The testy nature of the public relationship between Donald Trump and the CIA is well known with the agency putting forth a number of unproven and laughably ridiculous assertions that Trump is working with Russia as well as the President publicly criticizing the intelligence community for these claims. More serious, however, is the fact that the CIA monitored and essentially ousted former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn.
So with Trump engaging in a relatively public and behind-the-scenes war with the CIA, it may come as a surprise that Trump has given the agency even more authority to conduct secret drone strikes.
While Barack Obama earned himself the title of “Drone Bomber In Chief,” pressure from human rights groups, activists, and independent media coverage of CIA drones dropping bombs on families, children, wedding parties, and other social gatherings caused enough of a controversy that the administration attempted to mitigate the bad public relations it was getting by allegedly taking away the authority of the CIA to control the drone program and given to the U.S. military. Barack Obama, the Nobel Prize Winner and the left’s favorite warmonger, was well known for evaluating and approving the “kill list” every morning before beginning his daily performance of receiving worship and fake crying after questionable acts of gun violence. Indeed, during Obama’s term, the President of the United States was perhaps the world’s best-known assassin.
But the alleged removal of carte blanche from the hands of the CIA meant nothing. In reality, it only added a few seconds of bureaucracy to the process. The Pentagon also tends to report many of its drone strikes while the CIA does not.
Trump, however, has now removed that little detail of bureaucracy and is allowing the CIA the carte blanche it is used to operating with.
President Trump has given the CIA new authority to conduct covert drone strikes, the Wall Street Journal reports. This authority was apparently exercised in the targeted killing of al-Qaida commander Abu al-Khayr al-Masri in the Idlib province of Syria in late February.
While the agency has had such authority in the past, the Obama administration, under pressure from human rights and civil liberties groups, gradually shifted control of the drone program from the CIA to the military over the past few years. By the end of the Obama administration, according to the Journal, the CIA would use drones to locate suspected terrorists, but the military would carry out the actual strike. The distinction is important for transparency: The Pentagon reports most strikes while the CIA doesn’t.Trump’s order is meant to apply to operations against ISIS and al-Qaida in Syria, but it could also allow the agency to conduct strikes in other countries. This may already be happening. The Journal notes that a suspected U.S. drone strike in Pakistan earlier this month was not acknowledged by the Pentagon, as it normally would be.
The contradiction between Trump’s public display and his private decisions was even picked up by Slate who wrote “Trump’s allies have suggested an ongoing campaign by the “deep state” to undermine his presidency. Still, it appears Trump does trust the CIA to kill people.”
So, what is Trump actually thinking? Did his skirmish with the Deep State apparatus show him who the real boss is? Is he finally getting the message and backing down, giving the CIA what it wants little by little? Certainly, if he is truly in a battle with the Deep State, giving the CIA permission to launch drone strikes at will is perhaps the worst possible strategy to fight it. With this setup, if Trump gets out of line, all the CIA needs to do is drone bomb a mosque, or a school, or a home for sick puppies. After all, the buck stops with the President. Trump will be blamed for the atrocity and the CIA can sit back and let him take the heat. This new decision certainly sounds ill advised for someone battling the intelligence community.
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Or is there another explanation for such a bizarre decision? Are Trump and the Deep State really fighting at all? Or is he just another puppet serving his purpose for the next four (or maybe less) years? The complexity and secrecy surrounding the United States government and especially the Deep State apparatus (it is the Deep State after all) is currently such that no one fully knows for sure.
However, whether there is a rift between Trump and the Deep State or not, giving the CIA the authority to launch drone strikes on its own is clearly a very bad idea.
Brandon Turbeville – article archive here – is the author of seven books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1 and volume 2, The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria, The Difference it Makes: 36 Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President, and Resisting The Empire: The Plan To Destroy Syria And How The Future Of The World Depends On The Outcome. Turbeville has published over 1000 articles on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s radio show Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. His website is BrandonTurbeville.com He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.
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what makes the president think he has the authority to do drone strikes?
much less give that authority to somone
If it were not for the Goliath US military, the entire drone-strike mechanism, from decision maker to brain-dead drone pilot ….. would be subject to charges for crimes, war crimes and terrorism.
