James Clapper on travel ban: unjustified, ISIS recruiting tool, no intel to back it up
This is not exactly the kind of headline Team Trump needs right now:
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The former director of national intelligence says he’s unaware of any intelligence that proves the need for a travel ban on nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries.
“I don’t — we in the [intelligence community] weren’t aware of any extraordinary threats that we were’t already dealing with,” James Clapper told CNN on Friday.
Clapper said that President Trump’s executive order could damage the U.S.’s reputation globally and impede Washington’s ability to partner with other nations in the future.
“I do worry about those countries in question with whom we do deal and who are reliable partners. I also worry about this creating a recruiting tool for the extremists … that they will point to this proof that there is, in fact, a war on all Muslims.”
The former intelligence chief underscored that he is comfortable with the vetting procedures that existed before Trump’s executive order.
“We are using, I think, some very rigorous vetting processes, which we constantly improved on,” he said.
Watch the interview:
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