NATO is furious at Trump delaying the military handover to Biden while 'there's a significant security situation underway with Iran that could explode at any time'
JIM WATSON,SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
- The Russians have hacked the US government. Iran has vowed revenge on America for the assassination of one of its military leaders. Yet Trump is mishandling the transition of the Pentagon to incoming President Joe Biden, sources tell Insider.
- "We need the incoming Biden administration to be fully briefed and ready to deal with these very dangerous issues facing NATO's security," said the official.
- Security sources are also unimpressed by some of the officials Trump is leaving behind.
- "The refusal to coordinate the handover of the most powerful military force in the world in a united, responsible manner would be almost unthinkable," a NATO source told Insider. "Except of course it's 2020 and we are talking about the incredibly selfish, irresponsible asshole called Donald Trump."
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The outgoing Trump administration's refusal to coordinate the handover of the Pentagon with the incoming Biden team, as well as the last-minute stacking of civilian positions with fringe national security figures, could not come at a worse time.
The US and its allies are dealing with the aftermath of wholesale Russian hacking of US government computer systems as well as increased tensions with Iran throughout the Middle East, according to two NATO officials and a former Obama administration defense official contacted by Insider.
"So there's been a historic breach of the American government's key networks, US troops and NATO allies are fighting together in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and East Africa, and it's coming on the year anniversary of the assassination of [Iranian commander Qassem] Solimani that Tehran has vowed to revenge," said a senior NATO official, who asked not to be identified criticizing a key ally.
"The refusal to coordinate the hand over of the most powerful military force in the world in a united, responsible manner would be almost unthinkable in the annals of history except of course it's 2020 and we are talking about the incredibly selfish, irresponsible asshole called Donald Trump," said the official.
'We need the incoming Biden administration to be fully briefed and ready to deal with these very dangerous issues'
"From an ally standpoint we understand that this is a difficult situation for our American allies but there's a significant security situation underway with Iran that could explode at any time as well as clear evidence that many of the most secure US computer networks were hacked by Russian intelligence," the official said.
"We need the incoming Biden administration to be fully briefed and ready to deal with these very dangerous issues facing NATO's security," said the official.
When reached for comment, Sue Gough, a US Department of Defense spokesperson, told Insider that the Pentagon had conducted some meetings with Biden's team. Although one of those briefings - on Russia's hacking of the highest levels of the Trump Administraion - occurred only on Dec. 30, the day Insider requested comment.
"The Biden-Harris DOD Agency Review Team has met with the combatant commanders for U.S. Cyber Command; U.S. European Command, which included NATO as an agenda topic; and U.S. Central Command, which included discussions on Iran; as well as with the Deputy Assistant Secretaries of Defense for Europe and NATO, and for Russia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe," she said. "Today DOD briefed the ART on cybersecurity. Additionally, DOD has provided the ART with several responses to requests for information and a number of information papers, including in the initial transition books, that have discussed current U.S. relations with NATO and NATO member nations."
The danger of chaos
Beyond the refusal to conduct the transition meetings for an organization with more than a $720 billion annual budget and millions of employees, Trump also fired the Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, in November. And Trump began appointing loyalists to a number of key positions, including civilian oversight of special operations, as well as a number of technical advisory boards. Some analysts fear that shows an intent to stack the department with loyalists to interfere with the Biden administration.
But a former Obama-era Defense official - who agreed to speak on background to discuss internal staffing matters at the US Department of Defense - said the concerns should be more focused on the danger of chaos rather than a coordinated fifth column left behind by Trump to continue his policies.
"First off, Trump doesn't appear to have any defense policies at all so there's not some grand plan here," said the former official. "If any of these figures are loyal to Trump it's as part of a cult attraction, not some ideological one because there is no ideology."
That's not to say the last-minute appointments - which include Anthony Tata, a former general named to the top policy position in November - do not pose risk, said the former official.
"These marginal figures like Tata - who could have never gotten this close to the top jobs, because in [Tata's] case he's completely insane - have a chance to pad their resumes with a title that can help them later to get consulting jobs," said the Obama-era official.
Separately, the source said, a typical warning sign is when "you see them suddenly trying to pursue or lock-in policies - troops draw-downs, shifts in priorities from the Air Force to Navy - that are their personal ideological goals, or it's basic corruption where they're pushing last-minute policies that will benefit past and, they hope, future defense contractor clients."
Trump's Under Secretary of Defense for Policy thinks Obama was a 'terrorist leader'
The "insane" comment is a reference to Tata's past. Before he was Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Tata kept a lively Twitter feed, was a Fox News guest, and often made comments that were not moored in fact or reality. He once falsely accused former President Obama of being a Muslim, and argued wrongly that Obama was a "terrorist leader". He also said without evidence that Obama was a "Manchurian Candidate" in the White House.
An Army investigation in 2007 found a falsified legal document had been entered into his child support case, favoring his side. Tata told the News & Observer, "we cleared it up right away." He also slept with two women while married to his wife, an offense under military law, the News & Observer reported.
Before he was first proposed for the Pentagon policy job, Tata was such a minor figure in military affairs that Sen. Jim Inhofe said fellow Senators "didn't know enough about Anthony Tata to consider him for a very significant position at this time," according to Defense News.
Insider asked the Pentagon and Tata for a response, and the DOD pointed to a statement from Jonathan Rath Hoffman, Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, made during a July 30, 2020 press briefing: "General Tata has experience and success leading large public organizations, public sector organizations and extensive national security experience. He has been an effective Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy."
The White House, which had previously praised Tata, deferred comment to the DOD.
Dealing with it will suck resources and attention from more important matters at the Pentagon
Given the penny-ante nature of Tata's flaws, the damage from a fundamental policy standpoint would be minimal for the most part, said the former official. But dealing with it will suck resources and attention from more important matters and at the Pentagon that can end up being really risky, the source said.
"It's probably going to be another half-assed mess someone will have to once again clean up, for Donald Trump and his merry band of idiots," said the former official. "The real risk is everything that they're not watching or helping prepare the Biden team for as they run around pursuing personal goals at the taxpayers' expense."
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