Beth Sanner was Donald Trump’s daily intelligence briefer for two years. Few people know the boundaries between secrecy and democracy so well.
If reports are true, president Donald Trump had notoriously little interest in either intelligence or briefings. Beth Sanner was the senior Central Intelligence Agency officer whose job between 2017 and 2019 was to daily provide him with both.
Western intelligence has had recent triumphs, such as the pre-emptive exposé by the US and UK of Vladimir Putin’s intentions in Ukraine. That didn’t change Russian plans, says Sanner, but it did “pre-bunk” Putin’s we-were-provoked story. He couldn’t sell it as “anything other than a bald-faced invasion”.for the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. “Yes, it all sounds good when it’s apple pie democracy versus the bad guys, What happens when it becomes more murky? I am very worried.
Sanner also worries about an anti-intellectual, anti-expert sentiment that goes with it. “There is a stream in Western societies that we don’t like people who are clever.” And, “Don’t tell me what to do,” I suggest. “Yes, the libertarian thing,” she continues. “You know what, I’m not better than you, but I know different things from you. I know more about the world than a lot of people do and if I share it with the right people, that’s useful.
“Rewriting history is very convenient, unless you sell Australian wine, or all the other examples which don’t fit. I don’t mean everything China does is bad, or the Chinese Communist Party is under every rock. What I worry about is that we are swinging the other way and not being absolutely clear what our limit is. We are not prioritising with China. If everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority.
I ask if this is Beth Sanner speaking, or the intelligence officer? “No! That’s me.” So, do intelligence officers worry about domestic politics? “I grew up in the intelligence community not thinking about domestic politics. It’s a core value to be non-partisan. How do we have the confidence of the American people if they think we are on one side or the other? We are on their side.”
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