US intelligence community in leadership turmoil

Trump has done it again. He has stirred up a hornets' nest in the intelligence community. It is his right of course to appoint whom he wants to lead the intelligence services. But he has just got rid of two decent patriots who represented and led the agencies with distinction and dedication. First to go was Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, and now his deputy, Susan Gordon, has been forced to resign. Well, strictly speaking, she had little choice. She had hoped and expected under normal constitutional rules, to move up to be acting director of national inteligence when Coats leaves on August 15. But Trump, while saying publicy that he liked Ms Gordon, made it clear he was considering others for the post. The first slap in the face came when Trump announced he had chosen John Ratcliffe, a Republican congressman and Trumpite to the core. But he stepped down when Congress, and newspapers, started bitching about the appointment, revealing his unsuitability for such an important role. Then, presumably, Trump or one of his accolytes rang Susan Gordon and said he planned to make an announcement about the acting director of national intelligence role and it wasn't going to be her. She promptly resigned after more than 30 years in the intelligence business, 27 of them with the CIA. In comes Vice Admiral (retired) Joseph Maguire, currently director of the National Counter-Terrorism Centre which means a relacement will have to be found for him if he is to become the official director of national intelligence. Maguire is actually a good guy, a former senior commander of the Navy's covert Seal Team 6. He passed the rigorous Seal training programme in the 1970s while sporting a broken leg! He has a strong Brooklyn accent and has a reputation for being affable. He and Susan Gordon as his deputy would have made a good team. But that's not the way it works. Snubbed by Trump she clearly felt she was no longer wanted and she will leave the same day Coats steps down. The problem with these instant changes is that in the intelligence business - and I'm talking here about the wider intelligence community embracing key US allies such as the UK and Australia - personal relationships are everything. Coats and Gordon had developed strong relationships not just within the 17 US intelligence agencies that come under the wing of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence but also with the heads of the intelligence services in the UK and elsewhere in Europe and in the Five Eyes intelligence club (the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand). Joseph Maguire is obviously not a novice in this world. As director of the National Counter-Terrorism Centre, the key organisation tracking intelligence on terrorists from its headquarters at Tysons Corner in McLean, Virginia, a Metro ride from central Washington, Maguire is an intelligence afficianado. But it is a shame that someone of Susan Gordon's stature and reputation should be shafted as a result of the resignation of Dan Coats.