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.
You honestly think Barack Obama could have passed a high level DOD security check? With his sketchy background not in a million years. Presidential candidates don’t have to pass security checks.
You do know who you’re asking?
> “CIA analyst Aki Pe ritz ...”
These government parasites need to know their place.
Ronald Reagan had a hostile relationship with many many enemies of America, both foreign and domestic. His first meeting with Gorbachev in Reykjavik was in the press for weeks about how icy cold their relationship was, how ‘hard-line’ Reagan was.
Trump knows better how to handle intel than any CIA bureaucrat. And as any smart person will do, when you don’t know something, you ask the right people, people that are trusted. Donald Trump will do far better than anyone can imagine.
Since the gubmint failed to pull Hillary’s security clearance, and that of many of her minions, do they get the same Intel as The Donald?
too bad. Americans aren't aghast at all. No identity? no admittance.
Mr. Trump should start issuing orders to the US military NOW, something like “Hey, people, the whole world knows we have a mental defective in the white house and other mental defectives in our state department... That is coming to an end next January; in the meantime, ANYBODY who obeys any sort of an order to start any sort of a war or do anything else stupid between now and then is going to wish he’d never been born the day after I’m inaugurated!!”
He was also a US senator on the foreign affairs and homeland security committees.
Getting security clearance is a long process. Depending on the clearance level and your job it can involve a pretty invasive examination of your life.
Every person exposed to classified information undergoes security checks. When you’re the big boss it does matter, because ever person in the executive branch (every department or agency in government will the exception of congress and the courts) works for you.
As a former U.S. naval officer I have had a variety of clearance classifications.
You will know if he showed up....if his hair turns white...(no racist puns intended)
Oh. How did jarret or huma get clearances (as well as many of the other anti-American criminals in this mal-administration)?
Dad was an Army officer from WWII to 1966. His last tour was at the Pentagon, I believe on the staff of the Under Secretary of the Army. Anyway I recall him flying to London with his boss to brief the Brits on some weapons program. Secret stuff. Dad’s in his 90s now and still with a good mind. Not long ago he mentioned that trip, so I asked him “what was it that you briefed the Brits about?” He looked at me with a jaundiced eye and said “You’re not cleared.” And that was that.
True, but this is huge: Rubes and Cruz in particular always had facts and figures at their fingers because they were constantly briefed as senators. I predict Trump will begin to sound more “traditional” in terms of specifics since he will have them for the first time.
You beat me to it.
Cameron calls Trump divisive, stupid and wrong.
Trump says it looks like we might not have a good relationship.
Whose statement was the more provocative?
Cameron was being juvinile sticking his nose into our election.
He’s the one messing up the relationship between countries.
Trump just stated the obvious.
Cameron was playing to his constituency, irregardless of foreign relations and diplomacy. That says something about Cameron. And it says something about his constituency.
I have no problem with Trump’s response to that.
Trump just tweeted: “In politics, and in life, ignorance is not a virtue. This is a primary reason that President Obama is the worst president in U.S. history!”
I wonder why Obama got any security clearance given his past history?
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.
Thank you for the morning laugh.
Having gone through the process of receiving a clearance I can say that Obama, Hillary and who knows how many others would NEVER receive a clearance based upon their ‘known’ actions over the last few decades.
At their ‘level’ a Clearance is deemed or bestowed upon them by the power of the Presidency alone.
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