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Trump Ally Will Review Intelligence Agencies

<p>According to a recent New York Times article&comma; President Donald Trump is expected to assign the New York billionaire Stephen Feinberg to lead a team to review the American intelligence agencies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Feinberg&comma; co-founder of Cerberus Capital Management&comma; was outspoken about his loyalty to Trump during his election and already is a member of Trump&&num;8217&semi;s economic advisory council&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Earlier this week&comma; the president blamed the intelligence community for leaks that ultimately led to the resignation of Michael T&period; Flynn&comma; his national security adviser&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He also expressed similar criticisms on Twitter&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by &&num;8220&semi;intelligence&&num;8221&semi; like candy&period; Very un-American&excl;&&num;8221&semi; tweeted Trump on Wednesday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Like anticipated&comma; intelligence officials are showing signs of opposition to being reviewed&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to the New York Times&comma; its &&num;8221&semi; an effort that members of the intelligence community fear could curtail their independence and reduce the flow of information that contradicts the president&rsquo&semi;s worldview&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There has yet to be an official announcement about Feinberg&&num;8217&semi;s new role&period; However&comma; he did mention to his company shareholders that he was in negotiations with Trump&&num;8217&semi;s team about joining the administration&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Some intelligence officials believe that the review by Feinberg is just his first step to becoming more involved in the these agencies&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Mr&period; Feinberg&comma; who has close ties to Stephen K&period; Bannon&comma; Mr&period; Trump&rsquo&semi;s chief strategist&comma; and Jared Kushner&comma; the president&rsquo&semi;s son-in-law&comma; declined to comment on his possible position&period; The White House&comma; which is still working out the details of the intelligence review&comma; also would not comment&comma;&&num;8221&semi; writes The New York Times&period; &&num;8220&semi;Bringing Mr&period; Feinberg into the administration to conduct the review is seen as a way of injecting a Trump loyalist into a world the White House views with suspicion&period; But top intelligence officials fear that Mr&period; Feinberg is being groomed for a high position in one of the intelligence agencies&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Times also stated that Feinberg was being considered for the director of national intelligence &nbsp&semi;and the chief of the CIA&comma; but commented on his lack of national security experience&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Wall Street Journal also reported that intelligence agencies have withheld information from the president&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;In some of these cases of withheld information&comma; officials have decided not to show Mr&period; Trump the sources and methods that the intelligence agencies use to collect information&comma; the current and former officials said&period; Those sources and methods could include&comma; for instance&comma; the means that an agency uses to spy on a foreign government&comma;&&num;8221&semi; writes the Wall Street Journal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Withholding information from the president could show a lack of trust as Margaret Hartmann of New York Magazine writes in a recent article&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;This lack of trust&comma; including the withholding of information from the president and politically motivated leaks&comma; should be concerning to everyone&period; The Trump administration may be the target now&comma; but obviously misleading disclosures didn&rsquo&semi;t do Democrats any good before November 8&period; However&comma; President Trump is trying to make his newfound concern about leaking &mdash&semi; and not staggering allegations of Russian attempts to influence the U&period;S&period; election on his behalf &mdash&semi; the sole takeaway from the Flynn debacle&comma;&&num;8221&semi; writes Hartmann for New York Magazine&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Many believe the C&period;I&period;A&period;&comma; in particular&comma; needs reform&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;People there need to be rooted out&comma;&rdquo&semi; said Rep Steve King&comma; Republican of Iowa in an interview where he said that not all intelligence officials are trust-worthy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Editor&&num;8217&semi;s note&colon;<&sol;strong> &nbsp&semi;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;punchingbagpost&period;com&sol;trump-should-not-adapt-to-the-cia-the-cia-must-adapt-to-trump&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener"><strong>As we have said before<&sol;strong><&sol;a>&comma; it is not Trump&&num;8217&semi;s job to adjust to the intelligence community&comma; it is their job to adjust to the President&period; The intelligence community has some of the most intelligent and dedicated people in America&period; A few bad apples won&&num;8217&semi;t spoil this group&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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