Chitchat Russians now have top spy in NSC

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

White House officials are defending US President Donald Trump’s move to give top political strategist Stephen Bannon a permanent spot on the National Security Council while limiting the role of the Director of National Intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“We are instilling reforms to make sure that we streamline the process for the president to make decisions on key, important intelligence matters,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Sunday on ABC’s This Week.

In a presidential memorandum issued Saturday, Bannon, 63, a former executive at the right-wing Breitbart News website, was given a permanent spot on the NSC’s principals committee, the senior-level interagency group that considers major national security policy issues. Others with permanent seats on the White House policy council include the secretary of state and secretary of defence.

Under the new policy, however, the Director of National Intelligence and the chairman of the military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff will attend only “where issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed,” according to the memo. Both were permanent members under president Barack Obama, but had a similar ad hoc status under George W. Bush.

The White House spokesman also defended Bannon’s inclusion in the group, saying the aide was a “former naval officer” with a “tremendous understanding of the world and the geopolitical landscape that we have now.”


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