Statecraft

Donald Trump fires intelligence watchdog who sparked impeachment process

Donald Trump has fired the inspector general for the intelligence community who handled the whistleblower complaint that led to his impeachment, prompting fierce criticism from Democrats.

The US president chose a Friday night, with America consumed by the coronavirus pandemic, to tell the House of Representatives and Senate intelligence committees of his decision to dismiss Michael Atkinson.

In a letter, Trump claimed it was “vital” that he had confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general, and “that is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general”.

The president would nominate an individual who has his full confidence at a later date, he added.

Statecraft

MI5: Ken McCallum appointed new boss

Ken McCallum has been appointed the new director general of MI5, the security service has said.

Mr McCallum led counter terrorism investigations during the London 2012 Olympic Games and MI5's response to the attempted assassination of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in 2018.

Currently deputy director general, he has worked there for nearly 25 years, a statement said.

He succeeds Sir Andrew Parker, who retires in April after seven years.

Originally from Glasgow, Mr McCallum spent his first years at MI5 focusing on Northern Ireland-related terrorism, and later specialised in countering Islamist extremist terrorism.

He led its strategic response to the series of terror attacks that took place in 2017 and has also worked on cyber-security.

Statecraft

The intelligence community serves the president's agenda — not the other way around

The removal of any intelligence community (IC) professional is never — repeat, never — a threat to our nation’s safety, as the headline of their article claims, and the American people should not be led to believe that it ever could be. It is an alarm that cannot be set.

Russ Travers possesses deep intelligence experience and institutional knowledge — and is a great guy to boot. But he is not irreplaceable; none of us is. Senior executives in an appointed role, in particular, serve at the “pleasure of the president.” Not a quaint phrase. It is the law.

And that is the wisdom of the governance infrastructure that has been created in this country.  Authority and expertise is diffused across many agencies and syndicated among many individuals. This is done on purpose. It can have its bureaucratic overlaps and frustrations, but it helps mitigate the risks of concentrated power and hoarded information found in totalitarian or autocratic governments.  

Statecraft

Trump loyalist installed in top intelligence post on National Security Council

A White House lawyer and former counsel to the House Intelligence Committee under Devin Nunes has been named senior director for intelligence on the National Security Council, the latest instance of President Donald Trump elevating a trusted loyalist to control the intelligence community.

Michael Ellis, a deputy to White House lawyer John Eisenberg, started in the role on Monday, according to a senior administration official and a former national security official. Ellis left the counsel’s office so won’t be dual-hatted with his new job.

The office of the director for intelligence serves as the day to day connective tissue between the intelligence community and the White House. Sensitive information coming in from the intelligence agencies will go to that office, especially if it is in hard copy form. The office also coordinates covert action activities between the White House and the intelligence community, and it’s where the NSC server is housed that stores the most sensitive classified information.

Statecraft

Bigger than Vindman: Trump scrubs 70 Obama holdovers from NSC

President Trump is making good on his promises to “drain the swamp” and cut Obama-era holdovers from his staffs, especially the critical and recently controversial National Security Council.

Officials confirmed that Trump and national security adviser Robert O’Brien have cut 70 positions inherited from former President Barack Obama, who had fattened the staff to 200.

Many were loaners from other agencies and have been sent back. Others left government work.

The NSC, which is the president’s personal staff, was rocked when a “whistleblower” leveled charges that led to Trump’s impeachment.

Last week, one key official who testified against Trump at a House hearing on the Ukraine affair that led to impeachment was sent packing. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was returned to the Pentagon. His twin brother, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, was also given the boot. Trump had expressed displeasure that Alexander Vindman had testified against him when the Ukraine specialist said he did not like the phone conversation between the president and a newly elected president of Ukraine.

Statecraft

Putin consolidates power as Russian government resigns

Russia’s government has resigned to make way for major new constitutional changes in the country, according to the state news agency who cited Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Without giving much detail, the news agency said President Vladimir Putin had thanked Medvedev’s government for its work. The move has been reportedly made so Putin can carry out sweeping constitutional changes he spoke about at his annual address just hours beforehand.

