Kevin Drum highlights this story from the Intercept, which says the Trump administration
is considering a set of proposals developed by Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a retired CIA officer — with assistance from Oliver North, a key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal — to provide CIA Director Mike Pompeo and the White House with a global, private spy network that would circumvent official U.S. intelligence agencies, according to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials and others familiar with the proposals.
https://theintercept.com/2017/12/04/trump-white-house-weighing-plans-for-private-spies-to-counter-deep-state-enemies/
Oliver North and Erik Prince—what could go wrong? It’s absolutely shocking. The plans have been pitched to the White House “as a means of countering “deep state” enemies in the intelligence community seeking to undermine Donald Trump’s presidency.”
Watch out Mueller. Firing would be the least of your worries. Hard to believe that Ollie North is still around, but how reassuring to see the old lawbreaker hooking up with that murderer Prince. This is one of the scariest prospects yet. Apparently some of the organizers have already met with Trump donors to secure financing for what MUST be an illegal operation.
Hurry up, Mueller. Hurry up.
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UPDATE: People ask below, what is the Intercept? According to Wikipedia, “The Intercept is an online news publication dedicated to what it describes as "adversarial journalism". It is supported financially by First Look Media Works, and its editors are Betsy Reed, Glenn Greenwald, and Jeremy Scahill.”
The Intercept has won several prestigious journalism awards—and has also flamed out with some stories. It has been accused of lax oversight, and has had to issues corrections on stories by several of its reporters.
But my man Kevin Drum cites it here, noting it bears eerie resemblance to a story that recently appeared in Buzzfeed. If I have a journalistic god, it’s KD, mostly because he always says things like, “This might be true,” when things seem too nuts to be believed. On the other hand, Erik Prince is damn sure gonna find a way to monetize Donald Trump before the guy flames out. IMO. Below is a link to KD’s story, and to Wikipedia’s piece on the Intercept, pro and con.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intercept
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/12/is-president-trump-building-a-private-spy-network/