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REPORT: Intel Officials Are Withholding Sensitive Information From POTUS Trump
Mediaite.com ^ | 9:21 pm, February 15th, 2017 | Josh Feldman

Posted on 02/15/2017 7:22:56 PM PST by drewh

A new report in The Wall Street Journal tonight says that U.S. intelligence officials have “withheld” information from President Trump.

Why? Well…

U.S. intelligence officials have withheld sensitive intelligence from President Donald Trump because they are concerned it could be leaked or compromised, according to current and former officials familiar with the matter…

In some of these cases of withheld information, officials have decided not to show Mr. Trump the sources and methods that the intelligence agencies use to collect information, the current and former officials said. Those sources and methods could include, for instance, the means that an agency uses to spy on a foreign government.

There has been a lot of reported tension between Trump and many in the intel community, and the president himself has repeatedly slammed the leaks to the press this week.

One White House official told WSJ, “There is nothing that leads us to believe that this is an accurate account of what is actually happening.”

The anonymous officials who spoke to the paper made it clear Trump has been kept from “crucial information about security threats or potential plotting,” but there’s still that concern:

Intelligence officials have in the past not told a president or members of Congress about the ins and outs of how they ply their trade. At times, they have decided that secrecy is essential for protecting a source, and that all a president needs to know is what that source revealed and what the intelligence community thinks is important about it.

But in these previous cases in which information was withheld, the decision wasn’t motivated by a concern about a president’s trustworthiness or discretion, the current and former officials said.

This report comes on the heels of a report in the Observer days ago by John Schindler headlined “The Spy Revolt Against Trump Begins.”

And in that report, Schindler wrote the following:

[O]ut of worries about the White House’s ability to keep secrets, some of our spy agencies have begun withholding intelligence from the Oval Office. Why risk your most sensitive information if the president may ignore it anyway? A senior National Security Agency official explained that NSA was systematically holding back some of the “good stuff” from the White House, in an unprecedented move. For decades, NSA has prepared special reports for the president’s eyes only, containing enormously sensitive intelligence. In the last three weeks, however, NSA has ceased doing this, fearing Trump and his staff cannot keep their best SIGINT secrets.

Since NSA provides something like 80 percent of the actionable intelligence in our government, what’s being kept from the White House may be very significant indeed. However, such concerns are widely shared across the IC, and NSA doesn’t appear to be the only agency withholding intelligence from the administration out of security fears.

What’s going on was explained lucidly by a senior Pentagon intelligence official, who stated that “since January 20, we’ve assumed that the Kremlin has ears inside the SITROOM,” meaning the White House Situation Room, the 5,500 square-foot conference room in the West Wing where the president and his top staffers get intelligence briefings. “There’s not much the Russians don’t know at this point,” the official added in wry frustration.

You can read the full WSJ report here.


TOPICS: Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: sedition
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To: drewh

Sent in the Marines to secure CIA Headquarters.


21 posted on 02/15/2017 7:33:32 PM PST by Timpanagos1
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To: nopardons

You just wait and close your eyes if you can’t stand blood.


22 posted on 02/15/2017 7:34:27 PM PST by WENDLE (Trump RULES IMMIGRATION!! Sanctuary crap will STOP or no money. ZERO!!)
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To: drewh

Extremely Demented former human beings responding in link discussion. I am really starting to think that there are all too of Mentally ill in this Country...let’s not get to the “Why”.
But Barack’s “Moooovement”, is just that. Bowel Spillage.
Keep fighting on, these are the “ones”...
who should have been institutionalized, prior to public school.


23 posted on 02/15/2017 7:35:18 PM PST by acapesket (all happy now?)
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To: sneakers

bump to read later


24 posted on 02/15/2017 7:35:51 PM PST by sneakers (It's DEMOCRAT - and not DemocratIC. There's nothing Democratic about the DEMOCRAT party)
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To: drewh

Firing squad time.


