Posted on 01/05/2017 3:10:40 PM PST by blam
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper suggested at a congressional hearing Thursday that President-elect Donald Trump is disparaging the US intelligence community as he refuses to acknowledge Russia's role in election-related hacking.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri, asked Clapper during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing who benefits from Trump "trashing the intelligence community" as he expresses skepticism about intelligence assessments that show Russia was involved in hacking Democratic Party organizations in an attempt to influence the election.
Clapper said he is "apolitical" and cautioned against disparaging the intelligence community.
"I think there is an important distinction here between healthy skepticism, which policymakers ... should always have for intelligence, but I think there's a difference between skepticism and disparagement," Clapper said.
Clapper was one of a number of top intelligence officials who testified before the Senate on Thursday and largely affirmed the intelligence community's findings on Russian election-related hacking, brushing back consistent skepticism from the president-elect. In a joint statement Thursday, the intelligence leaders said "only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized" the hacking.
McCaskill said America's adversaries would benefit from a US president doubting the country's intelligence apparatus. A report from The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday said Trump was planning to restructure the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA, though Trump's team on Thursday denied those plans.
"I assume that the biggest benefactors ... are in fact the actors you have named today," McCaskill said. "Iran, North Korea, China, Russia, and ISIS."
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
And yet, proof has still not been deemed necessary to back up these guy’s claims.
So in the future when they go to the president and make claims about foreign nations doing this or that, how is he to trust them?
These guys are destroying nobody’s credibility more than their own.
Suspect that there is plenty of evidence to show that Clapper is far from "apolitical" as he claims. The head of the IRS probably makes the same claim.
You forgot the SAME CIA that NEVER saw 9/11 coming!!! IDIOTS all of them!!!!
Who deserves both and more?
General Clapper, there’s a difference between lying to Congress and “mis- speaking “ if I may disparage your history
Trump is not trashing the “intelligence community”, he is trashing the top level management of the CIA, DNI, FBI, DHS, and other intelligence agencies as the political hacks that they are. I’m sure most of the real analysts groan when their work is bastardized and presented as something else.
“McCaskill said America’s adversaries would benefit...”
Want to know Claire’s definition of adversary???
Look in a mirror.
I believe Clapper was the reason over 50 CENTCOM analysts filed an IG complaint
because he was forcing their J-2 to alter and falsify their intelligence reports about ISIS growth- to meet Obama’s political agenda that ISIS was no major threat
And this bad politicized intelligence was fed to Congress to affect our policies
See my comment above
Setup question. We all know he knew all the questions the Democrats would ask beforehand and had his answers printed out for him ala CNN. I’m so sick of their constant drama theater.
He’s right; there is a difference between the two. And he deserves both.
And there is a difference between having an actual trail of evidence showing Russian hacking and having squat.
Yeah interesting how that wasn’t pointed out today
I wouldn’t believe a word The Clap has to say
“By law, the CIA is specifically prohibited from collecting foreign intelligence concerning the domestic activities of US citizens. Its mission is to collect information related to foreign intelligence and foreign counterintelligence. By direction of the president in Executive Order 12333 of 1981 and in accordance with procedures approved by the Attorney General, the CIA is restricted in the collection of intelligence information directed against US citizens…”
The FBI is responsible for Counter Intelligence and Counter Espionage within American borders and the CIA is inappropriately (and possibly illegally) interjecting itself into domestic election politics on behalf of Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton.
The CIA has become a rouge agency under Barak Obama. They have been covertly supporting ISIS and al Qaeda abroad and have been setting themselves up to become an American version of East Germany's Stasi.
Clapper is an asshat who has politicized the intelligence community. Along with Brennan, he deserves every disparagement that someone can throw their way because of the way they have politicized a very important job for the security of the United States.
Neither the CIA nor FBI examined the DNC computers and servers. Therefore, their claims are unsubstantiated assertions.
They just want to keep their jobs. Trump should just fire all of them.
So true. If we can get to the Trump administration, those analysts will be more than ready to brief their new bosses as to what really went on, especially after having been dumped on for the last 8 years.
You could be right. He is such a worthless egomaniac!
These politicized losers should be arrested and waterboarded. They are unpatriotic cancers on America.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.