Thread by @mdlaplante

I spent several years of my life working in Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities, and this is what I learned: There is no level of security that can keep these places secure if the people running them don’t have the trust and respect of their subordinates. #OmarosaTapes

If Omarosa took recordings in the Situation Room, and it appears she did, it’s not simply an indication that a “lowlife” breached security; it’s a sign of a failure to create a culture of trust and respect.

When it comes to security, the obligation to create a culture of trust and respect doesn’t come from the bottom-up. It begins at the top — with well-vetted hiring decisions, a demonstration of commitment to integrity, and security-minded example-setting. This is also known as:

Fear is not a primary element of security culture. Yes, everyone should know the consequences of breaking the rules, but that has never been enough to “keep people honest” and on-guard for breaches. For that, you need buy-in.

Multiple people around President Trump and Chief of Staff Kelly have taken the extraordinary step of recording their interactions with these men. At the very least, this indicates a failure of leadership to earn the trust and respect of subordinates on an individual basis.

The real problem, from a national security standpoint, is that a culture-wide lack of trust and respect can exploited by the actual lowlifes who are working 24-7 to breach U.S. security. These people are also known as:

There is no perfect SCIF. There is no organization impervious to a lowlife here and there. But the failure to create a culture of trust and respect makes our adversaries' jobs much easier. In some circumstances that can cost people in our intelligence community their lives.

To be clear: At this point, it would be reasonable for the White House to
consider ANYONE around the president to be a potential security vulnerability. That says less about those people than it does about the culture they're a part of. And that culture starts at the top.
/end