“For my part, I also want to thank you for everything that was done at this stage of our joint work, I want to express satisfaction with the results that have been achieved,” the president told a meeting of ministers, according to TASS.

“Not everything was done, but everything never works out in full,” Putin said.

Statecraft

UPDATED: CIA officers complained that Obama White House was ‘nonstop PC’

Top CIA employees reportedly disliked the Obama administration's micromanaging of intelligence matters.

According to a new book by conservative commentator Doug Wead, titled Inside Trump's White House: The Real Story of His Presidency, CIA officials complained about President Barack Obama's level of involvement during a meeting with then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

"They met with the agency’s top five staff members. Someone from the White House asked about the major differences between the Trump administration and that of its predecessor," Wead wrote, citing an unnamed White House source. "Was there something the Trump folks could be doing better? One answer given was that in the last administration, everything was being run from the White House."

President Trump, on the other hand, was viewed more favorably for decentralizing control and giving more freedom to federal agencies, according to Wead's source.

"The new Trump theory was to let them make choices. If they’re not making those decisions themselves, then we can always pull it back up. So that was the first thing," Wead wrote.

Statecraft

Hawley to Introduce Bill to Move Federal Agencies out of Washington D.C. to Economically Stagnant Areas

Days after squaring off online against “elitist” critics of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue’s relocation of agency jobs, Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) will introduce legislation on Wednesday that would move the majority of the federal bureaucracy out of Washington D.C. to economically depressed areas, according to a summary of the bill provided to National Review.

The “Helping Infrastructure Restore the Economy (HIRE) Act,” which is cosponsored by Senator Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.), would move 90 percent of the positions within ten executive agencies to economically distressed regions that have a stake in the work of those respective agencies.

Under the bill, the Department of Agriculture would be relocated to Hawley’s home state of Missouri while the Department of Education would move to Blackburn’s Tennessee, in order to disperse the economic benefits associated with relatively high-paying government jobs that currently accrue to just a few zip codes.

“Every year Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars fund federal agencies that are mainly located in the D.C. bubble. That’s a big part of the problem with Washington: they’re too removed from the rest of America. The Hire Act will move policymakers directly into the communities they serve, creating thousands of jobs for local communities and saving taxpayers billions of dollars along the way,” Hawley said in a statement.

Statecraft

Trump Aims to Rein in Federal Bureaucracy With Two Executive Orders

President Donald Trump has long criticized the murky federal bureaucracy’s abuse of small businesses and American families, and on Oct. 9, signed two executive orders meant to reign in bureaucracy and hold government agencies accountable to citizens.

The two executive orders, titled “Bringing Guidance out of Darkness” and “Transparency and Fairness,” are the latest moves by the Trump administration to cut red tape and make it easier for Americans to navigate the labyrinthine federal bureaucracy.

“Today, we take bold new action to protect Americans from out-of-control bureaucracy and stop regulators from imposing secret rules and hidden penalties on the American people,” Trump said at the White House on Oct. 9.

The “Bringing Guidance out of Darkness” requires federal agencies to seek public input on the most important regulations. Under previous administrations, federal agencies issued thousands of guidance documents in the form of brochures, blog posts, and letters. In one example provided by the White House, a 2015 blog post by the Department of Labor called on employers to classify some contractors as employees. The post caused confusion among small business who struggled to interpret it.

The “Transparency and Fairness” executive order requires federal agencies to proactively educate the public about new regulations. The order is meant to give families and businesses fair notice so they can comply with the rules and avoid lawsuits.

Statecraft

Trump has ordered national security staff cut: report

President Trump has ordered a significant staff cut at the White House National Security Council (NSC), Bloomberg reported late Friday, citing five people familiar with the matter.

Some of the individuals reportedly said the move was part of an effort under new national security adviser Robert O’Brien, who told officials of the reduction alongside acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney this week.

Two people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that the change was due to O'Brien's leadership and Trump's wish to increase agency efficiency. The news outlet noted the NSC grew under former President Obama and that about 310 people work there now.

