The Trump administration has announced that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) will be included in the National Security Council. White House spokesman, Sean Spicer, stated that the inclusion is being made out of respect towards the newly appointed CIA Director and his executive staff.
The CIA was excluded from the National Security Council and its forum in 2005 by the Bush administration. This was due to the Director of National Intelligence being on the Council and the Forum, outranking the head of the CIA, making the inclusion of the CIA superfluous at the time. The new director of the CIA, Mike Pompeo, was confirmed by the US Senate on January 23, 2017 in a 66–32 vote, and was sworn in on the same night by Vice President Mike Pence.
The announcement has come under critique by former Obama administration members, such as former Defense Secretary Robert Gates. While Mr. Gates did not directly criticize the inclusion of the CIA, he stated that it was a “big mistake” for the administration to exclude the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence from National Security Council meetings. Gates, who also has previously served as Director of National Intelligence and as the head of the CIA, stated that “adding people … never really bothers me,” but removing members was amongst his “biggest concern.”
On January 29th, President Trump assigned by executive order a permanent invitation to Steve Bannon, White House Chief Strategist, a seat on the “principals committee” of the NSC. The decision has also raised many questions, including concerns that based on the appointment, politics may play more of a role than intended in critical national security decisions. Critics cite to the fact that Karl Rove, chief strategist for President George W. Bush, was not allowed to attend NSC meetings, even though he was a senior adviser to the president at the time, and that President Obama did not offer David Plouffe or David Axelrod, top campaign advisers, such a position.
The function of the National Security Council, a panel composed of top national security advisers and Cabinet members, is to advise and assist the president on national security and foreign policy matters, and to assist in coordinating these policies among various government agencies.
The NSC was created in 1947 by the National Security Act, in light of the tension between the Soviet Union and the United States, and was intended to ensure coordination among the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and other instruments of national security policy, such as the CIA. The council’s power has since grown with each successive administration.
John Sjoholm, Lima Charlie News
John Sjoholm is Lima Charlie’s Middle East Bureau Chief, Managing Editor, and founder of the consulting firm Erudite Group. A seasoned expert on Middle East and North Africa matters, he has a background in security contracting and has served as a geopolitical advisor to regional leaders. He was educated in religion and languages in Sana’a, Yemen, and Cairo, Egypt, and has lived in the region since 2005, contributing to numerous Western-supported stabilisation projects. He currently resides in Jordan. Follow John on Twitter @JohnSjoholmLC
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