All posts tagged "National Security"

A former CIA officer warned that President Donald Trump has drained the government's counterterrorism ranks just as new terror plots surface abroad.

Marc Polymeropoulos, a 26-year CIA veteran, made the case during an interview with national security reporter Michael Weiss for a Wednesday episode of "Bulwark Takes." The pair were discussing the attempted hijacking of a flight bound for Tel Aviv and a suspected plot targeting a British air base the U.S. has used for military operations.

More than two decades after 9/11, Polymeropoulos said he worries the country has grown complacent about the threat he spent his career fighting....

A security expert warned that the confirmation of Trump's new spy chief marks a "really alarming moment."

During an appearance on CNN, Paul Rieckhoff said that the confirmation of Jay Clayton as Director of National Intelligence shows that Trump rewards loyalty above all else. Rieckhoff made the warning as CNN panelists spoke about Trump threatening upcoming elections and as Senate votes came in to confirm Clayton as the new head of America's 18 intelligence agencies.

"Standards don't matter. Competency doesn't matter. Independence doesn't matter. Loyalty matters," Rieckhoff said. "This is a really alarming moment that we shouldn't normalize."...

Trump's latest appointment is baffling and extremely dangerous, a political commentator warned Tuesday evening on CNN.

Bill Pulte, a Trump loyalist and the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, was appointed as the acting Director of National Intelligence. Critics point out that he has no experience in intelligence, but Democratic political pundit Van Jones said it's worse than that.

"The main thing is something really bad could happen when you have people who are unprofessional, they're in there doing the wrong thing," Jones warned. "People can die in America."...

National security experts were concerned that President Donald Trump has ignored important briefings and instead prefers to watch videos of explosions from the Iran war, according to an analyst on Thursday.

Salon's Chauncey DeVega described how Trump has started to treat the war — which has killed 13 American troops and nearly 1,500 Iranians — as entertainment. In the past, presidents have sought information from daily security briefings. Trump, however, has not followed this method.

"As the war progresses, Trump is reportedly being shown daily compilation videos of 'stuff blowing up' — two-minute highlight reels of death and destruction, curated to hold his attention due to his famously short attention span," DeVega wrote.
...

Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's husband, Bryon Noem, revealed he plans to speak about the leaked photos of his alleged fetish for cross-dressing amid questions over whether he compromised national security, according to reports on Wednesday.

An investigation from The Daily Mail on Tuesday uncovered "hundreds" of messages between Bryon Noem and three women in the fetish scene. Photos obtained by the Mail showed him dressed as a woman with fake breasts. He allegedly sent a secret group of online acquaintances at least $25,000 via Paypal and Cash App.

The New York Times contacted Bryon Noem via text message multiple times to request an interview....

President Donald Trump was reportedly shocked after a scandal broke out involving former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's husband, Bryon Noem, who has had an alleged fetish for cross-dressing and could have compromised national security, the president told The Daily Mail on Tuesday.

The outlet called Trump to ask for his reaction to the news after The Daily Mail's investigation uncovered "hundreds" of messages between Bryon Noem and three women in the fetish scene. Photos obtained by the Mail showed him dressed as a woman with fake breasts. He allegedly sent a secret group of online acquaintances at least $25,000 via Paypal and Cash App.

"They confirmed it? Wow, well, I feel badly for the family if that's the case, that's too bad," Trump told The Daily Mail. ...