Statecraft

The Invisible Man: Trump’s New National Security Adviser

A taxi with nobody in it drove up to the White House and Robert O’Brien, the latest national security adviser of the United States got out.

President Donald Trump’s decision to appoint O’Brien as his fourth national security adviser to replace despised, discredited and down, plain hapless John Bolton has already generated endless megabytes of confused debate.

O’Brien we have been told, is a hardliner. No: He is a good-natured pragmatist. He is a negotiator. He will soften and improve relations with Russia and Iran. Yet he published an otherwise utterly forgettable book that was viciously hostile to the leaders of Russia and Iran.

O’Brien, we are told, wants to focus on opposing the rise of China. But he mindlessly generates hostility towards most other great nations too. He is a lawyer. But his primary career was as an officer in the US Army.

Statecraft

Amber Rudd says it's unclear who is running country and Cabinet being excluded from Brexit policy

Amber Rudd has claimed it is unclear who is running the country following her shock resignation from the government.

The former work and pensions secretary said she did not think the cabinet was having “proper discussions about policy”.

When asked who was running the country, if not the cabinet, she told The Andrew Marr Show: “If I knew that I would have perhaps had further conversations with the prime minister or them.”

Ms Rudd, who announced her resignation from the cabinet on Saturday, said she quit because she had not seen enough evidence of planning for a no-deal Brexit.

She claimed she was shown a “one-page summary” when she asked for evidence of the government’s work in negotiating a deal with the European Union.

Statecraft

UK Parliament seizes control in an attempt to avert no-deal Brexit

The UK Parliament is trying to block a “no-deal” Brexit — defying Boris Johnson and handing the new prime minister his first legislative defeat.

In other words, just another day in the ongoing Brexit saga.

On Tuesday, Parliament voted, 328 to 301, to seize control so it could debate a bill that would attempt to prevent the United Kingdom from leaving the European Union without a plan in place on October 31. About 20 members of Johnson’s Conservative Party rebelled against him for the vote. The vote was greeted with cheers, and cries of “not a good start, Boris!”

Johnson called attempts to delay Brexit “pointless” — and said that he would seek to put forward a motion calling for general elections.

This is a lot of drama, but it doesn’t change anything right now. Members of Parliament (MPs) have taken control, but they haven’t actually passed any legislation that would block a no-deal Brexit.

Statecraft

Spies fear a consulting firm helped hobble U.S. intelligence

America’s vast spying apparatus was built around a Cold War world of dead drops and double agents. Today, that world has fractured and migrated online, with hackers and rogue terrorist cells, leaving intelligence operatives scrambling to keep up.

So intelligence agencies did what countless other government offices have done — they brought in a consultant. For the last four years, the powerhouse firm McKinsey has helped restructure the country’s spying bureaucracy, aiming to improve response time and smooth out communication.

Instead, according to nearly a dozen current and former officials who either witnessed the restructuring first-hand or are familiar with the project, the multi-million dollar overhaul has left many within the country’s intelligence agencies demoralized and less effective.

These insiders say the efforts have hindered decision-making at key agencies — including the CIA, National Security Agency, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Statecraft

Shanahan Finishes His Four-Month Audition for Defense Secretary

After keeping him in the audition phase for more than four months, the White House finally announced President Donald Trump’s intent to nominate Patrick Shanahan to drop the acting in his secretary-of-defense job title and make it official. He is likely to be confirmed by the Republican-held Senate, which means he will formally take leadership of a massive bureaucracy trying to fundamentally change its approach to dealing with the world’s most pressing threats. But not everyone is convinced that he’s the best man for the job.

The Pentagon is attempting a radical shift, turning its attention to preparing for potential conflict with a powerful rival such as Russia or China after two decades focused on counterterrorism. Experts and officials warn that the consuming War on Terror has left the country dangerously unprepared to deal with other threats—all while Russia and China have spent the past two decades observing America’s weaknesses and building their own arsenals to exploit them.

