Trump Fires Rex Tillerson Over Iran Disagreement; Replaces Him With CIA Chief Mike Pompeo

Trump Fires Rex Tillerson Over Iran Disagreement; Replaces Him With CIA Chief Mike Pompeo:

Update 6:

According to media reports, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to begin confirmation proceedings for Mike Pompeo in April, according to a statement from committee chairman Bob Corker. Pompeo is currently the Director of the CIA. He was confirmed to that position in January 2017 with a vote of 66 to 32.

Meanwhile, Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he hasn’t had a chance to talk to Rex Tillerson today. He said he last spoke to the former Secretary of State last week, when the two discussed North Korea.

“We’ve tried to reach Tillerson,” Corker said. “I haven’t had a chance to talk with him.”

Read moreTrump Fires Rex Tillerson Over Iran Disagreement; Replaces Him With CIA Chief Mike Pompeo

Trump Fires Rex Tillerson and Will Replace Him With C.I.A. Chief Pompeo (NYT)

Trump Fires Rex Tillerson and Will Replace Him With C.I.A. Chief Pompeo:

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Tuesday ousted his secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson, extending a shake-up of his administration, 14 months into his tumultuous presidency, and potentially transforming the nation’s economic and foreign policy.

Mr. Trump announced he would replace Mr. Tillerson with Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director and former Tea Party congressman, who forged a close relationship with the president and is viewed as being more in sync with Mr. Trump’s America First credo.

Read moreTrump Fires Rex Tillerson and Will Replace Him With C.I.A. Chief Pompeo (NYT)

Intelligence Insider Warns Of Imminent War: “Likely In The Next 12 Weeks… The Director Of The CIA Told Me”

FYI.

Intelligence Insider Warns Of Imminent War: “Likely In The Next 12 Weeks… The Director Of The CIA Told Me”:

Having worked closely with U.S. intelligence agencies over the last two decades, James Rickards was once asked to simulate asymmetric economic attacks on the U.S. financial system. He is an expert at escalation scenarios and end games, and in a recent article at The Daily Reckoning he warns that the geopolitical situation on the Korean Peninsula will soon come to a head.

According to Rickards, author of The Road To Ruin: The Global Elites Secret Plan For The Next Financial Crisiswhile the world concerns itself with stock bubbles, bitcoin and debt, the most imminent threat we face is military confrontation with North Korea.

And while the rogue state has been an ongoing  threat for many years, the first half of 2018 will likely see the trigger that sets the whole powder keg off:

The most important financial or geopolitical issue in the world today is a coming war between the U.S. and North Korea, probably in the next twelve weeks.

How can I be so sure about the timing? The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency told me.

In a private conclave in Washington DC on October 20, 2017, CIA Director Mike Pompeo told a small think tank group (including me) that it would be imprudent to assume it would take North Korea more than ‘five months’ to have a reliable arsenal of nuclear-armed ICBM missiles. These could strike U.S. cities and kill millions of Americans.

Five months from October 20, 2017 is March 20, 2018. That’s an outside date but the war will likely begin before then.

Read moreIntelligence Insider Warns Of Imminent War: “Likely In The Next 12 Weeks… The Director Of The CIA Told Me”

CIA Chief Warns: WikiLeaks Is Plotting To “Take Down America Any Way They Can”

CIA Chief Warns: WikiLeaks Is Plotting To “Take Down America Any Way They Can”:

CIA Director Mike Pompeo remains inconsolably hostile toward whistleblower organization WikiLeaks, insisting they are a “non-state hostile intelligence service” and are plotting to “take down America any way they can and find any willing partner to achieve that end.

Hostility to WikiLeaks has been a mainstay in the US government, as every administration faces the prospect of their covert misdeeds becoming a matter of public record, to their general embarrassment albeit rarely to the end of any meaningful reform.

President Trump had a positive attitude toward WikiLeaks during last year’s campaign, declaring “I love WikiLeaks.”

Read moreCIA Chief Warns: WikiLeaks Is Plotting To “Take Down America Any Way They Can”

NOT THE ONION: Saudi Crown Prince Receives CIA Medal For “Efforts Against Terrorism”


The medal, named after George Tenet, was handed to him by CIA Director
Micheal Pompeo after the Crown Prince received him in Riyadh

Not The Onion: Saudi Crown Prince Receives CIA Medal For “Efforts Against Terrorism”:

We are sad to report that despite the change in administration, the “new” CIA is exactly the same as the “old” one.

In a stunning mockery of fact, either real, “alternative” or gratuitously made up, on Friday the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, who is also Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, received a medal from the CIA for his distinct intelligence-related counter-terrorism work and his contributions to ensure international peace and security, Al Arabiya proudly reported.

The medal, named after George Tenet, was handed to him by the new CIA Director Micheal Pompeo after the Crown Prince received him in Riyadh on Friday in the presence of Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman al-Saud, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense. The meeting came days after the Washington Times reported that Trump is set to unblock a multi-billion weapons shipment to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, including precision-guided missile technology and dozens of F-16s fighter jets.

Read moreNOT THE ONION: Saudi Crown Prince Receives CIA Medal For “Efforts Against Terrorism”

Mike Pompeo Is Confirmed To Lead CIA


Mike Pompeo Is Confirmed To Lead CIA:

Just a day after President Trump visited Langley, 53-year-old Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo has been confirmed by the Senate as CIA Director amidst its most contentious relationship with the White House in decades. As voting continued, there were 67 “yes” votes, more than enough to confirm Pompeo, and 30 voted against. Almost all the opposition was from Democrats, but perhaps most notably Rand Paul voted against him.

As The Hill reports, White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Monday downplayed any friction between the CIA and the president.

Read moreMike Pompeo Is Confirmed To Lead CIA