Donald Trump has asked a New York billionaire to conduct a review of U.S. intelligence agencies and other aspects of the federal government, current and former officials told NBC News.
Trump’s appointment of Steve Feinberg, co-founder and chief executive of Cerberus Capital Management, is causing consternation inside the intelligence agencies, former senior intelligence officials say.
One former official, who speaks regularly to current senior officials, called Feinberg’s expected role an “extra-constitutional process,” and said Trump believes the intelligence community “needs to be threshed and cleaned and bent to the will of the executive.”
At the same time, he said, there is certainly a need to reimagine aspects of the U.S. intelligence apparatus.
“You would not build the IC the way it is today if you had a clean sheet of paper.”
In an interview with NBC News, Michael Hayden, a retired Air Force general who ran the CIA and National Security Agency, agreed. But he added that “a major restructuring is not what’s called for here.”
If Feinberg’s task “is to reduce the influence of the DNI, if it’s designed to undercut what has so far been contrary views, then that is extremely troubling,” another former senior intelligence official said.
…..
- Discussion
-
Trump assigns billionaire pal to shut up the IC about Russia & POTUS. This will end very badly. Not for the spooks.https://t.co/diu6jRV36h
— John Schindler (@20committee) February 16, 2017
Major IC reorg will need major buy-in from Congress & Pentagon, ie Mattis. Trump has just no idea of the hornet's nest he's kicked here.
— John Schindler (@20committee) February 16, 2017
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.