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In
Scathing Attack, CIA Director Brennan Warns Trump To "Watch What
He Says"
15
January, 2017
The departing
CIA director John Brennan has launched a scathing attack on Donald
Trump,
warning the President-elect does not fully understand the threat
posed to the US by Russia.
"I think Mr. Trump has to understand that absolving Russia of various actions it has taken in the past number of years is a road that he needs to be very, very careful about moving down."
As
Reuters reports,
Brennan's comments, during an interview on "Fox News Sunday,"
exposed the simmering tensions between the president-elect and the
intelligence community he has criticized and is on the verge of
commanding.
"Spontaneity is not something that protects national security interests and so therefore when he speaks or when he reacts, just make sure he understands that the implications and impact on the United States could be profound," Brennan said.
"It's more than just about Mr. Trump. It's about the United States of America.
"What I do find outrageous is equating intelligence community with Nazi Germany," Brennan said. "I do take great umbrage at that."
Brennan
also questioned the message it sends to the world if the
president-elect broadcasts he does not have confidence in the United
States' own intelligence agencies.
"The world is watching now what Trump says and listening very carefully. If he doesn’t have confidence in the intelligence community, what signal does that send to our partners and allies as well as our adversaries?"
"There is no basis for Mr Trump to point fingers at the intelligence community for 'leaking' information that was already available publicly,"
Speaking
earlier on Sunday, President
Barack Obama's chief of staff Denis McDonough said the intelligence
community was "staffed by an unbelievably cadre of
professionals" and
he dismissed the notion that they would seek to undermine Mr Trump's
victory as the President-elect has suggested. As Jacob
G. Hornberger warns:
In a truly remarkable bit of honesty and candor regarding the U.S. national-security establishment, new Senate minority leader Charles Schumer has accused President-elect Trump of “being really dumb.”… for taking on the CIA and questioning its conclusions regarding Russia.
“Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you…. He’s being really dumb to do this.”
[…]
No president since John F. Kennedy has dared to take on the CIA or the rest of the national security establishment […] They knew that if they opposed the national-security establishment at a fundamental level, they would be subjected to retaliatory measures.
Kennedy… After the Bay of Pigs, he vowed to tear the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter them to the winds. He also fired CIA Director Allen Dulles, who, in a rather unusual twist of fate, would later be appointed to the Warren Commission to investigate Kennedy’s murder.
Kennedy’s antipathy toward the CIA gradually extended to what President Eisenhower had termed the military-industrial complex, especially when it proposed Operation Northwoods, which called for fraudulent terrorist attacks to serve as a pretext for invading Cuba, and when it suggested that Kennedy initiate a surprise nuclear attack on the Soviet Union
[…]
Worst of all, from the standpoint of the national-security establishment, [Kennedy] initiated secret personal negotiations with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Cuban leader Fidel Castro, both of whom, by this time, were on the same page as Kennedy.
[…]
Kennedy was fully aware of the danger he faced by taking on such a formidable enemy.
And, as
we previously noted,
to the extent that President Kennedy consciously stood up to the
system, he paid the price for his attempt at independent wielding of
power from the Oval Office.
It
is a shuddering thought. A sharp lesson in history that must not be
misinterpreted.
The
implications for Trump are quite clear. If
his refusal to take intelligence briefings, or follow CIA advice is
serious, then serious consequences will follow. If Trump is serious
about peace with Putin when they insist on war, there will be a
problem.
The
CIA director will likely be
replaced by Mr Trump's pick Mike Pompeo next week.
Trump
Responds To CIA Chief Brennan, Asks "Was He The Leaker Of Fake
News?"
15
January, 2017
Just
hours after John
Brennan lashed out at
the president-elect in an interview with Fox News, Donald Trump has
responded by suggesting
that the outgoing CIA Director may have been behind the publication
last week of unverified and salacious intelligence connecting
the president-elect to Russia....
Donald J. Trump
.@FoxNews "Outgoing CIA Chief, John Brennan, blasts Pres-Elect Trump on Russia threat. Does not fully understand." Oh really, couldn't do...
This
is the most
direct accusation yet in the escalating feud with Obama's
intelligence agencies. As
we noted earlier, no
president since John F. Kennedy has dared to take on the CIA or the
rest of the national security establishment. They
knew that if they opposed the national-security establishment at
a fundamental level, they would be subjected to retaliatory
measures.
To the extent that President Kennedy consciously stood up
to the
system, he paid the price for his attempt at independent
wielding of
power from the Oval Office. It is a shuddering thought. A sharp lesson in history that must not be misinterpreted.
power from the Oval Office. It is a shuddering thought. A sharp lesson in history that must not be misinterpreted.
The
implications for Trump are quite clear. If
his refusal to take intelligence briefings, or follow CIA advice
is serious,then serious consequences will follow. If Trump is
serious about peace with Putin when they insist on war, there will
be a problem.
The
CIA director will likely be
replaced by Mr Trump's pick Mike Pompeo next week.
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