Trump's still searching for intelligence to justify his Muslim ban, worrying intelligence officials

Kerry Eleveld

Daily Kos Staff

Friday February 24, 2017 · 11:11 AM PST

2017/02/24 · 11:11

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 24: (AFP OUT) U.S. President Donald Trump flanked by business leaders holds a executive order establishing regulatory reform officers and task forces in US agencies in the Oval Office of the White House on February 24, 2017 in Washington, DC. Earlier in the day, Trump stated he would cut 75 percent of regulations. (Photo by Olivier Douliery - Pool/Getty Images) — Just tell me what I want to hear. Nothing else.

TAGS

Edit Tags

Tag History

Done Editing Tags

Popular vote loser Donald Trump has issued a decree to the departments of Justice and Homeland Security: Find a legal rationale for my Muslim ban. Because that's how things work in Trump's White House—he decides, and then people scramble to make his decision sound "informed." And that order of events is worrying people who actually know how intelligence works (pun intended), writes CNN.

Other Trump administration sources tell CNN that this is an assignment that has caused concern among some administration intelligence officials, who see the White House charge as the politicization of intelligence -- the notion of a conclusion in search of evidence to support it after being blocked by the courts. Still others in the intelligence community disagree with the conclusion and are finding their work disparaged by their own department.

True to form, a White House spokesperson says they know exactly what the report will find:

"DHS and DOJ are working on an intelligence report that will demonstrate that the security threat for these seven countries is substantial and that these seven countries have all been exporters of terrorism into the United States," the senior White House official told CNN.

The unnamed official (the White House refused to offer on-the-record comment) went on to claim that "the refugee program has been a major incubator for terrorism"—an assertion for which there is no basis. In fact, here's a refugee risk analysis from the conservative think tank the Cato Institute:

The chance of an American being murdered in a terrorist attack caused by a refugee is 1 in 3.64 billion per year...

DHS's internal intelligence office generally concurs with that assessment of refugees and of immigrants from the seven majority-Muslim countries Trump targeted more broadly.

CNN has learned that the Department of Homeland Security's in-house intelligence agency, the Office of Intelligence and Analysis -- called I&A within the department -- offered a report that is at odds with the Trump administration's view that blocking immigration from these seven countries strategically makes sense.

But there's a new I&A chief in town, who's helped quash release of the original I&A report because it didn't jibe with the Dons’ worldview.

A senior official in the Department of Homeland Security told CNN that some DHS officials are concerned that the new I&A director -- Acting Undersecretary for Intelligence David Glawe -- may be politicizing intelligence. One source familiar with the department told CNN that Glawe came into I&A "like a bull in a china shop."

A DHS official says the intention was to put together a comprehensive report with multiple sources and other agencies but the individuals in I&A did not do that to the standard that was required by their leadership, so Glawe said the report wasn't suffficient to go forward. [DHS press secretary Gillian] Christensen said "the concerns were not about the conclusions but about the way the report was put together with accurate sourcing and proper staffing."

Don’t worry, America, Glawe’s on the case and he’s definitely got Trump’s back—god forbid anybody make a fool out of the pr*sident but the Dons himself.

Trump's still searching for intelligence to justify his Muslim ban, worrying intelligence officials

Comments are closed on this story.