Not Afraid To Ruffle Feathers: How Michael Flynn Became A Trump Confidant
Not Afraid To Ruffle Feathers: How Michael Flynn Became A Trump Confidant by Tom Bowman, National Public Radio
Michael Flynn, Donald Trump's planned choice for National Security Adviser, is perhaps best known to the American public for his fiery speech at the Republican National Convention in the summer, when he spoke to chants of "lock her up," a reference to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton — and joined in himself.
It was a strange position for someone who was a career military officer and a registered Democrat from Rhode Island.
Within military circles, Flynn was a highly respected — though at times controversial — career intelligence officer. He worked his way up the ranks, including stints as the top intelligence officer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and as Gen. Stanley McChrystal's top aide in Afghanistan.
Flynn was never shy about ruffling feathers.
In 2010, while serving in Afghanistan, he aired his complaints in a report called "Fixing Intel: A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan" for the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank. Flynn wrote that the intelligence community was not helping in the war effort. Its analysts were not providing the kind of intelligence necessary in the counterinsurgency fight, Flynn said, and the U.S. intelligence community "is only marginally relevant to the overall strategy."
It was the most popular report the think tank ever produced.
The CIA and others provided detailed information about the enemy, Flynn wrote, but not the kind of political, economic and cultural information he felt was needed about the Afghan people. The defense secretary at the time, Robert Gates, called Flynn's comments a "candid self-assessment," but other officials were seething that Flynn went public with his views…
