Page 47 - Covert Action News Today

Secretary of state rex tillerson with cia director mike pompeo. if he gets through the senate nomination process. the president was a career spymaster to take over at the agency and for the first time ever it would be a woman. lets take a look tonight at gina haspel. who is she? here is national security correspondent jennifer griffin live from the pentagon. >> there are few images of gina haspel, a career intelligence operative, who worked in the shadows leading the hunt for the worlds most wan...

Extended family getting that in droves. >> you just put a fine on it. i will just read the key paragraph because it is so striking. >> it is better than my spewing. >> privately some aides have expressed frustration that mr. kushner and his wife, the presidents daughter ivanka trump, have he mained in the white house despite at times saying they never should have come to the white house and should leave. he privately asked mr. kelly for his help in moving them out. >> and it changes on the day. ...

Me that the russians have in no way been deterred? >> yes, sir. >> theyre doing with it impugnity. theyre continuing to attack us. >> yes, sir. >> i do find it surprising. you normally dont have in the trump administration, even if the facts dont line up, with loyalty. loyalty is so rewarded and here you have admiral rogers making it very clear, im not saying inappropriately so, the president has not given him the authority to do what he needs to do. >> the story is bigger than that. in a real w...

According to reporting by "the new york times", there hadnt been a cabinet meeting about it and how to fight back against it. >> let me tell you why this is significant. ill take you inside the sort of guts for government for a moment. the department of homeland security ought to be talking, im sure they are, about how to secure elections. the fbi ought to be securing the information that came ot ut of that indictment. the cia ought to be conducting covert action against the russians. the depart...

It. >> i will take you inside the guts of government for a moment. the department of homeland security should be talking about elections. the cia ought to be conducting covert action. you see those interworking parts and that is one place where it comes together and that is in the situation room in the white house. this is sort of common government 101, a lot of moving parts here. we have to make sure the mentioning is right. we have to make sure that corresponds with what the department of stat...

Its going to take a while to find out. this is something that under mined faith in our democracy, pitted groups against each other, and maybe, we may know soon, may have decided who was the president of the united states. when youve got an election that was decided by 77,000 voters in three states almost anything can affect it. >> you talked in the past how previous presidents have worried about whether or not russia or other adversary nations were taking covert action because you -- ive heard y...

Because he knew if americans thought the russians were behind the killing of our president and a change of power there might be a huge demand among americans to retaliate against the soviet union in a way that might lead to nuclear war. thats one of the reasons lbj did the warn commission. he went to the chief justice and said i hope you find a verdict that will resolve suspicions like this. >> even in the narrative it explains the seriousness of the attack. how the united states would have reac...

>> yeah, and i think one of the most interesting things was that there were east german scientists involved in spreading this rumor at a time when vladimir putin was a kgb officer in east germany. and so its very likely he knew about operation infection, and he then later, as you know, became director the fsb in 1998, even before he became president of russia. so he has a long tradition steeped into the kgbs history of covert action. >> when you read the indictment, what are your take-aways, giv...

Publications running stories on the connections across the world, all of it a kgb operation to spread this damaging misinformation. >> the interesting things, there were east german scientists involved in spreading this rumor at a time when vladimir putin was a kgb officer in east germany and so its very likely he knew about operation infection, and he then later, as you know, became director of the fsb in 1998 even before he became president of russia. so he has a long tradition steeped into th...

James risen points out a stark truth about the man currently occupying the oval office. quote, one year after trump took office, it is still unclear whether the president of the united states is an agent of foreign power. jim rise en join joins me now. its a pleasure to have you here. you have been covering intelligence for literally decades. you have co written a book with someone who worked for the cia, specifically the kgb. this piece, start there. with your knowledge of how the kgb and succe...