Tag: Trump making American less safe

Former CIA official reveals the ‘weird’ reason intel officers are ‘terrified’ to brief Trump on Russia

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U.S. intelligence officers responsible for briefing President Donald Trump on the country’s potential threats are reportedly “terrified” to brief him on anything Russian-related due to concerns about his possibly explosive reaction.

During an interview with GQ magazine, former CIA official Marc Polymeropoulos weighed in on Trump’s perplexing affinity for Russian President Vladimir Putin to like him. At this point, Polymeropoulos insists no one is willing to brief the president on anything involving Russia.

“No one’s going to brief anything on Russia to the president,” Polymeropoulos told GQ correspondent Julia Ioffe. “They’re terrified of doing that. I know that from the briefers. Because he’ll explode and the whole thing will get derailed, because he has this weird affinity for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.” Continue reading.

Experts warn that Trump’s assault on intelligence is putting the country’s national security at risk

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump fired Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire and replaced him with Richard Grenell — who had been U.S. ambassador to Germany — shaking up the office of the top intel chief. Trump’s critics have been quick to point out that Grenell, a Trump loyalist, has no intelligence experience.

And two intel experts, John D. Negroponte and Edward M. Wittenstein, warn in an op-ed for the Washington Post this week that Trump is putting the U.S. at risk by politicizing intel in this way.

Negroponte served as director of national intelligence from 2005-2007 under President George W. Bush, while Wittenstein is a former DNI executive assistant who now lectures on global affairs at Yale University. And both of them find it disturbing that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has been in such turmoil during Trump’s presidency. Continue reading.