National Security Clearance
On August 15, 2018, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that the national security clearance for former CIA Director John Brennan was being revoked by President Donald Trump. During that announcement, it was also indicated that several other former officials would also be subject to a review of their own respective clearances, to determine whether or not such revocation would also be in order. These include:
- Former CIA and NSA Director Michael Hayden
- Former FBI Director James Comey
- Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe
- Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates
- Former U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice
- Former FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok
- Former FBI Attorney Lisa Page
- Former National Intelligence Director James Clapper
- Former Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr
Almost immediately, the predictable and selective outrage at Trump’s decision to revoke Brennan’s clearance, and review that of the others, hit the airwaves prompting a plethora of complaints from former officials, politicians from both parties and the chattering classes from all sectors of the media saying that President Trump was playing politics with our nation’s security. They allege that by revoking such clearance, and even threatening to do so, is nothing more than an attempt by the president to quash free speech and other such rot.
If that were indeed the only reason President Trump decided to do so, then it might be safely assumed that the decision to do so has proved to be an abject failure, especially in the case of Brennan who has been on the airwaves ever since, with ever-more increasing diatribes levied at the President.
True enough, all of the ten thus listed vehemently oppose the President and, with the possible exception of General Hayden, have actively participated in an effort to both prevent his election and sabotage his presidency, by using the powers of government to act on their hatred of the current president. While that may well be the motivation behind the president’s decision to do so, it also is certain that it is well within the rights of a sitting president to remove such clearance for any and every reason as he deems fit. Brennan’s publicly discussed musings about possibly seeking an injunction against the President, through a lawsuit filed in federal court, are about as likely to succeed as his being appointed to a top level within the Trump cabinet.
It won’t happen.
Yet, despite all this falderal about Trump’s decision, the larger issue of national security clearances for all former officials who have since left government (Bruce Ohr being the exception) comes to bear.
It is argued, for instance, that the retention of such clearance enables those currently in government service to seek counsel from former officials when needed, tapping into the formers’ experience and expertise as such situations that might arise. That said, it is highly doubtful that any such scenario would arise which would prompt current officials in the Trump administration to seek help from Brennan or, for that matter, any of the others listed. After all, who could reasonably be certain that any such advice would be altruistic and in the interests of national security when it would come from those so set against the current president?
It is also argued that as many as five million of our citizens currently have national security clearance, so why single out Brennan, but this number is misleading because most all of these five million have lower levels of national security clearance. In fact, there are actually three levels of national security clearance- confidential, secret and top-secret, and it is only the latter and most stringent level of clearance that is at issue when it comes to President Trump’s decision.
The larger issue of national security clearance, especially the relevant top-secret national security clearance, is whether or not such a clearance should be retained, and it is indeed a reasonable position that once people leave government service, at any level, they should have their clearance automatically revoked. Five million people walking around with varying levels of national security clearance is, after all, unsettling when we don’t know how many of these people still actively need to retain such clearance. The number of five million seems pretty high and, since we don’t know just how many people at each level have such clearance, then the time has long passed for Congress to review the policies regarding the retention of national security clearance at all levels.
In the meantime, we have no choice but to leave it to a sitting President of the United States to make such decisions on a person-by-person basis, and all of the moaning and groaning by John Brennan and others doesn’t justify otherwise, no matter how much they hate President Donald Trump.
But don’t expect to hear that argument from anyone in the media. After all, this is just another opportunity in an ongoing quest to bring down the President. As long as it remains so, we won’t hear the end of this anytime soon, sorry to say.
-Drew Nickell, 21 August 2018
© 2018 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
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