.S. intelligence community. That took place in a closed door meeting which was then immediately leaked to the media outlets. Seriously? :smack:
From your linked article -
According to Bergman, the American intelligence officials implied that Israel should “be careful” when transferring intelligence information to the White House and the National Security Council (NSC) following Trump’s inauguration – at least until it is clear that Trump does not have inappropriate connections with Russia.
I wonder if investigative journalist Ronen Bergman works for the Chinese, or the Russians?
Does Chris Hayes have any actual, verifiable, information that anyone is “a turned foreign asset”? Or is that just a guess on his part? Somebody told somebody that somebody leaked confidential information at a time when the intelligence agencies are reeling from reports that Russians (and Chinese) agencies are feeding false/fake news stories to main stream media outlets.
Does Chris Hayes need a boost in his ratings? Does MSNBC?
I don’t know why Chris Hayes said it. What I’m wondering is if this is just him, just MSNBC, or some new speculation that’s floating around DC in general now. Is it a few people? Is it conventional wisdom? Is the CIA actually looking at Trump that way?
Whether or not Trump is actually taking orders from some old KGB guy, if the President is in conflict with CIA, that’s “exciting” in the sense of “I am living in interesting and dangerous times.”
And considering that Michael Flynn is his NSA pick; and Trump’s treatment of CIA this week; yes, it does look like Trump is acting against the majority of both Langley and Foggy Bottom in general, and giving CIA cause to think maybe Trump really is a Russian asset, for real. Interesting times indeed.
When I said “exciting” in the OP, I meant it was worrying and possibly explosive, if CIA are now regarding the new President as a foreign nation’s asset, or even if people in DC in general think that’s what CIA think.
Trump has mightily pissed off everyone working for every single intelligence agency in the United States. He has basically declared each agency, and everyone working for them a personal enemy of his.
This is a decidedly poor idea on Trump’s part. VERY poor idea.