Reading things like this is like that startled moment when you first flip on the light and then watch them scatter…
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/sidelined-senior-trump-nsc-official-blames-anti-trump-bureaucrats/
"The Pentagon memo suspending his (Adam Lovinger) clearance said Kevin Sweeney, Defense Secretary James Mattis' chief of staff, had delegated the decision to Barbara Westgate, the director of the Pentagon's Washington Headquarters Services, a DoD office that handles administrative functions."
"But the ONA in its current role also has faced criticism in recent years during Baker’s Obama administration tenure for failing to produce reports on threats from top U.S. adversaries such as Islamic extremists, China and Iran. Instead the office has used private contractors including Jacqueline New Myer-Deal, a friend of Chelsea Clinton, to produce reports on topics supporting President Obama's agenda."
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/clinton-sought-pentagon-state-department-contracts-chelseas-friend/
"Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sought to arrange Pentagon and State Department consulting contracts for her daughter’s friend, prompting concerns of federal ethics rules violations.
Clinton in 2009 arranged meetings between Jacqueline Newmyer Deal, a friend of Chelsea Clinton and head of the defense consulting group Long Term Strategy Group, with Pentagon officials that involved contracting discussions, according to emails from Clinton’s private server made public recently by the State Department. Clinton also tried to help Deal win a contract for consulting work with the State Department’s director of policy planning, according to the emails.
Deal is a close friend of Chelsea Clinton, who is vice chair of the Clinton Foundation. Emails between the two were included among the thousands recovered from a private email server used by the secretary of state between 2009 and 2013. Chelsea Clinton has described Deal as her best friend. Both Clintons attended Deal’s 2011 wedding."
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/aug/24/pentagons-offic-of-threat-assement-under-fire-from/
Pentagon spokesman Army Lt. Col. James Brindle did not respond directly when asked whether ONA has produced net assessments in decades, but told Inside the Ring: “The Office of Net Assessment has sponsored considerable outside research. It provides net assessments when needed or requested by the secretary” and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Mr. Brindle said any discussion of the contents or timing of net assessments “would defeat the purpose of meeting the secretary’s guidance.” He did not elaborate.
But in the Pentagon, some military officers have begun calling ONA the “Office of No Threat Assessments.”