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Trump Adds Bannon to National Security Council, Removes Intelligence
Officials
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/unprecedented_trump_adds_bannon_to_natio
nal_security_council_20170129/
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Posted on Jan 29, 2017
By Nadia Prupis / Common Dreams
(http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/01/29/unprecedented-trump-adds-bannon
-national-security-council-kicks-out-intelligence)
President Trumps right-hand man, Steve Bannon, has been tapped to attend
sensitive national security meetings. (Evan Vucci / AP)
President Donald Trump signed memorandums
(https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-holds-calls-with-putin-leader
s-from-europe-and-asia/2017/01/28/42728948-e574-11e6-a547-5fb9411d332c_story
.html?utm_term=.67a4e456deaf) on Saturday that kicked the nations top
military and intelligence advisers off the National Security Councils (NSC)
Principals Committee and elevated his chief strategist, Steve Bannon, in
their place.
The memorandum gives Bannon, former executive chair of the rightwing website
Breitbart News, a regular seat at some of the most sensitive meetings at the
highest levels of government, along with other NSC meetings.
The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and the chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staffwho need to be confirmed by the Senatewill now only attend
the meetings when discussions pertain to their responsibilities and
expertise, the memo states.
This is unusual, writes
(https://lawfareblog.com/national-security-presidential-memorandum-2%E2%80%9
4president-trumps-nsc-and-hsc) John Bellinger at Lawfare Blog. [T]he NSC
function usually does not include participants from the political side of
the White House.
Under former President George W. Bush, for example, Karl Rove did not attend
NSC meetings, Bellinger noted. According to former Chief of Staff Josh
Bolten
(http://www.whitehousetransitionproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/LBJ_N
ational_Security_Forum_National_Security_Council_9-23-2016.pdf) , President
Bush did not want to appear, especially to the military, to insert domestic
politics into national security decisionmaking.
Additionally, while Bannon has been granted this privileged access, CIA
director Mike Pompeo has notanother break with tradition, Bellinger wrote.
Both Bush and former President Barack Obama gave the DNI and the chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff regular seats on their councils.
Bellinger notes other irregularities:
The NSC executive secretary (General Keith Kellogg) shall attend all
Principals Committee and Deputies Committee meetings. This is also unusual.
The executive secretary in the Bush administration was generally too busy
and did not attend NSC or PC meetings.
[....] The Deputies Committee will have at least 14 regularly invited
participants and potentially 19 or more. This will be unwieldy.
CNN national security correspondent Jim Sciutto called Bannons placement on
the committee unprecedented.
Youre putting in someone who is not Senate confirmed and taking out the
Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence, who need to
be Senate confirmed, Sciutto told CNNs Jake Tapper. It raises questions
about whose voices will be most prominent about key national-security
decisions in the country.
Former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates likewise told
(https://twitter.com/ABCPolitics/status/825717265446342660) ABC on Sunday
that excluding the DNI and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was a
big mistake.
Under law, there are only two statutory advisers to the National Security
Councilthe DNI, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gates said.
Pushing them out [is] a big mistake. They both bring perspective, judgment,
and experience to bear that every presidentwhether they like it or
notfinds useful.
MSNBCs Joy Reid summed it up
(https://twitter.com/JoyAnnReid/status/825563774614700034) thus: To
reiterate, the Joint Chiefs of Staff have been removed from the National
Security Council and replaced with a white nationalist. Worry.
The memo was issued amid a second series of executive orders in Trumps
first full week in office, including ordering the Pentagon to devise a plan
in 30 days to defeat the Islamic State (ISIS). The president also held
several calls with foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir
Putin, French President François Hollande, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm
Turnbull.
Bannon joined Trump for all of those calls.
The move also affirms Bannons rise just after Trump echoed the strategists
recent comments that the media is the opposition party
(http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/01/28/media-opposition-trump-backs-ba
nnon-ongoing-war-press) .
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