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Another thread.
More on DOD, based on further conversations with well-informed former Trump officials:
1. NSA Robert O'Brien also key; he urged removal of Esper, putting in Miller and Patel.
2. Having total loyalists not just at Sec Def but at DOD Policy and Intel is a big deal.
More on DOD, based on further conversations with well-informed former Trump officials:
1. NSA Robert O'Brien also key; he urged removal of Esper, putting in Miller and Patel.
2. Having total loyalists not just at Sec Def but at DOD Policy and Intel is a big deal.
3. Re Miller, Patel, Tata, Cohen-Watnick, Ellis (new general counsel at NSA): "None is remotely qualified for the job he holds." But that's doesn't matter to WH. Along with Ratcliffe at DNI, we're getting close to Trumpist control or attempted control of the "power ministries."
4. Who knows whether intentions are mostly petty, or domestic election interference, or unimpeded decisions in foreign policy (latter could range from military force to military withdrawals, and from pro-Putin to pro-MBS). But, I'm told, both Esper and Milley are truly worried.
5. The removal of Haspel at CIA and/or Wray at FBI would of course be key. Along with Ratcliffe at DNI and Cohen-Watnick overseeing entire Pentagon intel structure, we'd then have almost unimpeded Trumpist control of our intelligence agencies, with everything that implies.
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