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.
Can you elaborate?
“.. 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..”
I tend to think such a person would be facing prison time, and it would be damned certain they never be employable again, certainly not for the govt.
Not so....Neither he nor McCain got their first brifing until AFTER they actually got the nomination..IIRC...September 2008
The Maasai tribal chief has more important things to tend to, like transforming his adopted country.
“going to have real ramifications if he wins.”
Right - such as Trump wants America to trade with a Great Britain, not a Britainistan.
Give him a week and he’ll have attended more than the golfer.
I was actually referring to AFTER Trump is elected...
Do these people objecting to Trump getting a briefing not understand business? I am convinced many companies protect their proprietary information and intellectual property far better than many government agencies do. The State Dept comes to mind... Someone as experienced and successful as Trump knows how to keep his mouth shut. He understands image and presence. I’m sure a lot of his apparently off the cuff remarks are carefully considered and delivered with exquisite showmanship timing.
“bordering on infantile”. I am so sick of these communist faggots
Geez, hellary will get them, too. Hope they give her the fake ones or all our secrets will be emailed to all her fb friends, aka our enemies.
Tough cookies to those who are concerned. Trump is smart, clearly a patriot (why else would he subject himself to this?!).
The people have spoken. They want Donald Trump.
And please.... entrusting the Clintons with vital information? Didn’t the Clintons get donations from China in return for State secrets?
I
I’m sure the info is safer with Trump than with Hillary
LOL!!!
Exactly.....
Was it the prime minister, or just the mayor of London?
I hope Trump is vindictive and fires or destroys the careers of those who have betrayed him
my guess the officials that are concerned are all democrat political appointees.
Trump needs to fire Morgan.
Why do government people think businesses are run by themselves. I am sure Trump has held plenty of secrets. And if he is one of two people to become President, you have to figure he has something on the ball.
The arrogance of people be holding to the government is mind boggling.
#17 is correct.
He just reads the executive summary; sure he does.
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