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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTwitter feed a gold mine for foreign spies
By Nada Bakos
June 23 at 2:46 PM
Every time President Trump tweets, journalists and Twitter followers attempt to analyze what he means. Intelligence agencies around the world do, too: Theyre trying to determine what vulnerabilities the president of the United States may have. And hes giving them a lot to work with.
Trumps Twitter feed is a gold mine for every foreign intelligence agency. Usually, intelligence officers efforts to collect information on world leaders are methodical, painstaking and often covert. CIA operatives have risked their lives to learn about foreign leaders so the United States could devise strategies to counter our adversaries. With Trump, though, secret operations are not necessary to understand whats on his mind: The presidents unfiltered thoughts are available night and day, broadcast to his 32.7 million Twitter followers immediately and without much obvious mediation by diplomats, strategists or handlers ...
At the CIA, I tracked and analyzed terrorists and other U.S. enemies, including North Korea. But we never had such a rich source of raw intelligence about a world leader, and we certainly never had the opportunity that our adversaries (and our allies) have now to get a real-time glimpse of a major world leaders preoccupations, personality quirks and habits of mind. If we had, it would have given us significant advantages in our dealings with them.
Trumps tweets offer plenty of material for analysis. His frequent strong statements in reaction to news coverage or events make it appear as if he lacks impulse control. In building a profile of Trump, an analyst would offer suggestions on how foreign nations could instigate stress or deescalate situations, depending on what type of influence they may want to have over the president ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/president-trumps-twitter-feed-is-a-gold-mine-for-foreign-spies/2017/06/23/e3e3b0b0-5764-11e7-a204-ad706461fa4f_story.html
HipChick
(25,485 posts)US is very vulnerable...
DFW
(54,473 posts)Namely, the Russian equivalent of "what have I done?"