David Priess
For more than six decades, elements of the US intelligence community have delivered the top-secret President’s Daily Brief, or PDB, to the commander in chief every working day – helping each occupant of the White House remain well informed on a wide range of international challenges. It is the most highly classified regular vehicle for passing analytic judgments about world affairs to the president, a direct and uninterrupted channel which most other US government departments and agencies lack. Access to this book of secrets has always been limited to a circle of senior officials.
CNN reported last month that the administration of Donald Trump is tightly restricting access to the PDB. Its exclusive club of readers is, it seems, getting even smaller.
Tracing the evolution of a dozen presidents’ choices about the PDB’s dissemination provides a unique window into intelligence-policy relations at the highest level – and shows how the delivery of this most sensitive intelligence product reflects the incumbent president’s style more than any other factor.
The President’s Daily Brief has been provided, by that name, since December 1964. Every prime recipient has changed its format or its distribution, often both. And yet, for all the differences in its readership over the past 60 years, the PDB’s daily delivery to the White House has remained a rare constant in a city seemingly defined by change.
No comments:
Post a Comment