Dead Drop: February 1

BACK TO SCHOOL SPECIAL: The leaders of the U.S. intelligence community delivered their annual Worldwide Threats testimony to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Tuesday January 29.  Little in Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats’ prepared testimony, and the panel’s responses to questions, was all that surprising. But subsequent press coverage took note that the intelligence officials testifying frequently came to conclusions contrary to the stated views of President Donald Trump. The president took note of that, too – in Wednesday morning tweets saying his own intel chiefs were extremely passive and naïve and suggesting that perhaps they should go “back to school.” The reaction to the intelligence leadership getting failing grades at Trump University was swift.  Former CIA Director John Brennan said Trump’s criticism was evidence of his “intellectual bankruptcy.”    While former acting CIA Director Michael Morell told CBS News that:  the president’s reaction was all about his ego and the clash was “music to (Putin’s) ears. “

By Wednesday night, CNN was reporting that the president’s animus was especially directed at Coats.  White House officials denied that the DNI’s job was on the line (and we hear that Coats has no intentions of leaving) – but – the odds of Coats finishing out Trump’s first term don’t seem long. Who might be willing and able to take the job, were it to open up?  We are betting on an “acting” chief like they have at the Pentagon, Justice Department, White House Chief of Staff’s position and elsewhere. The current Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence is Susan M. Gordon, a career intelligence officer whom The Cipher Brief has profiled in the past.  (Probably not bad that a Forbes article just cited her as a leader who can achieve ‘the impossible’.)