In a dramatic escalation of tensions between the White House and conventional security strategists of the country, President Donald Trump revoked the security clearance of the former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), John Brennan. Senior intelligence officials routinely retain their access to classified information and Mr. Trump’s decision to block Mr. Brennan was widely seen as unprecedented.
Mr. Trump and the country’s security agencies are at loggerheads over American strategy. The President has questioned the record of America’s intelligence organisations, particularly the unfounded declaration that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, paving the way for the invasion of the country in 2003. Mr. Brennan was Deputy Executive Director of the CIA then. He has been a severe critic of Mr. Trump. “It was nothing short of treasonous,” he said of the President’s press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in July.
“Mr. Brennan has recently leveraged his status as a former high-ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations — wild outbursts on the Internet and television — about this administration. Mr. Brennan’s lying and recent conduct, characterised by increasingly frenzied commentary, is wholly inconsistent with access to the nation’s most closely held secrets,” Mr. Trump said in a statement.
‘Russian asset’
The President said he was reviewing the security clearances of several other former officials, including former FBI chief James Comey and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Mr. Clapper had earlier termed the President a Russian intelligence “asset”.
Escalating Mr. Trump’s tensions with the security establishment are the diverging views of the two sides on America’s relations with Russia, and the alleged Russian interference to facilitate the President’s victory in 2016. An investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference remains open 15 months after it started, and indictments so far of American citizens relate to tax frauds and deceit. No indictment related to collusion has been brought.
“I call it the rigged witch hunt, (it) is a sham. And these people led it!” Mr. Trump said in an interview to the Wall Street Journal , about the Russia investigation, published on Wednesday. “So I think it’s something that had to be done."
Mr. Brennan said in a New York Times piece after his security clearance was revoked that there was collusion between Mr. Trump and the Russians. “Mr. Trump’s claims of no collusion are, in a word, hogwash. The only questions that remain are whether the collusion that took place constituted criminally liable conspiracy, whether obstruction of justice occurred to cover up any collusion or conspiracy and facilitates the very aim of our adversaries, which is to sow division and chaos...” he wrote. Mr. Brennan said in the article that many American citizens are being drafted by Russian intelligence operatives to work for them.
President Barack Obama appointed Mr. Brennan as CIA chief in 2013, overlooking the concerns raised by many liberals for his role in the Bush-era tactics against terrorism. On Wednesday, the Democrats appeared to be rallying behind Mr. Brennan. “In the time I have known him, John Brennan has never been afraid to speak up and give it to you straight,” former Vice-President Joe Biden posted on Twitter.
