They took back the apology
by digby
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| Oh my God |
I had not heard that Spicer denied he called the Brits to apologize. Jesus.
It is now two weeks since Donald Trump first tweeted his still-unsubstantiated allegations that Barack Obama tapped his phones during the presidential election campaign. Since then, the chairs of both the Senate and House intelligence committees have said that they don’t believe the charge. But the story is now moving on from farce to serious political drama.
[…]
Nonsense it was, but the context was unsettling. Some of the intelligence behind current FBI investigations into contacts between the Trump team and Russian officials, and into the hacking of Democratic party emails, is reported to have come from British sources. Then there is the dossier prepared by a former British intelligence official, Christopher Steele, which itself makes a series of unsubstantiated allegations about Trump’s links to Russia.So London was understandably keen to kill off any suggestion, however nonsensical, that British intelligence agencies had been acting against the new president’s interests. The diplomatic machinery began whirring, and the press were briefed that Trump’s national security adviser had apologised to his British opposite number. In parallel, the British ambassador spoke directly to Spicer, to ensure that there would be no repetition.
There the story might have ended. But it was given fresh legs when President Trump, at a press conference with Chancellor Merkel on Friday, ducked a question about the veracity of the allegations and said simply that anyone who had an issue with them should talk to Fox News – who promptly issued a statement of their own saying they didn’t believe them. Sean Spicer – him again – then denied that any apology had been made, or that the administration had anything to regret.
Senior US figures, including Barack Obama’s former national security adviser Susan Rice, have criticised the implication of the US’s “closest ally”. They know this is a dangerous game revolving around the pressure on White House officials to substantiate Trump’s allegations, the president’s famous reluctance to admit mistakes, and his suspicion of intelligence agencies and their product.
Dangerous it is. The intelligence relationship between Britain and America is unique and precious. It is critical to our shared efforts to counter terrorism, Russian aggression, the cyber-attacks of China, the nuclear threat from North Korea and much else. It is based on unquestioned mutual trust, between operatives and politicians on each side of the Atlantic.
That is something both countries have taken for granted since the second world war. Gratuitously damaging it by peddling falsehoods and then doing nothing to set the record straight would be a gift to our enemies they could only dream of. The UK foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, is heading to Washington this week. He needs to make very clear that this is not a game.
Peter Westmacott was British ambassador to the United States from 2012 to 2016 and was previously ambassador to France and Turkey.
There is a lot to criticize GCHQ for. They are worse on warrantless surveillance than the NSA. But this is not a thoughtful critique or a systematic change in the way intelligence does its business. This is a pointless and stupid row to assuage Trump’s lunacy.
All he’s doing is blowing up all the US alliances without anything to replace it but Steve Bannon’s half baked philosophical musings and a massive military build-up. What could go wrong?
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