Page 23 - Intelligence Information News Today

Somebodys security clearance and you hold them. you remove them away from intelligence information. thats standard operating process. this notion that these people just didnt know what they were doing. they got up really high into presidential politics. they didnt know what was going on. this russian stuff is nothing. on the one hand, you are saying you dont know what they are doing. on the other hand, you are making the argument that there was no russian collusion. maybe they were pawns of the ...

I used to brief in the white house. there are awkward conversations and difficult conversations where the truth versus loyalty dilemma comes up. im giving the truth as i see it and the policy maker doesnt like the message im giving. in the comey case, it was about what he was saying about the investigation and his unwillingness to say, yes, sir, im personally loyal to you. what happens when you have that ethical dilemma? you resolve it one way or another. its tough for us to put ourselves in tho...

He spent some time with the prime minister. met in person a few different times. there were some tensions over what he had happened after the manchester incident where law enforcement was believed to have leaked some information provided by u.k. intelligence. that created a potential rift. theresa may made a point of saying they would raise that with president trump. and then they were able to be on the same page when it comes to terrorism, sharing of intelligence information, so this comes at a...

They are all being subpoenaed to find out some facts. what are your thoughts. >> especially in regard to samantha power. she is diplomat, not dealing with intelligence matters. that is a big question there about what they are trying to get from her. look, you know, i think its repeatedly forgotten there is this other side of the investigation. both with the illegal leaks and also the reported unmasking of trump official names. there has also been circa abuse from the obama administration with vi...

European leader as you know whos been sympathetic and welcoming to trump, even getting ahead of the skis and promising a full state visit. look, i mean, this is a, kind of a fascinating wrinkle, given what we are seeing in the domestic arena here in the u.s. with the leaking, in many ways, unprecedented leaking of aspects of intelligence information either swirling around the russia investigation or for that matter the transcript of the presidents conversation with the russian ambassador and for...

Sharing comes on the heels of the president sharing sensitive israeli intelligence with the russian officials and he also by the way told the president of the philippines about specific locations of u.s. nuclear submarines around the korean peninsula. both of those very sensitive classified information. so is there now another trust issue with american allies? >> well, look, weve got to straighten this out. weve got to make it clear that we need to share information. we need to do that because t...

Any of the information in that was valid, but i dont have any firsthand knowledge of it. >> do you know if the bureau ever relied on the steel dossier as any -- as part of any court filings? applications, petitions, pleadings? >> i have no awareness. >> did the cia rely on it? >> no. >> why not? >> because we didnt. it wasnt part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. it was not in any way used as a basis for the intelligence community assessment that was done. it was not. >> all...

By the bureau made to try and understand whether or not any of the information in that was valid, but i dont have any first had knowledge of it. court filings, applications, petitions, pleadings -- >> i have no awareness. >> it was not part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. it was not in any way used as a basis for the intelligence community assessment that was done. it was not. >> all right, my last line of conference, i hope i have waited sufficiently long enough to ask yo...

His business documents, which may give us the information that we need and where theres a pretty clear argument that they would not be protected by any claim of fifth amendment privilege. >> how much is this holding up the investigation right now? >> its not really holding us up much, as much as we would like to have these documents, because were proceeding to issue many other requests for documents from other people who are involved. our staff has conducted some 30 interviews and weve been revi...

>> its extremely difficult to pick sides since weve been an ally of the saudis for a long, long time. their biggest adversary is iran. theres something of a battle, has been for some time, a battle in the region for influence and dominance between saudi arabia on the one hand and iran on other. we have picked a side. the side we picked are the saudis and the side were against is iran and we have been since 1979. we cast our lot with the saudis at least partially because of their relationship wit...