CIA freezes out top Flynn aide

[DonViejo]

Source: Politico



The agency denied a security clearance for a key aide to the National Security Adviser — ratcheting up tensions between Flynn and the intel community.

By KENNETH P. VOGEL and JOSH DAWSEY 02/10/17 10:16 PM EST Updated 02/10/17 11:09 PM EST

A top deputy to National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was rejected for a critical security clearance, effectively ending his tenure on the National Security Council and escalating tensions between Flynn and the intelligence community.

The move came as Flynn’s already tense relationships with others in the Trump administration and the intelligence community were growing more fraught after reports that Flynn had breached diplomatic protocols in his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

On Friday, one of Flynn’s closest deputies on the National Security Council, senior director for Africa Robin Townley, was informed that the Central Intelligence Agency had rejected his request for an elite security clearance required for service on the NSC, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation.

That forced Townley, a former Marine intelligence officer who had long maintained a top secret-level security clearance, out of his NSC post, explained the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/mike-flynn-nsa-aide-trump-234923

[ck4829]

1. Good. We need to start pushing back, Flynn will go from Robin Townley to Michael Townley

As the Trump Maladministration delves deeper and deeper into insanity.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. sn't that council the one Bannon is now sitting in on?

And wasn't bannon supposed to be cleared by Congress to do so?
Not to mention the CIA clearance?

Have not heard a word about that....

but do like the CIA moves in Flynn's case.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Sort of a duplicate

of http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141698067 - goes to same Politico story, but the headline reads what you have, not that thread (it says it was updated in some way, so perhaps that was accurate at first).

[Grimelle]

4. Trump is NOT savvy

enough to get the CIA on his side,.
Thi is "war"...

[padfun]

5. Hmmm, System detects foreign presence. Immunization in progress.

It's a start. The system will fight back when it senses that it is being killed.

[radhika]

6. Bannon got his clearance from the President. IIRC

That was said on TV, by security talking head Malcolm Nance. Apparently when a President deems someone certified as top secret, that's all that is needed. This came up when someone asked about Jared Kushner.