Tag: Trump making America less safe

Defense secretary sent classified memo to White House about Afghanistan before Trump fired him

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In the run-up to the election, President Trump’s tweet saying that all U.S. troops in Afghanistan should be “home by Christmas!” raised alarm among senior U.S. officials who had been working on a more gradual withdrawal.

The existing plan, tied to precarious negotiations with the Taliban insurgent group to sign a peace deal with the Afghan government, had not yielded the progress that American officials wanted. While the Pentagon was on its way to reducing the number of troops to fewer than 5,000 this month, negotiations appeared to stall and the Taliban continued to launch attacks across the country.

After consulting with senior military officers, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper sent a classified memo to the White House this month expressing concerns about additional cuts, according to two senior U.S. officials familiar with the discussion. Conditions on the ground were not yet right, Esper wrote, citing the ongoing violence, possible dangers to the remaining troops in the event of a rapid pullout, potential damage to alliances and apprehension about undercutting the negotiations. Continue reading.

CIA clamps down on flow of Russia intelligence to White House

Critics of the shift in approach say it seems designed to appease the president.

The CIA has made it harder for intelligence about Russia to reach the White House, stoking fears among current and former officials that information is being suppressed to please a president known to erupt in anger whenever he is confronted with bad news about Moscow.

Nine current and former officials said in interviews that CIA Director Gina Haspel has become extremely cautious about which, if any, Russia-related intelligence products make their way to President Donald Trump’s desk. Haspel also has been keeping a close eye on the agency’s fabled “Russia House,” whose analysts she often disagrees with and sometimes accuses of purposefully misleading her.

Last year, three of the people said, Haspel tasked the CIA’s general counsel, Courtney Elwood, with reviewing virtually every product that comes out of Russia House, which is home to analysts and targeters who are experts in Russia and the post-Soviet space, before it “goes downtown” to the White House. One former CIA lawyer called it “unprecedented that a general counsel would be involved to this extent.” Continue reading.

The Trump administration is leading us down the dangerous path of restarting nuclear weapon testing

AlterNet logoJuly 15, 2020 marks 75 years since the detonation of the first nuclear bomb. The Trinity Test, in New Mexico’s Jornada del Muerto desert, proved that the design for the Nagasaki Bomb worked and started the nuclear era.

The U.S. tested nuclear bombs for decades. But at the end of the Cold War in 1992, the U.S. government imposed a moratorium on U.S. testing. This was strengthened by the Clinton administration’s decision to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Although the Senate never ratified the treaty and it never entered into force, all 184 countries that signed the test ban, including the U.S., have followed its rules.

But in recent weeks, the Trump administration and Congress have begun debating whether to restart active testing of nuclear weapons on U.S. soil. Continue reading.

A top terrorism fighter’s dire warning

Russell Travers detailed his concerns to the intelligence community’s watchdog. Days later he was fired.

America’s intelligence agencies risk slipping back into dangerous pre-9/11 habits, a recently departed top counterterrorism official is warning in his first public remarks on the matter.

Russell Travers, former head of the U.S. government’s hub for analysis of counterterrorism intelligence, was so alarmed that he shared his concerns with the intelligence community’s top internal watchdog in his final weeks on the job.

“I think there are really important questions that need to be addressed, and I don’t think they have been thus far,” said Travers, who ran the National Counterterrorism Center until March of this year. “And that has me worried, because I do think we could very easily end up back where we were 20 years ago.” Continue reading.

Trump administration discussed conducting first U.S. nuclear test in decades

Washington Post logoThe Trump administration has discussed whether to conduct the first U.S. nuclear test explosion since 1992 in a move that would have far-reaching consequences for relations with other nuclear powers and reverse a decades-long moratorium on such actions, said a senior administration official and two former officials familiar with the deliberations.

The matter came up at a meeting of senior officials representing the top national security agencies May 15, following accusations from administration officials that Russia and China are conducting low-yield nuclear tests — an assertion that has not been substantiated by publicly available evidence and that both countries have denied.

A senior administration official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive nuclear discussions, said that demonstrating to Moscow and Beijing that the United States could “rapid test” could prove useful from a negotiating standpoint as Washington seeks a trilateral deal to regulate the arsenals of the biggest nuclear powers. Continue reading.

