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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJared Kushner has a BIG problem
Jared Kushner Is Chinas Trump Card
How the Presidents son-in-law, despite his inexperience in diplomacy and his lack of security clearance, became Beijings primary point of interest.
In early 2017, shortly after Jared Kushner moved into his new office in the West Wing of the White House, he began receiving guests. One visitor who came more than once was Cui Tiankai, the Chinese Ambassador to the United States, a veteran diplomat with a postgraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University. When, during previous Administrations, Cui had visited the White House, his hosts received him with a retinue of China specialists and note-takers. Kushner, President Trumps thirty-seven-year-old son-in-law and one of his senior advisers, preferred smaller gatherings.
Three months earlier, Cui had been in near-despair. Like many observers, he had incorrectly predicted that Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 election; his botched forecast, he told a friend, was precisely the kind of error that dooms the careers of ambassadors in the Chinese diplomatic system. To make matters worse, Cui knew almost nobody in the incoming Administration. Donald Trump had won the election in part by singling out China for raping the United States.
In Kushner, Cui found a confident, attentive, and inexperienced counterpart. The former head of his familys real-estate empire, which is worth more than a billion dollars, Kushner was intent on bringing a businessmans sensibility to matters of state. He believed that fresh, confidential relationships could overcome the frustrations of traditional diplomatic bureaucracy. Henry Kissinger, who, in his role as a high-priced international consultant, maintains close relationships in the Chinese hierarchy, had introduced Kushner to Cui during the campaign, and the two met three more times during the transition. In the months after Trump was sworn in, they met more often than Kushner could recall. Jared became Mr. China, Michael Pillsbury, a former Pentagon aide on Trumps transition team, said.
But Cuis frequent encounters with Kushner made some people in the U.S. government uncomfortable. On at least one occasion, they met alone, which counterintelligence officials considered risky. Theres nobody else there in the room to verify what was said and what wasnt, so the Chinese can go back and claim anything, a former senior U.S. official who was briefed on the meetings said. Im sorry, Jareddo you think your background is going to allow you to be able to outsmart the Chinese Ambassador? Kushner, the official added, is actually pretty smart. He just has limited life experiences. He was acting with naïveté.
More: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/29/jared-kushner-is-chinas-trump-card
How the Presidents son-in-law, despite his inexperience in diplomacy and his lack of security clearance, became Beijings primary point of interest.
In early 2017, shortly after Jared Kushner moved into his new office in the West Wing of the White House, he began receiving guests. One visitor who came more than once was Cui Tiankai, the Chinese Ambassador to the United States, a veteran diplomat with a postgraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University. When, during previous Administrations, Cui had visited the White House, his hosts received him with a retinue of China specialists and note-takers. Kushner, President Trumps thirty-seven-year-old son-in-law and one of his senior advisers, preferred smaller gatherings.
Three months earlier, Cui had been in near-despair. Like many observers, he had incorrectly predicted that Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 election; his botched forecast, he told a friend, was precisely the kind of error that dooms the careers of ambassadors in the Chinese diplomatic system. To make matters worse, Cui knew almost nobody in the incoming Administration. Donald Trump had won the election in part by singling out China for raping the United States.
In Kushner, Cui found a confident, attentive, and inexperienced counterpart. The former head of his familys real-estate empire, which is worth more than a billion dollars, Kushner was intent on bringing a businessmans sensibility to matters of state. He believed that fresh, confidential relationships could overcome the frustrations of traditional diplomatic bureaucracy. Henry Kissinger, who, in his role as a high-priced international consultant, maintains close relationships in the Chinese hierarchy, had introduced Kushner to Cui during the campaign, and the two met three more times during the transition. In the months after Trump was sworn in, they met more often than Kushner could recall. Jared became Mr. China, Michael Pillsbury, a former Pentagon aide on Trumps transition team, said.
But Cuis frequent encounters with Kushner made some people in the U.S. government uncomfortable. On at least one occasion, they met alone, which counterintelligence officials considered risky. Theres nobody else there in the room to verify what was said and what wasnt, so the Chinese can go back and claim anything, a former senior U.S. official who was briefed on the meetings said. Im sorry, Jareddo you think your background is going to allow you to be able to outsmart the Chinese Ambassador? Kushner, the official added, is actually pretty smart. He just has limited life experiences. He was acting with naïveté.
More: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/29/jared-kushner-is-chinas-trump-card
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Jared Kushner has a BIG problem (Original Post)
MelissaB
Jan 2018
OP
MelissaB
(16,420 posts)1. Another snip
Kushner had an interim clearance that gave him access to intelligence. He was also added to a list of recipients of the Presidents Daily Brief, or P.D.B., a top-secret digest of the U.S. governments most closely held and compartmentalized intelligence reports. By the end of the Obama Administration, seven White House officials were authorized to receive the same version of the P.D.B. that appeared on the Presidents iPad. The Trump Administration expanded the number to as many as fourteen people, including Kushner. A former senior official said, of the growing P.D.B. distribution list, It got out of control. Everybody thought it was cool. They wanted to be cool.
Some people in the office of the director of National Intelligence questioned the expansion, but officials who reported to Trump didnt want to risk irritating him by trying to exclude his son-in-law and other new additions. David Priess, a former C.I.A. officer who delivered the P.D.B. during the George W. Bush Administration and is the author of The Presidents Book of Secrets, said that Kushners situation was unprecedented: Having studied the Presidents Daily Briefs six-decade history, I have not come across another case of a White House official being a designated recipient of the P.D.B., for that length of time, without having a full security clearance.
Among national-security specialists, Kushners difficulty obtaining a permanent security clearance has become a subject of fascination. Was it his early failure to disclose foreign contacts? Or did it have something to do with the investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 elections? As the Administration finished its first year, some clues to Kushners security troubles have come into sharper focus, giving a new perspective on his encounters with China.
Some people in the office of the director of National Intelligence questioned the expansion, but officials who reported to Trump didnt want to risk irritating him by trying to exclude his son-in-law and other new additions. David Priess, a former C.I.A. officer who delivered the P.D.B. during the George W. Bush Administration and is the author of The Presidents Book of Secrets, said that Kushners situation was unprecedented: Having studied the Presidents Daily Briefs six-decade history, I have not come across another case of a White House official being a designated recipient of the P.D.B., for that length of time, without having a full security clearance.
Among national-security specialists, Kushners difficulty obtaining a permanent security clearance has become a subject of fascination. Was it his early failure to disclose foreign contacts? Or did it have something to do with the investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 elections? As the Administration finished its first year, some clues to Kushners security troubles have come into sharper focus, giving a new perspective on his encounters with China.
shenmue
(38,506 posts)2. Rep. Lieu of CA tweets every Friday, "Why does Jared Kushner still have a security clearance?"
MelissaB
(16,420 posts)6. I love him and his tweets.
shenmue
(38,506 posts)7. He's cool
Cracklin Charlie
(12,904 posts)3. Enough.
Arrest these friggin people.
TheDebbieDee
(11,119 posts)4. Jared kushner is a treasonous, traitorous whore!
Takket
(21,550 posts)5. some fried rice with your vodka, Jared?
enjoy it while you can. bread and water soon..............
lunasun
(21,646 posts)8. The whole family is stupid and greedy .
LiberalFighter
(50,829 posts)9. Looks like Kissinger needs to be investigated too.