The simmering distrust between Donald Trump and U.S. intelligence agencies escalated into open antagonism Saturday after the president-elect mocked a CIA report that Russian operatives had intervened in the U.S. presidential election to help him win.<\/p>\n
The growing tensions set up a potential showdown between Trump and the nation\u2019s top intelligence officials during what some of those officials describe as the most complex threat environment in decades.<\/p>\n
The Washington Post reported Friday that the Central Intelligence Agency had determined that Russia had intervened in the presidential election not just to make mischief but to boost Trump\u2019s chances.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s reaction will probably deepen an existing rift between Trump and the agencies and raised questions about how the government\u2019s 16 spying agencies will function in his administration on matters such as counterterrorism and cyberwarfare. On Friday, members of Trump\u2019s transition team dismissed the CIA\u2019s assessments about Iraq\u2019s stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven his proclivity for revenge combined with his notorious thin skin, this threatens to result in a lasting relationship of distrust and ill will between the president and the intelligence community,\u201d said Paul Pillar, former deputy director of the CIA\u2019s Counterterrorism Center.<\/p>\n
U.S. intelligence officials described mounting concern and confusion about how to proceed in an administration so openly hostile to their function and role. \u201cI don\u2019t know what the end game is here,\u201d a senior U.S. intelligence official said. \u201cAfter Jan. 20,\u201d the official said, referring to Inauguration Day, \u201cwe\u2019re in uncharted territory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pillar added: \u201cEverything Trump has indicated with regard to his character and tendencies for vindictiveness might be worse\u201d than former president Richard Nixon, who also had a dysfunctional relationship with the intelligence community.<\/p>\n
The tensions between Trump and spy agencies could escalate even further as dozens of analysts begin work on a project, ordered by President Obama, to deliver a comprehensive report on Russian intervention in the election before Trump\u2019s inauguration in January.<\/p>\n
Led by Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., the investigation is aimed at reaching a definitive judgment about the Russian role in the election. Obama aides have pledged to make as much of the report public as possible once it is completed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make sure we brief Congress and relevant stakeholders, like possibly state administrators who actually operationalize the elections,\u201d White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters Friday.<\/p>\n
But such a report could also pose a more complicated challenge for Trump, potentially pitting the entire U.S. intelligence community against a newly sworn-in president who has repeatedly denigrated their work.<\/p>\n
The Post reported late Friday that the CIA had concluded that individuals with close ties to the Russian government delivered thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee, including from Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign chairman, to WikiLeaks a few weeks before the election. Intelligence officials have determined that Russia\u2019s goal was to help Trump win, rather than simply undermine confidence in the election.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Trump suggested that the CIA had discredited itself over faulty intelligence assessments about Iraq\u2019s weapons stockpile more than a dozen years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The belittling response alarmed people in the intelligence community, which already had questioned Trump\u2019s temperament and lack of national security experience. Despite mounting evidence over Moscow\u2019s involvement in a hack of the Democratic National Committee, Trump has consistently refused to entertain any doubts about the Russians\u2019 role or about Russian President Vladi\u00admir Putin.<\/p>\n
The president-elect has spoken admiringly of Putin in the past, calling him a stronger leader than Obama, and one of Trump\u2019s former campaign managers had business associations with Russian companies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe it. I don\u2019t believe they interfered,\u201d Trump told Time magazine of the Russians in a recent interview during which he suggested the accusations from the United States were politically driven.<\/p>\n
Instead, Trump took direct aim at the professional spies charged with assessing what Clapper in September called the \u201cmost complex and diverse array of global threats\u201d in his 53 years of service.<\/p>\n
Intelligence agencies are tracking Russia\u2019s military interventions in Syria and Ukraine, Iran\u2019s compliance with the nuclear deal, North Korea\u2019s nuclear weapons testing and China\u2019s maritime challenges in Asia and theft of trade secrets. The CIA is operating a covert program to arm and train moderate rebels in Syria to overcome the brutal rule of President Bashar al-Assad, even as Trump has praised Russia\u2019s approach to backing Assad.<\/p>\n
Since his electoral triumph last month, Trump has attended only a limited number of intelligence briefings, and he appointed as his national security adviser retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, who was forced out of his job as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency by Obama administration officials.<\/p>\n
Trump also has created a climate of uncertainty over how his administration would approach counterterrorism and intelligence gathering after speaking approvingly of torture methods, including waterboarding terrorism suspects, which was banned by Obama. Trump has since appeared to moderate his position after meeting with retired Marine Corps Gen. James N. Mattis, whom he intends to nominate as defense secretary and who has said such techniques don\u2019t work.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s transition aides have explained his unwillingness to make time for more intelligence briefings as a consequence of his busy schedule building an administration and selecting Cabinet members. Vice President-elect Mike Pence has reportedly attended such briefings most days.<\/p>\n
But Trump\u2019s approach has contrasted with that of his predecessors, including Obama and George W. Bush, who attended multiple briefings each week leading up to their inaugurations.<\/p>\n
In his statement, Trump emphasized that the election was over and vowed to \u201cmove on,\u201d and he did not, as is his habit, react to the CIA story on social media in the hours after it was published.<\/p>\n
Congressional Democrats have called for investigations into Russia\u2019s interference, but reaction among Republican leaders was divided. Sens. John McCain (Ariz.) and Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) vowed to pursue the matter, but Sen. John Cornyn (Tex.) said Russia has been involved in cyberattacks for years and said the new allegations were \u201cserious, but hardly news.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s handling of questions regarding Russian intervention will put enormous strain on his nominee to lead the CIA, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), who may find himself caught in the crossfire between the agency and his president. Pillar said he already has concerns about Pompeo\u2019s ability to deliver impartial views to the White House.<\/p>\n
Pompeo, along with Flynn and Mattis, has been a strident critic of the Iran nuclear deal, and Pillar wondered whether Pompeo would be a dispassionate actor if intelligence agencies conclude that Iran is abiding by the deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see the danger of a lasting dysfunctional relationship based on the president-elect\u2019s perception that he is being wronged by the intelligence community,\u201d Pillar said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source: \u00a0<\/strong>The Washington Post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The simmering distrust between Donald Trump and U.S. intelligence agencies escalated into open antagonism Saturday after the president-elect mocked a CIA report that Russian operatives had intervened in the U.S. presidential election to help him win. The growing tensions set up a potential showdown between Trump and the nation\u2019s top intelligence officials during what some of those officials describe as… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":378,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions\/378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}