Posted on 05/16/2016 6:46:26 PM PDT by Jyotishi
WASHINGTON: The US President's schedule on any given morning includes a confidential Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) at 9 am before he embarks on the day's (mostly) public engagements.
Presented usually by the Director of National Intelligence, the PDB fuses intelligence from various spy agencies (CIA, DIA, NSA etc), much of it obtained through "sigint" (signal intelligence) and "'technical" means (euphemism for bugging, electronic surveillance etc), to give the President a head's up on vital national security issues - from nuclear advances in countries such as Pakistan, North Korea and Iran to negotiating positions of China, India, and other majors at trade and climate change meets.
The PDB is considered to be sensitive and vital since for along time they were not released for publication, no matter how old or historically significant they may be. Even what began to be declassified in 2015 was sanitised, although it revealed that a month before 9 11, the PDB (on August 6, 2001) told the President "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US."
But on a day-to-day basis, the PDB is marked "For the President's Eyes Only." The story goes that when vice-president Harry Truman became President when Roosevelt died in 1945, he did not even know US possessed the atom bomb.Some secrets are for the president's eyes only , which is why there has been kerfuffle over the practice of presidential nominees -presumptively in 2016, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton -receiving intel briefings. How much will they -should they -know?
A few months before a new president takes over, prospective Oval Office successors begin to get intelligence briefings, a practice dating back to the 1940s. The briefings are not as precise or extensive as PDB: they expand as the putative successors get closer to the White House -a one-time briefing for nominees and more frequent ones for the presumptive president after election day in November till the formal oath-taking on January 20. But even those graduated briefings are bothering some intelligence professionals who feel that Trump, in particular, cannot be relied on to keep secrets. "He's never held public office before. He's a business developer and a reality TV star," CIA analyst Aki Pe ritz said, calling the presumptive Republican nominee "a man famously with no filter." If Trump gets classified briefings with sensitive information it could be a disaster, he added.
Some on the Republican side of the debate have also expressed concern about Hillary Clinton getting similar briefings given the controversy over her use of private servers and alleged carelessness with classified information. But to her credit, she has cosiderable experience in handling highoffice. Already , foreign policy stalwarts are aghast at Trump's peremptory utterances on international issues, from his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the US to finger-wagging threats against China and Mexico.
On Sunday, Trump threw another verbal grenade into US foreign relations field, saying he might not have a very good rela tionship with British PM David Cameron if he became president because the latter described his Muslim ban proposal "divisive, stupid, and wrong."
"I'm not stupid, I can tell you that right now, just the opposite," Trump said with his now trademark pique in an interview to Piers Morgan, adding that because of Cameron's remarks, "It looks like we're not going to have a very good relationship." Morgan later tweeted that Trump's comments were "incredibly strong" and were "going to have real ramifications if he wins." Notwithstanding such capricious outbursts, some bordering on infantile -including against US allies such as Japan and South Korea -the Obama administration has indicated that Trump will get intelligence briefings -although they may not be as extensive or in-depth of the kind the President gets.
As well he should
Doesn’t Obama blow off these briefings on a regular basis?
If Mr. Trump were ever fully briefed honestly,
the treason of the undocumented, unvetted pRes_ _ent
would be patent, and that will not happen.
I'm sure she'll sell the info for a good price.
Lip service.
They’ll just sit him in front of YouTube and play the complete Dutchinse library.
There is no way, NO WAY (What with Obama making presidential Decree that his office will be in charge of info handoff to the next president) that they will give him credible info.
And I hope Donald knows this. I’m sure he does. It’s like he’s just taken over a company in a hostile action, and he sits down with the old board and takes their information ? Not a chance.
I don’t think he’ll show up. President Trump plays these sycophants like a fine violin.
“briefings are bothering some intelligence professionals who feel that Trump, in particular, cannot be relied on to keep secrets. “He’s never held public office before. He’s a business developer and a reality TV star,” CIA analyst Aki Peritz”
So in the opinion of Aki, she and her ilk should be a policy maker, and she thinks she need not show respect to Trump because he has never held office.
I hope Trump guts the intelligence world like a fish.
As if he could even comprehend what’s going on in the world.
Obama usually skips those meetings.
Obama got access much sooner.
“...some intelligence professionals who feel that Trump, in particular, cannot be relied on to keep secrets...”
I’ll tell you so-called “intelligence professionals” something...If you have any intelligence your self, you better keep Trump fully abreast of what is happening because if he was to find out you hold anything back because you don’t “trust” him, you’ll be out the door and looking for another job so fast, you will not know what hit you...
Trust, truthfulness, and integrity are extremely important to Trump....
if I’m reading this correctly the only person who opposes this is an analyst named Pee??
Until Trump (or any candidate) undergoes a security check and receives clearance, they won’t get anything more sophisticated than anything you can read in the paper.
Morgan later tweeted that Trump's comments were "incredibly strong" and were "going to have real ramifications if he wins."
What about the ramifications to Britain from their Prime Minister foolishly sticking his nose into another country's election campaign to call the leading candidate "divisive, stupid, and wrong"? He must think that's fine and that it's all Trump's fault for standing up to him.
Just give Trump Obama’s copy, he doesn’t read them anyway...
Spoken like a person who has never been involved in the classification process.
Obama is only concerned with how daily security briefings will
affect his tee time.
Former presidents still get them, so I'm sure Hillary gets to peek at Bill's copy now and then.
Yes,and he will soon be cleaning their lazy butts OUT!! He just needs their names.
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