An Intelligence Predicament with a leaky, untruthful, and Kremlin infiltrated Trump Administration

From the Observer, John Schindler writes, “In a recent column, I explained how the still-forming Trump administration is already doing serious harm to America’s longstanding global intelligence partnerships. In particular, fears that the White House is too friendly to Moscow are causing close allies to curtail some of their espionage relationships with Washington—a development with grave implications for international security, particularly in the all-important realm of counterterrorism.”

Moreover, not only are there international problems, but within the U.S. Intelligence community there are significant problems with the Trump Administration. For example, there are, not only with our allies, still lingering, “troubling ties” with the Russian government that are causing national concern. Because of a lack of confidence, the intelligence community is withholding information from the Trump Administration.

Schindler concludes, “I previously warned the Trump administration not to go to war with the nation’s spies, and here’s why. This is a risky situation, particularly since President Trump is prone to creating crises foreign and domestic with his incautious tweets. In the event of a serious international crisis of the sort which eventually befalls almost every administration, the White House will need the best intelligence possible to prevent war, possibly even nuclear war. It may not get the information it needs in that hour of crisis, and for that it has nobody to blame but itself.”