Tag: Trump weakening national security

Experts warn that Trump’s assault on intelligence is putting the country’s national security at risk

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump fired Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire and replaced him with Richard Grenell — who had been U.S. ambassador to Germany — shaking up the office of the top intel chief. Trump’s critics have been quick to point out that Grenell, a Trump loyalist, has no intelligence experience.

And two intel experts, John D. Negroponte and Edward M. Wittenstein, warn in an op-ed for the Washington Post this week that Trump is putting the U.S. at risk by politicizing intel in this way.

Negroponte served as director of national intelligence from 2005-2007 under President George W. Bush, while Wittenstein is a former DNI executive assistant who now lectures on global affairs at Yale University. And both of them find it disturbing that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has been in such turmoil during Trump’s presidency. Continue reading.

Sen. Ted Cruz echoes debunked claims that Ukraine interfered in 2016 election

Washington Post logoIn a fiery back-and-forth on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) declared there is “considerable evidence” that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election, echoing debunked claims recently spread by other GOP leaders.

The show’s host, Chuck Todd, asked the senator if he believed Ukraine had attempted to sway the 2016 election.

“I do,” Cruz said.

Todd’s eyes grew wide and he raised his eyebrows in surprise: “You do?”

Continue reading

Turkish President Erdogan showed anti-Kurdish propaganda film during Oval Office meeting — and even some pro-Trump Republicans weren’t happy

AlterNet logoTurkey, once the most liberal democracy in the Islamic world, has taken a much more authoritarian turn under President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — and with President Donald Trump having withdrawn U.S. troops from northeastern Syria, critics of the decision have voiced major concerns over how Erdoğan is treating the United States’ Kurdish allies in that region. Some of those concerns, according to Axios, were voiced on Wednesday, when Erdoğan visited the Oval Office in Washington, D.C. and showed several prominent Republicans an anti-Kurdish propaganda film.

When Erdoğan — according to Axios’ sources —  met with Trump and five GOP senators (including Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Rick Scott of Florida) he pulled out his iPad and showed the Republicans a film that depicted Kurds as terrorists. Axios’ Jonathan Swan reports that the Turkish president “apparently thought he could sway these senators by forcing them to watch a clunky propaganda film,” noting that the Oval Office visit came at a time when Erdoğan “is trying to avoid sanctions over the purchase of a Russian missile defense system.” Continue reading “Turkish President Erdogan showed anti-Kurdish propaganda film during Oval Office meeting — and even some pro-Trump Republicans weren’t happy”