Chairman of Joint Chiefs removed from National Security Council; add Bannon

McCain blasts Bannon placement on National Security Council

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/mccain-bannon-nsc-234329

John McCain is harshly criticizing the elevation of White House strategist Steve Bannon to President Donald Trump’s National Security Council, calling the move “radical” because it minimizes the role of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“I am worried about the National Security Council. Who are the members of it and who are the permanent members? The appointment of Mr. Bannon is something which is a radical departure from any National Security Council in history,” McCain said on “Face the Nation” on CBS on Sunday morning.

As the Senate Armed Services chairman, McCain said it’s concerning that Trump has centralized power around Bannon, a former executive at Breitbart who is credited with developing Trump’s form of populist and combative politics. The Arizona Republican said the most important decision-maker on the National Security Council, Gen. Joseph Dunford, is now being shut out of critical meetings.

“The role of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has been diminished, I understand, with this reorganization. The one person who is indispensable would be the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in my view,” McCain said of Dunford. “So it’s of concern, this ‘reorganization.'”

White House press secretary Sean Spicer defended the reshuffling, which makes Bannon’s presence permanent on the panel and changes Dunford’s from mandatory to optional. Spicer said that the new structure will “streamline” decision-making and praised Bannon, a former naval officer, as someone with a “tremendous understanding of the world and the geopolitical landscape that we have now.”

Ronald Schmidt, Professor of Political Science
from Facebook
(adapted from a post by Ben Alpers)

While the world was (understandably) focusing on the immigration executive order, a quieter – but equally disturbing – plot was developing.

Quick background: the National Security Council (NSC) is a federal council comprised of important high-level government officials including the President, Vice President, Secretary of State, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Director of National Intelligence. The NSC’s primary job is to use this broad expertise to advise the President on national security matters and assist in carrying out security directives.

Yesterday, the President removed the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence from the NSC. He replaced them with Steve Bannon. Bannon has no government, intelligence, or high-level military experience; his experience is leading a propaganda outlet (Breitbart News) that peddles nationalist and white nationalist viewpoints.

This would be deeply concerning in and of itself. But one of the jobs of the NSC is to oversee a secret panel that authorizes the assassination of “enemies of the United States Government” – including American citizens. These targeted killings are fully authorized by law under the Congressional military authorization act following 9/11. There is no trial, no due process, and no public record of the decision or the assassination itself.

Just to recap the absurdity: the President of the United States has appointed a known propagandist, nationalist, and white supremacist to replace the highest military advisor in the country on a council that authorizes secret, legal, targeted killings of American citizens (and others) without due process.

What You Can Do:

– Call your Senators and Congressperson this week and demand that they publicly and legislatively oppose Trump’s appointment of Steven Bannon to the NSC.

– Spread the word about this news to your networks, since this is not getting a lot of coverage right now.