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CNN: Trump skeptical of using foreign spies to collect intel on foreign countries
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/10/politics/donald-trump-foreign-spies-skeptical/index.htmlHow "safe" do you think that "extracted spy" feels right now, with Trump apparently siding with Putin's boyz?
President Donald Trump has privately and repeatedly expressed opposition to the use of foreign intelligence from covert sources, including overseas spies who provide the US government with crucial information about hostile countries, according to multiple senior officials who served under Trump. Trump has privately said that foreign spies can damage relations with their host countries and undermine his personal relationships with their leaders, the sources said. The President "believes we shouldn't be doing that to each other," one former Trump administration official told CNN.
In addition to his fear such foreign intelligence sources will damage his relationship with foreign leaders, Trump has expressed doubts about the credibility of the information they provide. Another former senior intelligence official told CNN that Trump "believes they're people who are selling out their country." Even in public, Trump has looked down on these foreign assets, as they are known in the intelligence community. . . . These new details about Trump's approach to foreign intelligence follow CNN's exclusive report that the United States in 2017 removed one of its highest-level covert sources inside the Russian government. CNN reported on Monday that the asset provided the US with insight and information on Russian President Vladimir Putin and that the extraction was driven, in part, by concerns that Trump and his administration repeatedly mishandled classified intelligence and could contribute to exposing the spy.. . .
. . . .
Trump's skeptical view on foreign informants undermines one of the most essential ways that American intelligence agencies gather information about US adversaries, including analysis of their capabilities and intentions. In the intelligence community, this information is referred to as "HUMINT," which is short for "human intelligence." This is distinguished from so-called "SIGINT," or "signals intelligence," which includes intercepted emails, telephone calls, and text messages.
Intelligence assessments of national security threats all typically depend on a combination of HUMINT, SIGINT, and other sources. This includes assessments about North Korea's expanding nuclear program to terror threats from al-Qaeda and ISIS, and the military capabilities of Russia and China.
. . . .
These views are one part of a deeper divide between Trump and the US intelligence agencies that he oversees, which began before he took office, when he compared US intelligence agents to the Nazis. He has also publicly and privately derided senior intelligence officials, many of whom served in the Obama administration, but also a handful of people that he appointed to lead US intelligence agencies. While in office, Trump has repeatedly and publicly rejected, questioned, or undermined US intelligence assessments on a range of key national security topics. This includes Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal, and the role of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the gruesome 2018 assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Most notably, Trump sided with Putin regarding Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The US intelligence community concluded that Putin ordered a sweeping program to influence the election and help Trump's campaign. Putin denied this, and at the 2018 Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki, Finland, Trump accepted the denial, saying, "I don't see any reason why" Russia would have been involved. . . .
In addition to his fear such foreign intelligence sources will damage his relationship with foreign leaders, Trump has expressed doubts about the credibility of the information they provide. Another former senior intelligence official told CNN that Trump "believes they're people who are selling out their country." Even in public, Trump has looked down on these foreign assets, as they are known in the intelligence community. . . . These new details about Trump's approach to foreign intelligence follow CNN's exclusive report that the United States in 2017 removed one of its highest-level covert sources inside the Russian government. CNN reported on Monday that the asset provided the US with insight and information on Russian President Vladimir Putin and that the extraction was driven, in part, by concerns that Trump and his administration repeatedly mishandled classified intelligence and could contribute to exposing the spy.. . .
. . . .
Trump's skeptical view on foreign informants undermines one of the most essential ways that American intelligence agencies gather information about US adversaries, including analysis of their capabilities and intentions. In the intelligence community, this information is referred to as "HUMINT," which is short for "human intelligence." This is distinguished from so-called "SIGINT," or "signals intelligence," which includes intercepted emails, telephone calls, and text messages.
Intelligence assessments of national security threats all typically depend on a combination of HUMINT, SIGINT, and other sources. This includes assessments about North Korea's expanding nuclear program to terror threats from al-Qaeda and ISIS, and the military capabilities of Russia and China.
. . . .
These views are one part of a deeper divide between Trump and the US intelligence agencies that he oversees, which began before he took office, when he compared US intelligence agents to the Nazis. He has also publicly and privately derided senior intelligence officials, many of whom served in the Obama administration, but also a handful of people that he appointed to lead US intelligence agencies. While in office, Trump has repeatedly and publicly rejected, questioned, or undermined US intelligence assessments on a range of key national security topics. This includes Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal, and the role of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the gruesome 2018 assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Most notably, Trump sided with Putin regarding Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The US intelligence community concluded that Putin ordered a sweeping program to influence the election and help Trump's campaign. Putin denied this, and at the 2018 Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki, Finland, Trump accepted the denial, saying, "I don't see any reason why" Russia would have been involved. . . .
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