Free Republic

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION is considering a set of proposals developed by Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a retired CIA officer — with assistance from Oliver North, a key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal — to provide CIA Director Mike Pompeo and the White House with a global, private spy network that would circumvent official U.S. intelligence agencies, according to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials and others familiar with the proposals. The sources say the plans have been pitched to the White House as a means of countering “deep state” enemies in the intelligence community seeking to undermine Donald...

The mainstream media's usual hand-wringing about President Trump's Twitter habit morphed into hyperventilation last week after he shared several "unverified" tweets about terrorism, but the director of the Central Intelligence Agency surprisingly doesn't have a problem with it. CIA Director Mike Pompeo said at a national security event in Simi Valley, California, over the weekend that Trump's tweeting has actually yielded helpful intelligence. The current CIA director sat down with former CIA director Leon Panetta and Fox News host Brett Baier for an hour of discussion on world events from a security perspective at The Reagan National Defense Forum on...

The White House has developed a plan to force out Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, whose relationship with President Trump has been strained, and replace him with Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director, within the next several weeks, senior administration officials said on Thursday. Mr. Pompeo would be replaced at the C.I.A. by Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas who has been a key ally of the president on national security matters, according to the White House plan. Mr. Cotton has signaled that he would accept the job if offered, said the officials, who insisted on anonymity to discuss...

CIA Director Mike Pompeo says he’s seen all of the unmasking requests made by members of the Obama administration during the election. In an interview with Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday,” Pompeo would not reveal whether the requests constituted spying on President Donald Trump, his campaign or transition team. Obama officials asked for various intelligence documents to be “unmasked” to reveal the names of any Trump campaign or transition members connected with surveillance of meetings with foreign governments or officials. Pompeo would only say that the CIA had worked well with Congress. “There is an active investigation going one...

President Trump is looking at shifting CIA Director Mike Pompeo to the White House as national security adviser, according to a report Wednesday evening. The move would bump H.R. McMaster, the current national security adviser. McMaster, a three-star Army general, would in turn be sent to Afghanistan to command U.S. forces in that country, the New York Times reported, citing several unnamed administration officials. The move could help McMaster earn his fourth star.....

Sara A. Carter: Investigating: Rumors swirling in Wash circles and sources saying @realDonaldTrump "considering CIA Pompeo to replace HR" wait and see?

.. At a security conference this week, the director of the C.I.A., Mike Pompeo, criticized The New York Times for a recent article about an officer who was tapped to run the agency’s Iran operations, a newsworthy promotion because it was an indication of the hard line against Iran that President Trump promised during his campaign. Mr. Pompeo said that the publication of the official’s name, Michael D’Andrea, was “unconscionable” and put his covert status in jeopardy. Mr. Pompeo’s comments led to a wider discussion about the publication of Mr. D’Andrea’s name, and some readers wrote to us to express...

For nearly four years, Syrian rebels have clung to a programme of CIA assistance as a symbol of US support in their battle against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. So reports that Donald Trump’s administration will stop the limited scheme to arm and train Syria’s opposition forces have sparked anger and confusion. Rebels say they have not been informed of any changes to the policy introduced by Barack Obama as US president in 2013 as part of efforts to put pressure on Syria’s president and bring about a political settlement. Mr Assad’s main backer, Russia, has long pushed for the US to...

During a powerful segment, Fox News' Ed Henry tuned into the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, where CIA Director Mike Pompeo rightfully condemned The New York Times for endangering the life of a CIA officer.    "We had a publication, you work for Bret, that published the name of an undercover officer at the Central Intelligence Agency," he said. "I find that unconscionable."

CIA Director Mike Pompeo blasted the New York Times Thursday for publishing the name of the undercover officer in charge of the agency's Iran operations. During a question-and-answer session at the Aspen Security Forum, an annual gathering of intelligence and national security officials and experts, Pompeo said the decision to publish the operative's name was "unconscionable." The audience applauded his statement after a brief period of silence. The operative's name, which Fox News is withholding, was published in a June 2 story. The Times said it was publishing the name because the officer had previously been identified in other news...

