Obama Hears ‘Family Jewels’ Intel Briefing, Clearance Concerns

By Anthony L. Kimery,

Such briefings have 'been the beginning of when a new president’s hair starts turning white'

President-elect Barack Obama today receives his first comprehensive, "above" Top Secret presidential-level intelligence briefing.

In addition to receiving the regular "President’s Daily Brief," or PDB, which consists of analytical summaries of best available intelligence on vital national security matters over the previous 24-hours, intelligence sources told HSToday.us that Obama's briefing also will include the latest analysis on the reconstitution of Al Qaeda and the terrorist organization’s presence in Pakistan and Pakistan's border with Afghanistan; the state of the terrorist/insurgency in Iraq and Pakistan; Al Qaeda’s efforts to acquire nuclear and, especially, biological weapons; Iran and North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile developments; and the increasing threat posed to the United States by Mexico’s warring narco-terrorist cartels, which have ties to Colombia’s FARC and Islamist terrorist organizations with long-established operational infrastructure throughout Central and South America.

(Editor’s Note: In the January issue, HSToday will feature a major report on Mexico’s cartels by Anthony Kimery, online editor and senior reporter, who in October met with federal, state and local law enforcement during a trip to the US/Mexico border)

Director of National Intelligence and former National Security Agency Director Mike McConnell will provide the first presidential-level intelligence briefing to Obama and selected president-elect transition team members. He will be accompanied by CIA Director of Intelligence, Michael J. Morell, a 28-year CIA veteran and former Associate Deputy Director of Central Intelligence.

Although Obama received regular intelligence briefings as a presidential candidate, this will be the first time he is presented the PDB, which is similar to the daily intelligence summary that’s prepared for the Secretary of State by the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), which may prepare any number of briefs for the Secretary throughout the day.

As a matter of background, INR provides value-added independent analysis of events to Department policymakers; ensures intelligence activities support foreign policy and national security purposes; and serves as the focal point in the Department for ensuring policy review of sensitive counterintelligence and law enforcement activities.

In a memo to CIA officers regarding the transition between the incoming Obama administration and the outgoing Bush White House, Director of Central Intelligence Michael Hayden stated “we in the Intelligence Community [IC] will have—until noon on January 20th—two sets of consumers. As we continue to serve the current administration, we are also in touch with President-elect Obama and his national security team. Through expanded access, greater than what he had in his briefings as a candidate or as a Senator, he will see the full range of capabilities we deploy for the United States."

In short, Obama will be given the most classified briefing he’s yet had on the threats to national security and American interests around the world. He’ll also be briefed on the US’s vast intelligence gathering capabilities. One of the IC sources HSToday.us spoke to said historically, such briefings have “been the beginning of when a new president’s hair starts turning white.”

Similarly, Karl Rove, President Bush’s former deputy chief of staff, said Wednesday night that no matter what a presidential candidate might think and say during an election, it all changes when he receives “that first intelligence briefing.” Rove added that once you have access to the intelligence the president does, “it changes you”—you suddenly have a completely new perspective.

Whether it is a President, members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, or anyone with this level of security clearance, the first exposure to the intelligence that Obama now has access to can be a mind opening event, the sources explained.

Having been privy to leaks of every classification of intelligence, this reporter can testify that these characterizations are accurate.

As President, Obama automatically is granted access to any codeword Top-Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) and Special Access Program (SAPs).

(By tradition and practice, United States officials who hold positions prescribed by the Constitution of the United States are deemed to meet the standards of trustworthiness for eligibility for access to classified information. Therefore, the President, the Vice President, Members of Congress, Supreme Court Justices, and other federal judges appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate need not execute form SF 312—the "Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement" [CINA]—as a condition of access to classified information. All other members of government and civilians who conditionally are granted a clearance must sign the CINA)

Top White House officials must undergo routine security clearance procedures for security clearances, but, depending on the level of their "need to know," these clearances may not grant them access to all TS/SCI code-word intelligence, programs and analysis, or SAPs, which typically are highly classified military weapons platforms or intelligence activities. And, as with all persons given clearances to classified information, they must sign the CINA "as a condition of access."