Statecraft

Homeland Security Disbands Domestic Terror Intelligence Unit

The Department of Homeland Security has disbanded a group of intelligence analysts who focused on domestic terrorism, The Daily Beast has learned. Numerous current and former DHS officials say they find the development concerning, as the threat of homegrown terrorism—including white supremacist terrorism—is growing.

In the wake of this move, officials said the number of analytic reports produced by DHS about domestic terrorism, including the threat from white supremacists, has dropped significantly. People in and close to the department said this has generated significant concern at headquarters.

“It’s especially problematic given the growth in right-wing extremism and domestic terrorism we are seeing in the U.S. and abroad,” one former intelligence official told The Daily Beast.

The group in question was a branch of analysts in DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A). They focused on the threat from homegrown violent extremists and domestic terrorists. The analysts there shared information with state and local law enforcement to help them protect their communities from these threats.

Statecraft

One reason for Trump’s foreign policy fiascoes — his National Security Council is broken

National security fiascoes are piling up around President Trump. His summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un collapsed last week. In December, he announced a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, only to have his national security advisor publicly revise the plan. Last July, he endorsed Vladimir Putin’s assertion that Russia didn’t interfere in our presidential election — a stunning rebuke to the findings of U.S. intelligence services.

These are all signs that the National Security Council is malfunctioning. The NSC — the nerve center for creating U.S. security policy over the last seven decades — is intended to advise the president on strategies to prevent war, terrorism and economic disruption. The evident weaknesses of Trump’s NSC are increasing the risk that security threats or intelligence will fall through the cracks, leaving the nation vulnerable.

Since its earliest years, the NSC’s secret meetings in the White House have been the principal forum for presidents to discuss security and policy with military, intelligence and diplomatic officials. Chaired by the president, the council includes the vice president, the secretaries of State, Defense, Energy and Treasury — but the president can add other federal officials as well. The council’s staff can rise to as many as 200 employees.

Statecraft

To end poverty, think like a spy

To better manage the unknown, development professionals might want to take a leaf from the intelligence community book and draw inspiration from how spies try to predict the future. Reduced to its simplest terms, the CIA defines intelligence as “knowledge and foreknowledge of the world around us—the prelude to decisions by policymakers.” Other definitions emphasize the collection, processing, integration, analysis, and interpretation of available information from closed and open sources. Development practitioners are not spies, nor should they aspire to be. Further, the idea that project managers and economists should behave like spies is bound to raise eyebrows for professionals driven by the quest for sustainability and equity. Yet, the methodology of intelligence is well-suited to paint in our minds the interplay of actions, information, and analysis needed to navigate the complex, uncertain, and downright dangerous environments where extreme poverty stubbornly persists. This approach is not about acting like James Bond, but rather about thinking like him.

Statecraft

A Madman on the National Security Council

Would that John Bolton were only a clown. The mustachioed alleged diplomat, briefly of the Bush administration—and initially criticized as too controversial even for that team—has now been appointed national security advisor. That position will give him the president’s ear on matters of foreign policy, as well as control over which other administration principals enjoy such access. Donald Trump pledged that if elected he would be a different kind of Republican president, and he’s delivered: under the last GOP administration, Bolton occupied a slightly lower-ranking position than he does now.

Statecraft

Under Haspel, more agency vets and women take top posts at CIA

CIA director Gina Haspel has named Cynthia "Didi" Rapp to the agency's senior-most position atop the Directorate of Analysis. Rapp, a career intelligence official with an analytic background, is not the first woman to hold the role, but she is the third female official and the fifth career intelligence official Haspel has named to a leadership post at the agency in recent months. 

"Didi Rapp brings broad, deep expertise from across the agency and the intelligence community to her new role as the head of our Directorate of Analysis," said CIA Director of Public Affairs Brittany Bramell. "With her engaging leadership style and reputation for objectivity, Didi will excel in leading our talented analytic cadre."

Rapp previously served as deputy chief operating officer at CIA and headed up intelligence integration at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, where she helped oversee the production of the President's Daily Brief (PDB). The third woman to hold the post since 2002, Rapp succeeds longtime incumbent Richard Hoch, who will serve as chief strategy officer for the agency.