Tag: NSC

Scoop: Top NSC official reassigned to Energy Department amid “Anonymous” fallout

Axios logoDeputy national security adviser Victoria Coates will be reassigned as a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, the National Security Council said Thursday — and a senior White House official said that the administration “rejects” the rumors that she is “Anonymous.”

Why it matters: Coates has battled claims that she is the still-unknown Trump administration official that penned a New York Times op-ed and book critical of President Trump.

  • Coates has vehemently denied the charges, which strained her working relationship with national security adviser Robert O’Brien, to colleagues.
  • The decision confirms Axios’ reporting that such a move was being considered earlier this week. Continue reading.

Trump’s newest national security staffer spread anti-Muslim sentiments and wrote that Bush was vindicated about Iraq having WMD

The following article by Zachary Pleat was posted on the Media Matters website May 31, 2018:

John Bolton hired Fred Fleitz at the NSC. Here’s what you need to know about him.

Credit: Sarah Wasko, Media Matters

Fred Fleitz, the new chief of staff for national security advisor John Bolton, comes from an anti-Muslim hate group and has fearmongered about Muslims during his numerous appearances on right-wing media outlets. He also repeatedly questioned the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to support Donald Trump and claimed former President George W. Bush was vindicated in his lie that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction in the lead-up to the Iraq War.

Fleitz worked as Bolton’s chief of staff when Bolton was serving as undersecretary of state during the George W. Bush administration, and he was a CIA analyst prior to that. But more recently, Fleitz was a senior vice president at the right-wing Center for Security Policy, which the Southern Poverty Law Center designated an anti-Muslim hate group in 2015, describing it as “a conspiracy-oriented mouthpiece for the growing anti-Muslim movement in the United States.” Continue reading “Trump’s newest national security staffer spread anti-Muslim sentiments and wrote that Bush was vindicated about Iraq having WMD”