Intelligence officials are reportedly wary of briefing presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump on some of the nation's most sensitive secrets, citing his views on global security issues including torture and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
"It beggars the imagination," former CIA director Michael Hayden tells
The Washington Post.
"Given that [Trump's] public persona seems to reflect a lack of understanding or care about global issues, how do you arrange these presentations to learn what are the true depths of his understanding?"
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper Jr. said last week that U.S. spy agencies have already begun planning briefings for Trump and his presumed Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton — though neither is expected to have a sit-down before party conventions conclude in July, the Post reports.
And Clapper hinted in an interview with
The Daily Beast about his concerns for sharing classified data, noting briefings are designed "to ensure that everybody gets the same information and that we do comply with the needs to protect sources and methods."
"This is a person who doesn't seem to have much of a filter," Aki Peritz, a former CIA analyst who contributed to the President's Daily Brief, the digest delivered each morning to the Oval Office, tells the Post.
"The scary part is that nobody knows who he really is. Is he this blowhard demagogue we see on TV or is he really a sophisticated consumer of information that will keep this information close to his chest?"
The Post notes, however, the decision on how much to share and when are traditionally made by the sitting president, and reports David Priess, a former CIA briefer, declares "the candidates get the same information — no favoritism."
But Trump poses unusual complications, he tells the Post.
"He has all kinds of relationships with Chinese investors and Russian investors," Peritz tells the Post. He's spoken very highly of our adversaries. And he's talked about using torture and waterboarding and attacking people's families. All these things are going through the analysts' minds."
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