Trump is becoming just another puppet to the MIC and merely continuing the wars that were started by the globalist regime headed by George HW Bush.
Trump didn’t become a puppet … he was always one. Once again the cabal fooled the sheeple into thinking they had a savior.
Maybe, time will tell, but we don’t have much.
Probably he’s thinking “at least I won’t get blamed if the CIA does the strikes by itself”.
News flash for you, Mr. Trump: We’ll still blame you because you gave them the green light to do whatever they want.
Either start living up to your promise to “end empire building wars”, or face massive defeat in 2018 and nobody getting upset about your impeachment.
And while we’re at it, how about beginning to “drain the swamp” instead of giving the CIA swamp monsters more powers?
The first phase I will comment with “not possible, he is and remains responsible for all good AND dark deeds. Mr. Trump is a) The President of the US and b) with attribute “Commander in Chief”.
So now the CinC said to his “enemy”, “go ahead with your drones as before”.
Who is responsible? He is. CIA has no accountability to nobody. He made somewhere a good deal for his family, I suspect.
The continuation of his policy will be from now on IMO “wishy washy” to distract the Sheeple.
It gives him plausible deniability. “Oh, I had no idea the CIA would target a large group of civilians! I’m not to blame, at worst I trusted the wrong people. Shame on them for not being trustworthy!”
But I agree that for Mr. Trump, that’s not going to work. It did work for the Bushs and Clintons because they had the corporate media on their side, and they’d scream “everyone else is to blame” until people would actually believe it (remember “faulty intelligence” on Iraq’s nukes? At a point when just about everyone, apparently except Bush, knew there was no such thing?)
But the media aren’t behind Trump, in his case they’ll actually report the truth whenever it harms Trump.
Hes probably Mind Kontrolled by the CIA to do just that. I’d be willing to bet his biz “empire” has been created & maintained with the aid of mind control tools/techniques?….
All purchased with his “Tremendously Successful” wealth?..-At a high cost however.
Yet another Manchurian, this time cavorting around in his thinly-veiled disguise as the anti-establishment front runner to pacify certain “squirrelly” demographics & lead the dissent into the dirt.
Im waitin for the orange to drain from his money-maker, his eyes to roll in differing directions while smoke pours outta both ears. The access hatch popping open on the back of his neck, launching springs & SIM cards in every direction…..Jaw slowly going slack. Tongue slooooowly rolling out onto the desk….-To reveal his never seen Seal of Solomon/Star of David tattoo on the slimey soft flesh…
We may not have too many rights left……But @ least I can dream?;)
People hate tyranny unless it is their tyrant in the White House… This man should never have been allowed to run because with his vast megalomania he is going to get this country wacked…
If it turns out that Trump was just the latest installment of Deep State – Pax Judaica then he should be eliminated completely and without prejudice. The Deep State – Pax Judaica ‘trojan horses’ are getting old……
But eliminated by who and for who? Some people supposedly already have him in the crosshairs. For what reason though? Just to install Hillary?
Trump, another puppet? Probably. After all, he’s incapable of thinking intelligently about Building 7.
Trump knows that fedgov false-flagged us on 9/11. For him to throw even more money at the military-industrial complex when they can’t account for missing trilllions highlights the fact that we’ve had a silent coup. The ruling regime is not our government. It has not been our government for a very long time.
Another view of Trump’s decision, if it was actually made at all (considering that both The Wall Street Journal and Slate have not be that supportive of Trump), is that it both allows the prosecution of the undeclared war (undeclared by Congress, but not by Trump) without risking US lives and minds, but does give the CIA more rope to allow the “Deep State” to hang itself.
This is Trump thinking he can win favors and respect. No, he needs to shut that agency down.
I guess that’s what happens when you gamble on someone who says some stuff you like along with a lot of stuff that makes no sense. That’s my take. People saw what they wanted to see in Trump. You could believe anything, and believe he supported it, at some point in a speech or interview. All over the map. And it worked.
Now the trick is to take that cognitive dissonance to the next level, with his actions not matching his words. And it’s going swimmingly. Yeah.