Embattled Intelligence Community

[Hank77]

President Trump’s fury over any suggestion that Russia favors him has led to an embattled intelligence community.

Last year, intelligence officials gathered to write a classified report on Russia’s interest in the 2020 election. A Times Magazine investigation found that the first draft, which reported that Russia favored Mr. Trump, was changed to soften its assessment.


The investigation includes details not previously reported about the fears of American intelligence officials under the Trump administration, who described struggling to brief the president without provoking his anger and risking their jobs. Here are the key takeaways.


On Friday, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center released its first public assessment of the 2020 election: Russia continues to meddle to aid Mr. Trump, using a range of measures to denigrate Joe Biden.

He's getting angry at the wrong people. He needs to get off the pot and tell lying Putin to back off or admit he doesn't want him to back off.

 

[wing2000]

The investigation includes details not previously reported about the fears of American intelligence officials under the Trump administration, who described struggling to brief the president without provoking his anger and risking their jobs. Here are the key takeaways.

A President who refuses to accept reality is a real danger to our nation's security, and, as we observe almost daily with COVID-19, a danger to American lives. History is replete with disasters...caused by people afraid to contradict the party line....

One example:
The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident occurred because the work of Soviet nuclear engineers—trained to analyze complex systems based on inferences drawn from objective facts—was politicized. Instead of speaking the truth as they saw it, they were intimidated by their government to conceal the true dimensions of the catastrophe unfolding before them. The result was the worst nuclear disaster in history.

Trump’s Politicization of U.S. Intelligence Agencies Could End in Disaster

 

[Kentonio]

That article makes for horrible reading, while being completely unsurprising. The US government is going to take decades to recover from the damage this man has wrought.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Between Trump and the perpetually-bungling intelligence agencies, it’s hard to know who to feel less sorry for.

 

[cow451]

Between Trump and the perpetually-bungling intelligence agencies, it’s hard to know who to feel less sorry for.

Trump is the more immediate threat.

 

[Kentonio]

Between Trump and the perpetually-bungling intelligence agencies, it’s hard to know who to feel less sorry for.

Are they really 'perpetually-bungling' though? The intelligence was available for both Iraq and 9/11, it was the politicians who chose not to act properly on it.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Are they really 'perpetually-bungling' though? The intelligence was available for both Iraq and 9/11, it was the politicians who chose not to act properly on it.

Oh yeah, they are. Sure, some of the blame falls on politicians for not acting on the appropriate intelligence, but the intelligence agencies share blame, too. Curveball was on them. The torture program was on them. Breaking into the Senate computers was on them. The Vault 7 leaks were on them. And that's only in the last ~20 years. The CIA has a long history of screwing up.

 

[durangodawood]

Yeah, they are perpetually-bungling. Yes, some of the blame falls on politicians for not acting on the appropriate intelligence, but the intelligence agencies share blame, too. Curveball was on them. The torture program was on them. Breaking into the Senate computers was on them. The Vault 7 leaks were on them. The CIA has a long history of screwing up.

I thought the torture program came from the top (White House). For sure it had to receive approval and "legal justification" from the top.

 

[iluvatar5150]

I thought the torture program came from the top (White House). For sure it had to receive approval and "legal justification" from the top.

I'm not aware that it was pushed from the top - AFAIK, it was pushed from the bottom up and given tacit approval by some WH lawyers and probably Cheney.

 

[durangodawood]

I'm not aware that it was pushed from the top - AFAIK, it was pushed from the bottom up and given tacit approval by some WH lawyers and probably Cheney.

I probably dont know the details. I just recall Cheney was very public about "gloves off" being the new policy from the very start. Meaning that we'd be more brutal that was previously acceptable.

 

[wing2000]

Curveball was on them.

Decision makers chose to believe single-sourced, un-collaborated intelligence. And ignore warnings from the UK and German intelligence agencies. It's on the policy makers.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Decision makers chose to believe single-sourced, un-collaborated intelligence. And ignore warnings from the UK and German intelligence agencies. It's on the policy makers.

Higher ups at the CIA tried to claim (likely falsely) that they were unaware of the concerns over Curveball's veracity.