At some point today, a sober team of analysts will gather their black satchels and secure communications gear and begin making their way toward Donald Trump’s campaign headquarters to give the president-elect his first unfiltered look at the nation’s intelligence secrets.
The initial presentation is likely to be a read-through of the President’s Daily Brief, the same, highly classified summary of security developments delivered every day to President Obama. After that, U.S. spy officials will schedule a series of meetings to apprise Trump of covert CIA operations against terror groups, the intercepted communications of world leaders, and satellite photos of nuclear installations in North Korea.
The sessions are designed to bring a new president up to speed on the nation’s most precious secrets. But with Trump, the meetings will likely serve as cautious and tense introductory encounters between wary intelligence professionals and a newly minted president-elect who has demonstrated abundant disdain for their work.
“It’s fear of the unknown,” said a senior U.S. national security official. “We don’t know what he’s really like under all the talk. . . . How will that play out over the next four years or even the next few months? I don’t know if there is going to be a tidal wave of departures of people who were going to stay around to help Hillary’s team, but are now going to be, ‘I’m out of here.’ ” Cont.
Story from - Washington Post