Trump coronavirus response seen as threat to CDC confidence

The Hill logoThe Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. is threatening to undermine public confidence in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC has been at the center of the U.S. response to the outbreak, with CDC Director Robert Redfield becoming a regular presence at administration briefings with Vice President Pence and President Trump.

But the CDC has also come under criticism, along with other parts of the government, for a slow rollout of tests for the coronavirus that has helped contribute to the rapid spread of the virus around the United States. Continue reading.

New signs emerge that Trump’s controversial new intel chief is trying to keep Congress in the dark

AlterNet logoActing Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell was expected to brief lawmakers about election interference on Tuesday, according to CNN, but his office announced at the last minute that he will not be showing up.

He would have joined other top national security officials to deliver the information to Congress. However, other “experts” were sent in his place. Grenell denied to CNN that he had ever intended to show up for the briefing, but the outlet reported that it obtained documents sent to multiple lawmakers’ offices indicating that he would be appearing on Tuesday.

The odd and unexplained turn of events followed a report from Time on Monday that found that the controversial appointee’s office is withholding or delaying a global threat assessment from Congress that “warns that the U.S. remains unprepared for a global pandemic,” citing two officials who have seen the documents. Continue reading.

Responding to news of Russian interference, Trump sends chilling message to U.S. intelligence community

Washington Post logoIntelligence officers pride themselves as apolitical fact-finders who follow the rule of “speak truth to power.” But President Trump has tacked on a new coda: “Do so at your peril.”

In ousting his acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, last week after a revealing briefing on foreign election interference, Trump has reminded members of the intelligence community that he views the information they bring him through a deeply personal lens.

Trump upbraided Maguire in the Oval Office on Feb. 14, saying that the intelligence community had handed Democrats political ammunition during a bipartisan briefing a day earlier about efforts to secure the 2020 election. A senior career intelligence officer who worked for Maguire told lawmakers that Russia had “developed a preference” for Trump. She also described other steps Russia is taking, including assistance to the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Trump’s acquittal has unleashed the most ‘corrupt, unfit, demented and malevolent president’ ever: columnist

AlterNet logoIn a scorching column for the Daily Beast, David Rothkopf accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Attorney General Bill Barr of standing by while President Donald Trump purges anyone who crossed him with their testimony during his impeachment trial, with the columnist saving most of his vitriol for Republicans who are letting the president continue to break the law.

In short, he blamed the entire Republican Party apparatus of giving more power to “the most corrupt, unfit, demented and malevolent president” in history.

“Donald Trump unleashed a Friday night massacre at the end of the week the Senate acquitted him, one that reveals yet again not only who Trump is but how he intends to act thanks to the carte blanche to abuse his powers handed him by the Senate and his attorney general,” Rothkopf writes while noting the firings of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, his brother and EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland. Continue reading.

The State of U.S. National Security Is Not Strong Under Trump

Center for American Progress logoPresident Donald Trump is set to deliver his third State of the Union address on February 4, 2020. At a recent speech in Davos, Switzerland, he claimed, “America is winning again like never before.” But on foreign policy, Trump’s record is straight losses.

In his 2019 State of the Union, Trump promised “to pursue a foreign policy that puts America’s interests first.” But rather than advance American interests, he has put his own political priorities and ego above traditional U.S. foreign policy goals. Trump is being impeached for putting national security in jeopardy for his own personal gain, but he has endangered national security in myriad other ways, too: He has alienated allies and cozied up to friendly dictators, started distracting trade wars, and appears to have backtracked on U.S. commitments simply because his predecessor pursued them. Trump may claim the state of the union is strong, but his administration’s actions and policies tell a different story.

Escalated conflict in the Middle East

In last year’s address, President Trump declared, “Great nations do not fight endless wars.” But rather than ending forever wars, Trump is sending more U.S. soldiers into conflict. A few weeks ago, he recklessly escalated tensions in the Middle East by ordering a strike on Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps General Qassem Soleimani, after which a significant majority of Americans reported feeling “less safe.” In response to the escalating tensions with Iran, Trump has ordered more than 20,000 additional troops to the region; a U.S. commander said the soldiers could remain there for “quite a while.” Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, despite last year’s pledge to hold “constructive talks” and “accelerated” negotiations, the United States dropped more bombs and munitions in 2019 than in any other year since the U.S. Air Force began tracking them in 2006. And according to the United Nations, civilian casualties reached the highest level in the Afghanistan war’s history, in part due to U.S. strikes. Continue reading.