Preface:
This is essentially a follow-up to my diary entry yesterday: Amazing CIA bombshell that proves Trump is either compromised or delusional
www.dailykos.com/…
I wanted to talk about the meta of CIA information leaking but I didn’t want to dilute the focus of my previous post. I don’t claim any inside information about the CIA or spycraft but I found the detailed information supplied to Post to be startling.
—
[EDIT: I edited the title somewhat to reflect that this is open “leaking” and not public CIA statements. I contend it is still CIA allowing public disclosure by other means. See comments for more information.]
The Washington Post has a series of in-depth and revealing articles about US intelligence gathering and the communication of that intelligence to the President including the one I cited yesterday about the briefing of the then incoming President-elect Trump. The amount of detailed information could only have been provided by people who were deeply involved in the process.
The narrative that they tell is one of Trump routinely dismissing information about Russian meddling in the election and after briefing Congress and the President Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., CIA Director John Brennan, National Security Agency chief Michael S. Rogers and FBI Director James B. Comey all came to Trump tower to present the bombshell that they had captured the actual instructions from Putin.
[W]hich covered the most highly classified information U.S. spy agencies had assembled, including an extraordinary CIA stream of intelligence that had captured Putin’s specific instructions on the operation.
The fact that this information is being made public is extraordinary. This is usually the kind of thing — that we have access to actual channels of instruction — that usually comes out 50 years after the fact. Mostly this kind of thing is not discussed because more valuable than the actual data is the protection of “means and method”. Remember when Trump spilled classified information during a Russian photo-op at the Whitehouse?
www.washingtonpost.com/…
The problem then was not as much the information revealed but the fact that there was a source of that kind of information. Revealing that there are leaks allows agencies and governments to start looking for them and close them.
But officials expressed concern about Trump’s handling of sensitive information as well as his grasp of the potential consequences. Exposure of an intelligence stream that has provided critical insight into the Islamic State, they said, could hinder the United States’ and its allies’ ability to detect future threats.
I only make this point because it emphasizes how seriously the protection of means and methods is taken by Intelligence services. Even the WaPo withheld details about the information Trump disclosed to protect the source. The public comment on the leaking to Russia when it happened?
The CIA declined to comment, and the NSA did not respond to requests for comment.
And this is why I found the details of story so shocking. As I see it there are only two reasons that the CIA would reveal this information:
- The channel(s) through which it was collected has been completely closed
- They want the Congress and the American people to know what Trump knew and how he responded
Obviously how much of each of these are in play is one of those things we don’t and can’t know. Since Michael Flynn was in the room for the briefing, and given the rest of the Trump transition team, I have to assume the Russians knew about this information almost immediately afterwards. Remember, this was only about a month after Jared Kushner reportedly approached Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about opening a communication channel that would be outside of US Governmental surveillance.
If we assume this account is real and accurate then the motives of the Intelligence community — and probably the CIA specifically — can only be seen as clear breaking of every basic rule of their tradecraft. The people behind this leak must feel that the current situation is so dire that breaking the rules is the only way to bring around the outcome they feel is required.
Why now? My guess would be they recognize the moves Trump is making against the Mueller investigation. Under the cover of the holidays, the tax plan, the Roy Moore campaign there has been a steady push to close the Congressional investigations and undermine the credibility of the Mueller investigation. I won’t rehash these events — anyone active here has seen the headlines and should be aware of these moves.
My guess is that they are trying to give Congress and American people enough firm ground to stand on when demanding the investigation is valid and continue. Since January 6th both Trump and Pence have known — without a shadow of a doubt — that Russian and Putin personally attacked our election and every action since then has been conducted with that knowledge. If Trump fires Mueller in a Christmas Day massacre scenario I think the CIA wants to be on record as to what that really means.
If the assume the account is not accurate then we are going down the rabbit hole of Psychological Operations and CIA is attempting to openly poison opinion against the administration. The CIA certainly knows how to do this and has a lot of practice overseas. Oddly, I don’t think it really changes the motivation or desired outcome at all.
Predictably Fox “news” has been on the forefront of the propaganda war against the Mueller investigation. So much so that former CIA Director James Woolsey — who quit the Trump transition team the day before that fateful briefing — had this to say:
Ambassador James Woolsey, [] has put Fox and their host Lou Dobbs “on notice” amid the network’s continued attempts to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller and undermine his Russia investigation.
[] “We’ve placed Fox on notice,” Franks added.
www.rawstory.com/...
Sounds like someone is keeping a list.
A large, powerful part of the American Intelligence community appears to want Trump gone. Or at least openly held to account for his actions… which is effectively the same thing.
At least in any sane world it would be.
