David KrisVerified account

In other words, apart from the contemporary politics, a tremendously interesting life story, well worth reading! 11/11

And yes, President-elect Donald Trump, whom Brennan briefed on the day of his own father’s funeral. 10/11

Russian thugs, Russian intelligence agency leaders, Russian forces in Syria, the rise of Russian election interference … 9/11

Enhanced interrogation techniques, fights with Senate overseers mediated by VP Joe Biden … 8/11

Dealing with terrorist threats, drone strikes, burning underpants, Russian sleeper agents (like in The Americans TV show) … 7/11

Saw something special in Barack Obama pretty early, and then spent eight years working, in the White House and at CIA, to keep the country safe … 6/11

Rose up through the ranks, made mistakes, learned lessons, fought hard with colleagues over principles that he cared about, worked to restrain what he called his “Irish temper” … 5/11

Traveled abroad, joined the CIA, became an analyst in part because he didn’t like the idea of CIA operations officers using hard leverage (“blackmail”) to keep reluctant sources working … 4/11

It’s about a working class, Irish-American kid from New Jersey, who rode a motorcycle, wore an earring, voted for a Communist for President … 3/11

But another aspect is also worthy of attention: Undaunted is a *very* interesting life story. 2/11

Just finished @JohnBrennan’s Undaunted. The politics and criticisms of Trump are very interesting, of course, and that’s getting most of the attention, understandably. 1/11

The report also echoes the DOJ IG in criticizing the FBI for giving the Steele dossier “unjustified” credence based on a “flawed understanding of his past work” (p.xiv, 893), and for being far too casual in dealing with the Russian hack of the DNC (e.g., p.xiv, 814-22). 9/10

One more (p.15): “From the documents produced by [Michael] Cohen, the Committee became concerned that multiple witnesses and/or their counsel could have been involved in or aware of Cohen’s attempt to mislead the Committee,” including Trump, his lawyer, & his son (Don Jr.). 8/10

Also (p.30): “Following the election, Manafort worked with [a Russian Intelligence Officer] on narratives that sought to undermine information showing that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.” 7/10

Here is another (p.703): “The lack of vetting of foreign interactions by [Trump] Transition officials left the Transition open to influence and manipulation by foreign intelligence services...” 6/10

Here is one excerpt from the Senate report (p.30): Trump campaign manager Paul “Manafort’s high-level access and willingness to share information with individuals closely affiliated with the Russian intelligence services … represented a grave counterintelligence threat.” 5/10