Tranquillus in Exile
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Intelligence officials realized early on that President Trump wasn’t going to read even short written summaries in his regular intelligence briefings. So the CIA officers who prepared the briefings made sure they came to the Oval Office laden with striking images and slick graphics designed to grab the president’s fleeting interest.
“To secure his attention, you had to use images and catchy headlines, even better if they had his name on them,” said Doug London, a former CIA officer who helped assemble the briefing material.
On Aug. 30, 2019, they learned the dangers of this approach. What unfolded that day became an infamous moment in the Trump presidency — one that former intelligence officials say perfectly illustrated his approach to dealing with state secrets.
A former senior official explained that the president’s intelligence briefing that day included a photo from one of the America’s premier spy satellites — an image with resolution far superior to anything on the commercial market. “We had this image of the Iranian missile blown up, and it was exquisite intelligence, and he didn’t even wait. As soon as we showed him, he said, ‘Hey, I’m tweeting this.’”
CIA Director Gina Haspel and Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire tried to talk him out of it, noting that the U.S. spent billions of dollars developing capabilities to capture images from space, and told Trump, “If you put this out, they’re going understand what our capability is.”
But Trump was unmoved. He said, “I’m the President, I can declassify anything.”
After the Iran photo incident, senior intelligence officials resolved never again to bring highly classified images to the Oval Office.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/na...na43293?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB
At least Trump didn’t divulge how they make stealth aircraft invisible! Probably because there was nothing to see.
“To secure his attention, you had to use images and catchy headlines, even better if they had his name on them,” said Doug London, a former CIA officer who helped assemble the briefing material.
On Aug. 30, 2019, they learned the dangers of this approach. What unfolded that day became an infamous moment in the Trump presidency — one that former intelligence officials say perfectly illustrated his approach to dealing with state secrets.
A former senior official explained that the president’s intelligence briefing that day included a photo from one of the America’s premier spy satellites — an image with resolution far superior to anything on the commercial market. “We had this image of the Iranian missile blown up, and it was exquisite intelligence, and he didn’t even wait. As soon as we showed him, he said, ‘Hey, I’m tweeting this.’”
CIA Director Gina Haspel and Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire tried to talk him out of it, noting that the U.S. spent billions of dollars developing capabilities to capture images from space, and told Trump, “If you put this out, they’re going understand what our capability is.”
But Trump was unmoved. He said, “I’m the President, I can declassify anything.”
After the Iran photo incident, senior intelligence officials resolved never again to bring highly classified images to the Oval Office.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/na...na43293?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB
At least Trump didn’t divulge how they make stealth aircraft invisible! Probably because there was nothing to see.