President Trump's clashes with American Intelligence

A script translated by Periscope, taken from Project Syndicate.

US President Donald Trump's efforts to eliminate complaints of a signal referring to Congress by Inspector General of the Intelligence Community offers an early indicator of what we can expect in the 2020 presidential campaign. If U.S. intelligence agencies don't push in front of Trump, they'll become the biggest public enemy in its voters base.

The White House is trying to prevent the Special Committee of the Chamber of Intelligence for Intelligence from observing the signal complaint detailing President Trump's continued efforts to pressure Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky on the investigation of former vice president Joe Biden's son, who is the leader of the Democratic race for president. Given Trump's refusal to cooperate, this episode could end up in another dead end. And polls show that the public is turning their eyes off the daily TV dramas of the Trump administration.

But whether the Ukrainian scandal remains on the front lines of newspapers or not, it will persecute the American intelligence community, which has been. bêtIt's too big for Trump since the day he took office. The springboard attacked American intelligence agencies after being friendly with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and secret secreted to foreign officials, potentially risking the highest value sources. This behavior has already raised serious concerns about whether Trump can be trusted with sensitive intelligence information. Now, intelligence leaders may wonder how much they can rely on the White House.

There is no doubt that Inspector General of Intelligence, Michael K. Atkinson made the right call when he recommended that the beacon's complaint be revealed before Congress. Such contributions are his pre-law preparations, and a decade of legal precedents support his decision. However, National Intelligence Director Joseph Maguire's task officer, Joseph Maguire, is blocking the Inspector General's reference, claiming that he does not include emergency intelligence issues and that it includes privileged communication communics, with the president's opinion.

With administration and Congress at odds and with extensive investigations into Trump's behavior, more denials by the White House, hypocrisy, and procrastination are safe, as are attacks on the intelligence community. In lighting his base for the 2020 campaign, Trump will use the beacon's complaint to support his claim that a mysterious “states are being followed. Indeed, he has denied the complaint in question as “partian,” questioning the official's patriotism. The name call echoes his broader campaign of murder of character against intelligence and order forces officials. In charge of intelligence professionals have good reason to expect that they will be attacked as well.

Trump's expertise towards intelligence agencies has major implications for US national security. National intelligence, the most important intelligence job in the country, remains hot; if history teaches any lesson, more senior officials will be withdrawn before the 2020 elections, leaving even more emptiness. Furthermore, Trump has consistently demanded that he fill the main positions of national security with political allies, such as John Ratcliffe, a small congresswoman whose nomination could serve National Intelligence, withdrew after discovering he had forged his resume.

The 2020 campaign will do things even worse for the intelligence community. In despair to demonstrate his power and achievements, Trump will be even more careless with classified information. In 2017 he compromised Israel's highly sensitive intelligence operations in Syria, using what he knew after visiting Russian diplomats. And last month, he mocked Iran by posting on Twitter a highly classified image by US spy satellites, complete with detailed records of Iran's failed missile tests. Private sector analysts immediately noticed that the image had a tremendous value for U.S. opponents.

American spies cannot and cannot trust Trump. Earlier this month, we learned from many sources that the CIA had been forced to explore a very important Russian asset from Moscow in 2017, following serious concerns that Trump could risk his life. The scandal with Ukraine reinforces these concerns, because it suggests that Trump will not hesitate to ignore the interests of American allies and intelligence partners when it fits his political interests.

The White House's mysterious decision to withdraw 400 million dollars in aid to Ukraine that the congress had approved at the same time that it was putting pressure on the president of this country is the latest example of what I'm saying. Trumpi has also denied North Korea's short-range missile tests, even though intelligence analysts from the US, South Korea and Japan see them as evidence of the growth of the country's capacities for attacking Japan and South Korea [and against U.S. deployed forces in these two countries].

The Ukraine field also offers an early indicator of how Trump handles intelligence that threatens the possibility of re-election in 2020. Prosecutor General William Barr's official investigation into the origins of the 2016 investigation into Russia's election interference provides an example of the White House's efforts to identify intelligence officials. American intelligence and law enforcement agencies including a major FBI report last month have warned of further Russian attacks in the 2020 elections. These findings conflict with these agencies with Trump, which continues to refuse that the Kremlin helped him to be elected president in 2016.

In final analysis, the capacity of the intelligence community to fulfill adequate functions under such conditions will depend on their leaders. It was almost half a century since former CIA Director William Colby opened the reports of the Agency for Congress Investigations, after allegedly engaged in banned spying. Even though his decision was controvers at the time, we now know it protected the intelligence community in creating an effective surveillance system.

Colby used a miniature copy of the U.S. Constitution wherever he went. According to him, the CIA was an integral part of American democracy, which is based on responsibility. This is a message that the intelligence community can make hear without fearing any one of them will get.