25 posted on 02/15/2017 7:36:23 PM PST by Phillyred
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To: drewh

...The anonymous officials who spoke to the paper...

I’m guessing McCain and his bitch.


26 posted on 02/15/2017 7:36:47 PM PST by McGruff (Drain The Swamp)
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To: drewh
I'm calling bullshit on this “story”. It's more FAKE NEWS meant merely to attempt to make Trump paranoid.
27 posted on 02/15/2017 7:39:16 PM PST by House Atreides (Send BOTH Hillary & Bill to prison.)
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To: drewh
But in these previous cases in which information was withheld, the decision wasn’t motivated by a concern about a president’s trustworthiness or discretion, the current and former officials said.

And what if these unnamed sources are loyal to Obama and Clinton? They would hardly be passive observers as has been evidenced over the past 8 years. And they certainly have the chutzpah to stretch the truth and break the law to try to further Obama's agenda.

28 posted on 02/15/2017 7:39:42 PM PST by Major Matt Mason (Those that can, do, those that can't, work in the Beltway.)
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To: McGruff


29 posted on 02/15/2017 7:40:42 PM PST by drewh
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To: Timpanagos1

Take the president to a secure location.


30 posted on 02/15/2017 7:41:24 PM PST by atc23 (The Confederacy was the single greatest conservative resistance to federal authority ever)
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To: drewh

You deliver half a building to Trump and you want to be paid? You expect to be paid?


31 posted on 02/15/2017 7:41:44 PM PST by AndyJackson
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To: drewh
The WSJ article did refer to Flynn lying to Trump. The rest is caveat-ladened, gossipy, unsubstantiated FakeNews.
32 posted on 02/15/2017 7:42:52 PM PST by Carl Vehse
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To: drewh

I am stunned at what is going on...never thought drain the swamp could mean so much! Pray for Trump!


33 posted on 02/15/2017 7:46:26 PM PST by Blue Turtle
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To: drewh

AZ and Palmetto Staters still truly believe!!!!


34 posted on 02/15/2017 7:47:19 PM PST by Theodore R. (Let's not squander the golden opportunity of 2017.)
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To: drewh

This is the biggest bunch of bullshit I’ve read in my life.


35 posted on 02/15/2017 7:48:31 PM PST by VeniVidiVici
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To: nopardons

Ugly would be bloodshed...whole country seems like a powder keg right now.


36 posted on 02/15/2017 7:48:36 PM PST by Panhandle.deporable
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To: kiryandil

” . . OK for a Muslim seditionist like Little Barry”

Who infested the government with like minded demonic Muslim Brotherhood operatives and who aided and abetted Americas and Israels enemies at every available opportunity,

And OK for a corrupt wretched bobble-headed wicked queen Hillary who couldn’t be bothered to even put a secure password on her top secret emails. Where everything was for sale to the highest bidder,


37 posted on 02/15/2017 7:49:00 PM PST by captmar-vell
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To: FlingWingFlyer

Nope, when there is a mole, the standard procedures is to lock down the distribution of intel till the mole is found. At the level of intel we are talking about here, people’s lives are at risk.

Find and clear out the mole, then the info can flow again.


38 posted on 02/15/2017 7:50:06 PM PST by taxcontrol
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To: WENDLE

Stop being a keyboard warrior...you’re not going to go to DC, with guns blazing, and take down anyone. You don’t even know WHO to target.


39 posted on 02/15/2017 7:53:01 PM PST by nopardons
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To: drewh

This smells like bullsh*t from top to bottom or the meanderings of a bunch of lunatic leftists desperate for attention.

U.S. intelligence officials have...

officials have decided ...

many in the intel community...

The anonymous officials...

ntelligence officials have...

This is all unnamed sources, make-believe people and nobody who can be identified.

Can we say bullchit? Yes, we can.


40 posted on 02/15/2017 7:53:11 PM PST by sergeantdave (Cats are like potato chips - you can't have just one.)
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