Report: Pompeo Has CIA Unit on Edge Over Loyalty to Trump

[DonViejo]

Officials in a CIA counterintelligence unit that has played a vital role in the FBI’s Russia probe say they have to “watch” CIA Director Mike Pompeo over fear he might report new information directly to President Trump, The Washington Post reports. Officials at the Counterintelligence Mission Center—which Pompeo has asked to report directly to him—say they are wary of a director overseeing their work who seems intent on appeasing the president. “People have to watch him,” one official said in the report, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “It’s almost as if he can’t resist the impulse to be political.” Pompeo’s direct supervision of the unit has been especially worrying for some because the center continues to follow leads that may be used in the probe into possible collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign in the 2016 election. While Pompeo has not interfered in the unit’s work, the CIA’s upper ranks are experiencing a “real concern for interference and politicization,” with many worrying “that if you were passing on something too dicey [to Pompeo] he would go to the White House with it,” one official said.

READ IT AT THE WASHINGTON POST

###

http://www.thedailybeast.com/report-pompeo-has-cia-unit-on-edge-over-loyalty-to-trump

[FM123]

1. This is really scary. To have someone like that on the inside.

[riversedge]

2. "Pompeo] he would go to the White House with it, Horrible to have to work under these

conditions.

[SweetieD]

3. I'm glad they leaked this. Maybe pompeo will back off.

[riversedge]

4. But asserting more control of the unit responsible for preventing leaks probably pleased Trump,....

Enjoy your happiness for a while Mr. trumpy.


......Pompeo inherited an agency that had undergone a major reorganization under his predecessor, combing analysts and operators in a constellation of “centers” responsible for geographic regions, as well as transnational issues such as terrorism.

Pompeo’s alterations have been minimal. He added two centers — one devoted to North Korea and the other to Iran. All but the counterintelligence unit fall under Pompeo’s deputy on the CIA organizational chart.

Pompeo, who met with Russian intelligence officials in Moscow in May, would have been entitled to full briefings from the counterintelligence center even without making that bureaucratic tweak. But asserting more control of the unit responsible for preventing leaks probably pleased Trump, who has accused U.S. spy agencies of engaging in a smear campaign to undermine his presidency.

U.S. intelligence officials have disputed that spy agencies are behind such leaks but acknowledge broader concerns about security issues, pointing to episodes including the CIA’s loss of a vast portion of its hacking arsenal, which was obtained this year by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks.........................