The seriousness of the nature of TS/SCI information is underscored by the official presumption that unauthorized disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause “exceptionally grave damage” to national security—even war.

With regard to security clearances, HSToday.us was told that some members of Obama’s inner circle who he may intend to appoint to White House or administration posts who do not already possess security clearances may face delays in their clearances being processed because of past or present associations with “problematic” persons, a presumed reference to associations with former domestic terrorist William Ayers and others who have histories or have been involved in activities that inherently are of concern to the FBI and Secret Service, and which typically in any other circumstance might prohibit the granting of a security clearance.

While some uninformed bloggers and partisan websites have pooh-poohed the notion of problems stemming from anyone in Obama’s camp having had prior associations with the likes of the Ayers’ or who have espoused radical positions that ordinarily would raise concern on the part of the Secret Service and FBI, the truth is that these are matters that are indeed taken very seriously, and which potentially could cause problems that require more extensive vetting in order to satisfy the Secret Service, FBI and IC.

Legitimate questions also were raised by security and intelligence authorities prior to the election about whether Obama himself would have qualified for the level of clearance he automatically received upon being elected President because of his own association with Ayers, other questionable persons, and other matters that are routinely red-flagged as part of a TS/SCI clearance investigation. The concern was justified, despite, again, uninformed bloggers and partisan websites saying otherwise. The reality is it’s debatable whether Obama would have been cleared for a TS/SCI security clearance had he not been elected president.

"There is no possibility that a Top Secret clearance would be awarded to a member of the Armed Forces whose background included such associations. An intelligence service clearance for the handling of highly classified material would be totally out of the question," wrote George Wittman, a member of the Committee on the Present Danger and founding chairman of the National Institute for Public Policy.

Obama was granted a security clearance as a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, where he was appointed chairman of the Subcommittee on European Affairs in early 2007, but it was no where near the level of clearance that’s given to senior White House officials.

Indeed. As the CINA briefing booklet notes, members of Congress—who, incidentally, do not have to sign a CINA—"are not inherently authorized to receive all classified information, but agencies provide access as is necessary for Congress to perform its legislative functions, for example, to members of a committee or subcommittee that oversees classified executive branch programs. Frequently, access is governed in these situations by ad hoc agreements or rules to which the agency head and the committee chairman agree."

Applicants under serious consideration for an administration appointment are subject to thorough, rigorous and more personally intrusive scrutiny than most people probably imagine. The FBI background check— which includes analysis of a wide range of federal and intelligence databases—looks at employment, professional, personal, travel, medical, financial, legal, military and educational histories, which are carefully reviewed and scrutinized. In addition, the applicant must undergo a polygraph and psychological evaluation.

New vetting processes for determining clearance eligibility involves several steps, including: Validating the need for a clearance; an electronic application; automated records checks; electronic adjudication; an enhanced subject interview; an expandable focused investigation; and continuous evaluation between clearance investigations.

A TS/SCI clearance can take as long as 100 hours for just one applicant.

Both the Obama camp and the IC would prefer to avoid the kind of problems that plagued the security clearance vetting process that plagued the incoming Clinton administration, members of which were given access to highly classified materials for long periods without having the proper clearance, some of whom in retrospect should not have been granted clearances and who violated the terms of the CINAs they signed.

Historically, one of the biggest challenges faced by incoming administrations has been the time required to obtain security clearances for key officials.

Pursuant to the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 which implemented a 9/11 Commission recommendation, presidential candidates “may submit, before the date of the general election, requests for security clearances for prospective transition team members” who need access to classified information while working on the transition. It also allows the President-elect to submit requests for other nominees immediately after the election. Both Obama and McCain had requested clearances for roughly 100 transition team members between them.

To help accelerate the next administration’s transition, President Bush established a transition commission which in part was tasked with streamlining and accelerating the security clearance process.

We’ll see how well it works.

Sources familiar with the matter said Obama, unlike President Clinton, intends to give the top IC leaders his ear. Clinton, in contrast, virtually shunned CIA Director Jim Woolsey. Clinton also was roundly criticized for his lax interest in intelligence matters and for his disinterest in his regular intelligence briefings, which he sometimes cut short or delegated to subordinates.