A stinging tweet from President Trump about the intelligence community’s Capitol Hill public briefing on Iran a year ago has the intel chiefs ducking. According to Politico, U.S. officials have suggested to the House and Senate they testify only behind closed doors.
The editors of the Washington Post object. The change would undermine the public confidence in the the secret agencies, they argue.
[D]ucking the cameras would be counterproductive. No one needs to remind the intelligence community about the value of credibility. Theirs has been on a roller coaster for many years and is constantly tested anew. The open hearing on worldwide threats helps build credibility with judgments laid out for all to see, debate and hold accountable. If this exercise is hidden behind closed doors, intelligence community leaders will be missing out on a rare chance to explain their thinking — the product of a vast, collective enterprise involving thousands of people and far-reaching technology — and to make a deposit in the credibility bank.
Source: Trump needs to show some respect for the intelligence community – The Washington Post
