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US Intelligence Chief On Trump: 'There's A Difference Between Skepticism And Disparagement'
BI ^ | 1-5-2017 | Pamela Engel

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 ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2016electionhack; alqaedasupporter; cia; cia4islam; cia4obama; clapper; clapperhearing; intelligence; spies; trump; trump4usa
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To: blam

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.


21 posted on 01/05/2017 3:28:19 PM PST by DoughtyOne (Recall John McCain. NOW, before he gets us in WWIII.)
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To: blam
Clapper said he is "apolitical" and cautioned against disparaging the intelligence community.

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.

22 posted on 01/05/2017 3:29:43 PM PST by olezip
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To: Roger Kaputnik

You forgot the SAME CIA that NEVER saw 9/11 coming!!! IDIOTS all of them!!!!


23 posted on 01/05/2017 3:29:54 PM PST by Trump Girl Kit Cat (Yosemite Sam raising hell)
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To: ColdOne
". . . a difference between skepticism and disparagement . . "

Who deserves both and more?

24 posted on 01/05/2017 3:30:24 PM PST by aspasia
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To: blam

General Clapper, there’s a difference between lying to Congress and “mis- speaking “ if I may disparage your history

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2014/01/27/darrell-issa-james-clapper-lied-to-congress-about-nsa-and-should-be-fired/?utm_term=.f0ebd1f95320


25 posted on 01/05/2017 3:31:49 PM PST by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
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To: blam

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.


26 posted on 01/05/2017 3:35:41 PM PST by RetiredTexasVet (Dan Rather, a 60 Minutes Investigative Reporter for CBS, invented "Fake News"-fake but accurate.)
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To: blam

“McCaskill said America’s adversaries would benefit...”

Want to know Claire’s definition of adversary???

Look in a mirror.


27 posted on 01/05/2017 3:35:42 PM PST by Proyecto Anonimo
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To: olezip

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


28 posted on 01/05/2017 3:36:41 PM PST by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
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To: RetiredTexasVet

See my comment above


29 posted on 01/05/2017 3:37:43 PM PST by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
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To: All

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.


30 posted on 01/05/2017 3:45:54 PM PST by ssfromla
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To: blam

He’s right; there is a difference between the two. And he deserves both.


31 posted on 01/05/2017 3:57:22 PM PST by djpg (Will)
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To: blam

And there is a difference between having an actual trail of evidence showing Russian hacking and having squat.


32 posted on 01/05/2017 4:09:22 PM PST by justa-hairyape (The user name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
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To: jospehm20

Yeah interesting how that wasn’t pointed out today

I wouldn’t believe a word The Clap has to say


33 posted on 01/05/2017 4:19:51 PM PST by A_Former_Democrat ("Liberalism is a mental disorder" On FULL Display NOW BOYCOTT PepsiCO Kellogg's)
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To: blam
The CIA is kind of overstepping it's bounds.

“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.

34 posted on 01/05/2017 4:28:53 PM PST by rdcbn (.... when Poets buy guns, tourist season is over ......d)
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To: blam

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.


35 posted on 01/05/2017 4:33:07 PM PST by falcon99
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To: blam

Neither the CIA nor FBI examined the DNC computers and servers. Therefore, their claims are unsubstantiated assertions.


36 posted on 01/05/2017 4:42:55 PM PST by pjd
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To: Founding Father

They just want to keep their jobs. Trump should just fire all of them.


37 posted on 01/05/2017 5:30:27 PM PST by virgil (The evil that men do lives after them.)
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To: silverleaf

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.


38 posted on 01/05/2017 5:32:06 PM PST by RetiredTexasVet (Dan Rather, a 60 Minutes Investigative Reporter for CBS, invented "Fake News"-fake but accurate.)
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To: Ray76

You could be right. He is such a worthless egomaniac!


39 posted on 01/05/2017 7:09:27 PM PST by Mollypitcher1 (I have not yet begun to fight....John Paul Jones)
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To: Mollypitcher1

These politicized losers should be arrested and waterboarded. They are unpatriotic cancers on America.


40 posted on 01/05/2017 7:37:21 PM PST by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?.)
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