This is … bad.
One of the less reported aspects of Grenell’s placement as acting DNI is his demand to see all the “raw intelligence” behind the assessment that Russia is working to sabotage US elections. This has serious national security implications. 1/3
— Joe Cirincione (@Cirincione) February 24, 2020
This is the tactic Steve Cambone used in the run up to the Iraq War when Cheney and Rumsfeld installed him in DOD to set up their own intel operation. He then cherry-picked raw, unvetted data to “prove” Saddam had WMD. He bypassed the usual intel community joint assessments. 2/3
— Joe Cirincione (@Cirincione) February 24, 2020
Worse, raw intel will include sources and methods. Grenell will pass that to Trump who could share it with the Russians. Cambone never would have shared intel with our enemies, but Trump and Grenell don’t see Russia as an adversary, but an ally. 3/3
— Joe Cirincione (@Cirincione) February 24, 2020
Trump has shared closely guarded intel with Russia before so we know he’s capable of it.
*In case you’re confused by the stovepipe reference it was what they called Cheney’s intelligence interference.
Published with permission of Hullabaloo