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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPotential Clash Over Secrets Looms Between Justice Dept. and C.I.A.
WASHINGTON President Trumps order allowing Attorney General William P. Barr to declassify any intelligence that led to the Russia investigation sets up a potential confrontation with the C.I.A. It effectively strips the agency of its most critical power: choosing which secrets it shares and which ones remain hidden.
Mr. Trump said on Friday that he wanted Mr. Barr to get to the bottom of what the intelligence agencies knew about the investigation into his campaign. He promised, Were exposing everything.
The president raised questions about C.I.A. involvement in the origins of the Russia investigation, and other officials said Mr. Barr wanted to learn more about sources in Russia, including a key informant who helped the C.I.A. conclude that President Vladimir V. Putin ordered the intrusion on the 2016 election. Mr. Trump also invoked two close allies, Australia and Britain, telling reporters he wanted the attorney general to examine their roles in sharing intelligence about Russias interference.
The declassification order served as Mr. Trumps counterpunch to the special counsels investigation. Since the release of the Mueller report, the president has been trying to focus attention on his accusations that the F.B.I. and intelligence agencies spied on his campaign. The new order, former officials said, could be intended to give more ammunition to that effort.
The intelligence agencies signaled on Friday that they would not easily give up their secrets. Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, pledged to cooperate with the review but also warned that the secrets of the intelligence community, or I.C., must be protected.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/potential-clash-over-secrets-looms-between-justice-dept-and-cia/ar-AABRnEn?li=BBnbcA1
So Trump's going to throw our allies under the bus as well.
DURHAM D
(32,617 posts)Good luck to the spooks.
AJT
(5,240 posts)the IC has done nothing to stop 45.
Nay
(12,051 posts)to be giving it all a pass. Maybe this threat to their very existence and effectiveness will jolt them out of their stupor, but who the fuck knows.
Skraxx
(2,985 posts)Hopefully Trump et al also have no idea. I cant imagine theyve been doing nothing. Obama almost certainly set set things in motion before he left that would necessarily be completely compartmentalized, and one hopes, remains so.
Remember, we know for sure there was a DOJ counter intel op that we still have learned nothing about and may be ongoing. I imagine a slew of other agencies have their own compartmentalized activities as well.
Nay
(12,051 posts)something in the works that will put a stop to this madness. My greatest fear is that the IC has enough nazi types in it that their 'results' will be a similar, or an unforeseen, horror that dismays us all even more.
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)This will not end well.
Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)Despite being retired military and having worked for the feds, I am not clear on the inter-mechinations of how something like this would work, and it terrifies me to think that trumpie the traitor could jeopardize not only our intel agencies and their sources, but how he could undermine our working relationships with allies and their intel agencies.
Adam Schiff said it best, when he said that trump "seems intent on declassifying intel to weaponize it."
Thank you.
Mme. Defarge
(8,056 posts)pour moi.
real Cannabis calm
(1,124 posts)cynatnite
(31,011 posts)The Blue Flower
(5,447 posts)nt
no_hypocrisy
(46,250 posts)who will literally hide information from their superiors and hence, the DOJ, for the protection of their country -- and/or their asses.
jalan48
(13,905 posts)use it against the political opposition by expanding the authority of the Executive Branch of government.
AJT
(5,240 posts)I hope there are people in the CIA etc. that aren't right wingers who would like to see authoritarian rule. It seems to me that secretive enforcement agencies would attract a lot of authoritarian types.