Spies fear purge amid CIA revamp
UNITED STATES: America’s top spy agencies are fearful that President Donald Trump is plotting a purge of the CIA with the launch of an inquiry to hunt down intelligence officials who leaked classified information to the media and will seek to curtail their powers.
‘‘We’re going to find the leakers, and they’re going to pay a big price,’’ Trump said yesterday as relations between the White House and intelligence agencies plumbed depths only previously reached during the Watergate scandal of the 1970s.
In a wide-ranging press conference, he said he had demanded that the Department of Justice track down who leaked details of private conversations between his team and Moscow officials during the election campaign.
‘‘Those are criminal leaks. I think you’ll see it stopping because now we have our people in.’’
Trump also said he may appoint a billionaire outsider to conduct a review of America’s intelligence services even though he has no intelligence experience.
He added that he hoped he would be able to find a suitable internal candidate to launch a review of America’s spy agencies even though Stephen Feinberg had ‘‘offered his services, and it’s something we may take advantage of’’.
Trump wants a review of the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence – which has 1800 members of staff – to ascertain how they handle classified information and to weed out spies and officials who are not supportive of his administration.
The agencies fear the White House will clip their wings and limit their independence from the president.
Feinberg heads Cerberus Capital Management, the New York private equity firm, and the spy agencies are afraid that Trump will carry out the threat that he may make him a consultant inside the White House to conduct the review.
Last month before his inauguration Trump denied he was planning a shake-up of the intelligence services.
Relations between the White House and US spy agencies are at their worst for decades. It is believed some senior intelligence officials across the agencies are dismissive of Trump and his new team and have failed to keep him properly informed, with limited daily briefings.
The president is livid that phone calls by his team to Russian officials were monitored by US intelligence agencies and some details of their contact leaked to the media.
Feinberg, 56, appears to have no professional credentials relating to intelligence. His closest links to the intelligence community is that his funds have investments in security and firearm companies. He is close to Trump, whose adult sons he knows through hunting, and serves as an economics adviser to the president.
In his most extensive press conference since taking office, Trump attacked the media, accusing them of being dishonest.
‘‘The press should be ashamed of themselves, but more importantly, the people gave out the [classified] information to the press should be ashamed of themselves – really ashamed,’’ he said.
He singled out CNN for what he said was ‘‘such hatred’’, and joked that he made sure Alexander Acosta, his new labour secretary nominee, was not related to one of the network’s journalists with the same surname. He called the BBC ‘‘another beauty, just like CNN’’.
Feinberg is a famously secretive investor. Although he has not been active in politics, his firm is well connected on Capitol Hill.
Dan Quayle, the former vice president to President George Bush Sr, sits on the board, and John Snow, President George Bush Jr’s treasury secretary is its chairman. — The Times