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Former NSA analyst goes nuclear on Trump over comments about intelligence community

If his tweets are to be believed, things are about to get worse.

 

David Covucci

Tech

Posted on Feb 15, 2017   Updated on May 24, 2021, 11:58 pm CDT

John Schindler is a former National Security Agency analyst and current columnist for the New York Observer. On Sunday, he went viral with a column, “The Spy Revolt Against Trump Begins,” which included a bombshell accusation that intelligence agencies were withholding information from the Trump administration over fears that the Kremlin had ears in every room in the White House. 

Schindler wrote: 

In light of this, and out of worries about the White House’s ability to keep secrets, some of our spy agencies have begun withholding intelligence from the Oval Office … A senior National Security Agency official explained that NSA was systematically holding back some of the “good stuff” from the White House, in an unprecedented move … In the last three weeks, however, NSA has ceased doing this, fearing Trump and his staff cannot keep their best SIGINT secrets.

This morning, President Trump unleashed on Twitter about possible leaks coming from the intelligence community, most likely in regards to a New York Times report last night detailing his campaign’s contact with Russia

According to Schindler, lobbing that accusation at the intelligence community left them livid. 

Schindler went on a tweetstorm, which included some inflammatory accusations and juicy tidbits from people allegedly on the inside. He claims, without any facts or sources, that Trump colluded with the Kremlin and that a high-level source in the intelligence community told him “Trump will die in jail.” 

BLUF stands for “Bottom Line Up Front.”


Schindler’s inflammatory tweets have drawn considerable attention, especially from far-right outlets and pro-Trump Twitter users, eager to dismiss his commentary as fake news or un-American. 

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Schindler responded to many of them in a scornful tone, further stoking the back and forth.  

In this sense, the conversation presents something of a double-edged sword: Schindler’s bringing attention to serious concerns in the intelligence community during an unprecedented time in American politics. But without concrete support, it lends momentum to efforts to dismiss the seriousness of the Russian allegations as a liberal media conspiracy. Schindler did not respond to a request for comment. 

H/T Raw Story

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*First Published: Feb 15, 2017, 5:19 pm CST