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 theres 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 wasnt motivated by a concern about a presidents 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 Houses 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 presidents 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, whats being kept from the White House may be very significant indeed. However, such concerns are widely shared across the IC, and NSA doesnt appear to be the only agency withholding intelligence from the administration out of security fears.
Whats going on was explained lucidly by a senior Pentagon intelligence official, who stated that since January 20, weve 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. Theres not much the Russians dont know at this point, the official added in wry frustration.
You can read the full WSJ report here.
Get lost.
More leftist agitprop. It is actually quite common for the Agency to not pass along fine details that reveal sources and methods to either the executive or the legislative branches. In most cases they simply don’t need it and they leak like sieves.
If the President specifically requests it he gets it. From what I heard the congressional intel committees have been told to pound sand from time to time. Any information given to them might as well be declassified and printed in the NYT. Scum.
Are we angry? YOU BET WE ARE; but calm down, take a deep breath and lets see what happens and what the president does about this crap.
You first...n00b!
I’m thinking about going long “boiled rope”.
Oh That got me,I might not sleep tonight.You are too much. Noob? Really? check that bozo.
USAgov at war within itself. May Trump win for all real USAians.
lmao- Lindsey’s fainting couch
Best laugh I’ve had this week
The deep state.
Arrest them.
Try them.
Lock them up for as long as the law allows.
Or kill them as active enemy agents.
If they cannot be trusted they have no business holding a security clearance. Trump should have their clearances revoked.
The left has gone nuclear. This could get ugly...>>. and we assumed the socialists were unarmed. CIA, FBI, NSA all have lots of weapons.
Because they're a bunch of Commies? ... Just guessing.
Fire them all!
Trump better start draining the swamp.
Yep - the leakers have “concerns”....
The ridiculous scope of the undermining anti-Trump media narrative is growing exponentially more stupid as the content of their “stories” never match the alarmist headlines they are attempting.
The latest example from Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal is so over-the-top ridiculous, even the Office of the Director of National Intelligence rebuked it publicly.
The Wall Street Journal leads with a headline: “Spies Keep Intelligence From Donald Trump on Leak Concerns”… (there might be a paywall, so we’ll screen grab the lead)
However, about half way through the article you find the part which actually rebukes the entire framework of the presentation:
Oh, so, um, well, wait, “Spies keep intelligence from Donald Trump on leak concerns” – isn’t actually spies keeping intelligence from Donald Trump on leak concerns.
Oh, OK, gotcha.
So why did they even write the article?
At this point, your guess is as good as anyone’s…
However, given the litany of current nonsense, the Office of The Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) responds thus:
“Fake News”…. what can I tell ya…
….”complicated business folks,… complicated business”…
John Schindler is a nut case if its the same one
http://blackbag.gawker.com/the-crazy-emails-that-took-down-nsa-spook-john-schindle-1610203101
Arrest them.
Try them.
Lock them up for as long as the law allows.
Or kill them as active enemy agents.
This is psywar. Don’t buy this garbage. Any story that quotes a tantruming child like Adam Schiff should not be taken seriously.
He might store classified info on a private server set up in his bathroom.
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.