Trump considering privatizing the CIA

The Trump administration and Central Intelligence Agency are looking at a few proposals to hire companies in the private sector to perform the covert operations overseas.

According to BuzzFeed News, the proposals were initially presented to the White House over the summer. They describe the proposed plans as "highly unusual," but if approved, it would include the creation of large intelligence networks in hostile foreign areas known as "denial areas."

The operators would recruit and handle local agents, perform psychological operations, and capture terrorist suspects and render them to the US or ally country. The primary targets of the proposals are "Islamic extremism."

BuzzFeed said that one of the proposals involves Amyntor Group, headquartered in the northwestern Montana town known as Whitefish. The company is private and staffed with former U.S. Intelligence community staff with security clearances. They specialize in intelligence training and risk assessment. They collect and analyze intelligence and provide counterintelligence services for government agencies in the U.S. as well as "friendly foreign governments" abroad.

Amyntor Group leadership held discussions with senior Trump administration officials in late November, according to BuzzFeed. They also said that the catalyst for privatizing some intelligence operations is due to the negative view the Administration believes the CIA has of the White House. And they claim the CIA isn't willing to go along with Trump's efforts to make the agency's operations more aggressive and, in Mike Pompeo's words, "much more vicious."

Thus, they believe privatization will bypass the resistance and doubt of the CIA's upper management.

If this proposal bears fruit, it will have a powerful effect on all future spy novels.



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