Reports surface today that President Trump has cancelled the 2012/2013 covert CIA program giving weapons to ISIS and al-Qaeda in Syria.  [Washington Post Link] Various news organizations frame the issue as cancelling the program to “arm the moderate opposition to Bashir Assad”.  However, those news reports are entirely false. We know the Obama administration was arming ISIS as part of the larger Syria strategy because Secretary of State John Kerry went on record admitting the Obama Syrian strategy was actually to arm ISIS and extremist Islamic groups (al-Nusra) against Assad. We also know Secretary Kerry was being truthful in that media-hidden, albeit recorded, admission because CTH specifically...

President Trump has decided to end the CIA’s covert program to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels battling the government of Bashar al-Assad, a move long sought by Russia, according to U.S. officials. The program was a central plank of a policy begun by the Obama administration in 2013 to put pressure on Assad to step aside, but even its backers have questioned its efficacy since Russia deployed forces in Syria two years later. Officials said the phasing out of the secret program reflects Trump’s interest in finding ways to work with Russia, which saw the anti-Assad program as an...

For the debut of his MSNBC show this morning, Hugh Hewitt scored the first news network interview with CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Debunking an assertion made by some, Pompeo said he couldn’t “imagine a statement that is anymore false” than the notion that Trump isn’t interested in intel. Pompeo stated that he personally meets with Trump for 35-40 minutes virtually every day, that Trump is an “avid consumer” of intel, and asks great questions. View the video here.

Monday’s White House roundtable erupted in laughter when CIA Director Mike Pompeo said he wouldn’t “say a damn thing in front of the media.” Trump gathered his cabinet for a meeting in the White House Monday, and the session basically involved each cabinet member expressing their gratitude for being able to serve in the administration. However, after Pompeo shared his thanks with the president, he took a shot at the press. “Mr. President, it’s an honor to serve as your CIA director,” Pompeo said. “It’s an incredible privilege to lead the men and women who are providing intelligence so that...

The New York Times, in a front-page story, said that the president “wanted to splinter the CIA in a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds.” Whether that quote is accurate or not we don’t know, but it makes sense that after the agency damaged the president’s reputation so badly, he would react with such anger. If you are a student of history, you already know that the president who swore a vendetta against the Central Intelligence Agency wasn’t Donald Trump, but John F. Kennedy, and that although he did not abolish the agency before his assassination, he did...

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Thursday that President Trump might have disclosed classified information in an interview with Fox News this week. “In his effort to once again blame Obama, the president appears to have discussed something that, if true and accurate, would otherwise be considered classified information,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, California Democrat. In an interview with Fox News, Mr. Trump had said: “I just want people to know, the CIA was hacked, and a lot of things taken — that was during the Obama years.”

A CIA employee who contributed thousands of dollars to Hillary Clinton in 2016 and who is a registered Democrat announced his decision to leave the agency in a Washington Post column published Sunday, writing that his departure "had nothing to do with politics." Edward Price resigned from the CIA last week and used the Washington Post to explain his decision that he could not "in good faith serve this administration as an intelligence professional." Price wrote that his "decision had nothing to do with politics," and that he "would have been proud to again work under a Republican administration." "As...

A CIA analyst assigned to the White House National Security Council announced Monday he has left the agency because he refuses to work with President Donald Trump. Edward Price began working at the CIA in 2006, and he said it was his first job out of college. He resigned from the agency last month after Trump took office. "Despite working proudly for Republican and Democratic presidents, I reluctantly concluded that I cannot in good faith serve this administration as an intelligence professional,"

The CIA’s War on Trump by Cliff Kincaid on December 12, 2016 You couldn’t fault Donald J. Trump for concluding that the CIA is out to get him even before he starts his presidency. Former CIA officials Michael Morell, Michael Hayden and Philip Mudd have all denounced him. Plus, former CIA operations officer Evan McMullin ran against him as an independent presidential candidate. Obama’s director of the CIA is John Brennan, who recently disclosed that he voted for the Communist Party (CPUSA) ticket when he was in college. He was hired by the CIA anyway and quickly rose through the...

Make no mistake: we have just witnessed an operation by members of the CIA to take out a high official of our own government. An agency widely believed to have brought down democratically elected governments overseas is now practicing the same dark arts in domestic American politics. Almost certainly, its new head, Mike Pompeo, was not consulted. Senator Chuck Schumer, of all people, laid out on January 2 what was going to happen to the Trump administration if it dared take on the deep state – the permanent bureaucracy that has contempt for the will of the voters and feels...