Changes

On February 11 an aide to Flynn was denied a security clearance, in effect, the CIA exercising [[veto]] power over the President's management of national security affairs. The action was unprecedented and without cause. Reports say the CIA did not like the aide's attitude toward the agency.<ref>The article continues: "Since no one can take part in the formulation or execution of foreign or defense policy without a high-level security clearance, vetoing the president’s people by denying them clearances trumps the president....the persons who thus took for themselves the prerogative that the American people had entrusted to [President Trump] at the ballot box, chances are 100 percent that they will use that prerogative ever more frequently with regard to anyone else whom they regard as standing in the way of their preferred policies, as a threat to their reputation, or simply as partisan opponents... undermin[ing] nothing less than the self-evident heart of the [[United States Constitution:Article II|Constitution’s Article II]]: The president is the executive branch. All of its employees draw their powers from him and answer to him, not the other way around." https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/feb/15/cia-insults-trump/</ref> “They believe this is a hit job from inside the CIA on Flynn and the people close to him," because the aide "believes that the CIA doesn’t run the world.”<ref>https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/319073-top-flynn-aide-rejected-for-key-security-clearance-report</ref>

On February 11 an aide to Flynn was denied a security clearance, in effect, the CIA exercising [[veto]] power over the President's management of national security affairs. The action was unprecedented and without cause. Reports say the CIA did not like the aide's attitude toward the agency.<ref>The article continues: "Since no one can take part in the formulation or execution of foreign or defense policy without a high-level security clearance, vetoing the president’s people by denying them clearances trumps the president....the persons who thus took for themselves the prerogative that the American people had entrusted to [President Trump] at the ballot box, chances are 100 percent that they will use that prerogative ever more frequently with regard to anyone else whom they regard as standing in the way of their preferred policies, as a threat to their reputation, or simply as partisan opponents... undermin[ing] nothing less than the self-evident heart of the [[United States Constitution:Article II|Constitution’s Article II]]: The president is the executive branch. All of its employees draw their powers from him and answer to him, not the other way around." https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/feb/15/cia-insults-trump/</ref> “They believe this is a hit job from inside the CIA on Flynn and the people close to him," because the aide "believes that the CIA doesn’t run the world.”<ref>https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/319073-top-flynn-aide-rejected-for-key-security-clearance-report</ref>

Unable to get his staff appointments, Flynn was unable to do his job, and resigned. Consortiumnews reported, {{quotebox-float|"Flynn’s real “offense” appears to be that he favors ''[[détente]]'' with Russia rather than escalation of a new and dangerous [[Cold War]]. Trump’s idea of a ''rapprochement'' with Moscow – and a search for areas of cooperation and compromise – has been driving Official Washington’s foreign policy establishment crazy for months and [[Hillary Rodham Clinton#The neoconservatives return|the neocons, in particular]], have been determined to block it."<ref><small>The article continues, "as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency – he oversaw a prescient 2012 analysis that foresaw that their support for the Syrian insurgency would give rise to “a declared or undeclared [[Salafi]]st principality in eastern Syria [ISIS].”

Unable to get his staff appointments, Flynn was unable to do his job, and resigned. Consortiumnews reported, {{quotebox-float|"Flynn’s real “offense” appears to be that he favors ''[[détente]]'' with Russia rather than escalation of a new and dangerous [[Cold War]]. Trump’s idea of a ''[[rapprochement]]'' with Moscow – and a search for areas of cooperation and compromise – has been driving Official Washington’s foreign policy establishment crazy for months and [[Hillary Rodham Clinton#The neoconservatives return|the neocons, in particular]], have been determined to block it."<ref><small>The article continues, "as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency – he oversaw a prescient 2012 analysis that foresaw that their support for the Syrian insurgency would give rise to “a declared or undeclared [[Salafi]]st principality in eastern Syria [ISIS].”

The DIA report, which was partially declassified in a lawsuit over the [[Libyan War#Ambassador Stevens dispatched|2012 killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya]] and three other U.S. personnel in Benghazi, Libya, embarrassed the advocates for an escalation of the war in Syria and the ouster of secular President Bashar al-Assad.

The DIA report, which was partially declassified in a lawsuit over the [[Libyan War#Ambassador Stevens dispatched|2012 killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya]] and three other U.S. personnel in Benghazi, Libya, embarrassed the advocates for an escalation of the war in Syria and the ouster of secular President Bashar al-Assad.