News / Interviews

‘Trump-CIA fight hints at US institutional crisis’

Monday, 16 January 2017 11:11 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 16 January 2017 11:12 AM ]

The US Capitol dome is reflected in water pooled in a folding chair that will used by spectators during a dress rehearsal for the presidential inauguration ceremony January 15, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)

The tensions between the incoming US president and the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have reached a new climax, with Donald Trump suggesting that John Brennan might have been the person who leaked fake news against him. The war of words began when Trump compared the US intelligence community to Nazi Germany, and Brennan in return warned the next US president to choose his words carefully. We have asked a former intelligence agent to shed more light on what is going on between the two American officials.

Glenn Carle, a former CIA agent from Boston, said the struggle between the president-elect and the intelligence community hints at an institutional crisis in the United States.

The clash between Trump and the US intelligence apparatus “hurts morale” and shows the underlying crisis in the establishment, Carle noted.

“Officers of the CIA rise above morale or attitude to serve, but greater than that is the institutional crisis that the struggle creates,” he argued, adding, America is facing perhaps the “greatest institutional crisis” that it has faced since 1861.

Criticizing the president-elect’s attack on the intelligence community, he said, “It is a huge thing for Trump to even be hinting at or moving towards unintentionally or intentionally.”

When Trump dares to denigrate dozens of thousands of dedicated men and women in the intelligence community who provide the executive branch with intelligence, Carle stated, then he is left alone with his tweeter account.

Pointing to the consequences of Trump’s attitude towards the intelligence apparatus, the former agent warned, “The world is a dangerous place with this competition and it’s worse than ill-advised to dismiss out of ignorance and personal defensiveness the organs of government.”

“Demagogues can win popular support by dramatic gestures. Often democratic societies or electorates can be convinced that something is good which leads to catastrophe for them,” he concluded.

The tensions between Trump and CIA exacerbated when the news website BuzzFeed published a 35-page document alleging that Russia was in possession of a compromising dossier which made Trump a subject of its influence.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk