national INsecurity council
During President Trump's first week and a half in office, he has signed a series of troubling executive orders and presidential memoranda. The focus of this writing shall be the Presidential Memorandum affecting the organization of the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council, signed by the president January 28, 2017. The following is a link to the White House's website and text of the memorandum.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/28/presidential-memorandum-organization-national-security-council-and
President Trump has, among other things, restructured the Principals Committee (PC). The PC is "the Cabinet-level senior interagency forum for considering policy issues that affect the national security interests of the United States." (1) This reorganization of the members of this committee is an unprecedented change to its structure and represents a grave danger to our national security.
The first remarkable change is the exclusion of the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Director of National Intelligence is a United States government official that serves as the head of the intelligence community, which includes intelligence agencies, military intelligence, and civilian intelligence and analysis offices. In other words, this person (Dan Coats, pending Senate confirmation) is in charge of ALL of our intelligence and spies worldwide. The DNI has been changed from attending all of the meetings of the NSC as a principal, to "attend(ing) where issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed." (2) This means the DNI shall attend meetings by "invite-only" at the discretion of the President, or more likely his Chief Advisor and strategist, Steve Bannon. It is hard to imagine any issues discussed by the NSC that would not pertain to the responsibilities and expertise of the DNI and its agencies. Establishing a system of making national security decisions without consultation with the intelligence community is very dangerous. Without the intelligence gathered around the world and in our own nation, national security decisions will be based upon what criteria? Alternative facts? Unstudied and unfounded ideas? Steve Bannon's agenda? Trump's agenda? NO FACTS + OPINIONS = DISASTER.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) has now been placed in the "invite-only" status for meetings of the Principals Committee of the National Security Council. Like the DNI, the CJCS shall "attend where issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed." (3) The CJCS is the highest ranking member of the United States Military and is the senior military advisor to the president, Secretary of Defense and the Homeland Security Council. This is the single person with the most information about the operations of our military and serves as the channel through which information from our battle commanders in the field gets to the President and Department of Defense. Again, it is hard to imagine any issues discussed by the NSC that would not pertain to the responsibilities and expertise of the CJCS.
So, let's briefly summarize the last two paragraphs. The President has decided our intelligence community and military will NOT attend some of the most important meetings in our government that affect the entire world. He will not base decisions on the spies and generals that are out in the field with first-hand knowledge of world events. This is a big finger in the eyes of both groups which the President has continually publicly disparaged throughout his campaign. Some would say that this decision by the President is the height of ignorance and stupidity, but I disagree. It is much more nefarious than that. This is the administration preparing to make decisions based upon the predetermined agenda of Trump and Bannon, or should I say Bannon and Trump, while ignoring those that have a different, fact-based view.
The second remarkable change is the inclusion of Assistant to the President and Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon, on the Principal's Committee of the National Security Council. (4) This is deeply problematic because the NSC is supposed to focus on national security issues free from the tangles of domestic politics. Other presidential advisors have attended meetings of the Principals Committee before, but not as decision-making members of the PC. This dangerously politicizes an agency that is supposed to ensure our national security, not ensure the achievement of the Bannon and Trump agenda. Bannon's views on world politics are at the least disturbing and represent a grave danger to the safety and security of the United States and its citizens.
REFERENCES:
1,2,3,4 - https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/28/presidential-memorandum-organization-national-security-council-and
