Tom Donilon has made his career in keeping secrets.
Serving as Deputy National Security Advisor and then as National Security Advisor for President Obama during his first term, he was one of the most important people responsible for keeping the United States safe. ACCENT Speakers Bureau brought Donilon to the Phillips Center last Thursday to sit down with Bridget Grogan from UF’s College of Journalism to discuss his experiences throughout his mysterious career.
Donilon is a man clouded in secrecy. His work in the White House entailed knowing the most classified information about the world and deciding how many people should have access to it. Although, he is a bald man, his hair should be bigger than Gretchen Wieners because it holds so many secrets. For someone of his importance, he speaks softly and does not have a commanding presence; he looks like the stereotypical politician.
The most important duty of the National Security Advisor, according to Donilon, is to inform the president. Every morning for over two years he presented a 40 minute briefing to the president on anything and everything concerning national security, with topics ranging from intelligence findings and military operations to significant events abroad. He talks about seven or eight topics each morning, but only after hours of reviewing the intelligence from the day before, reported from any of the various intelligence agencies including the military and departments under Homeland Security. Donilon described his career as “a four and a half year conversation” because each morning resumed where the day before left off.
Via: theconversativethreehouse.com
Grogan asked him about various topics regarding national security and world events, including the situations in Syria, Afghanistan and Nairobi. His responses seemed scripted as if he had memorized them and he offered no new information on the topics. His words seem calculated, understandably so, and you wonder if the information he holds would change our perspective on the many global crisis the world is facing. One audience member asked how the NSA gathers information from small Islamic radical groups and Donilon proceeded to give an interesting account of these various groups and their potentials for danger, but never addressed the actual question.
However, a man who is so careful not to let out any bit of classified information cannot hide his emotions. His face lit up any time he mentioned U.S. Special Forces and the various military teams that carry out high-risk operations, such as the raid on Osama bin Laden.
Rightly so, because Donilon will go down in history for his involvement in the assassination of bin Laden.
When President Obama entered office, there hadn’t been any leads on bin Laden’s location since 2001, but he reinvigorated the man hunt. In August 2010 the NSA came to Obama with the first piece of evidence strong enough to present and incoming intelligence through February 2011 reinforced the idea that he was in Abbottabad. For the next few months Obama and his closest advisors in the Situation Room, including Joe Biden and Hilary Clinton, considered all options and a Special Forces raid was determined to have the least risk. Donolin said that the combination of high-quality intelligence and the skill of the U.S. Special Forces convinced Obama to go through with the operation.
The Thursday before the Sunday May 2 operation, Obama went around the Situation Room asking if they believed the raid should happen and the room was split. After hearing everyone’s opinions, Obama stood up and announced, “You’ll have my decision tomorrow,” and walked out of the room. The next day the president had to be in Alabama to give a speech. That morning he walked into the Situation Room, told them the raid was on, and boarded the helicopter. Donolin remembers the period between the two Situation Room meetings as a pivotal moment in his perception of the presidency; the decision to assassinate the United States’ biggest enemy rested entirely on his shoulders.
The night of May 2, he, the president and the a few other White House officials attended the annual White House Correspondent’s dinner (where the press and the president roast each other), went home to change, and then returned to the White House for a ten hour meeting and to watch the events unfold. The operation went almost exactly how the Special Forces said it would go and the first person Obama told outside of the small circle of people with knowledge of the attack, was George W. Bush.
Via: en.wikipedia.org
After Donilon described the raid on bin Laden, Grogan asked about his thoughts on Edward Snowden. The change in his mood and tone was instantly apparant; he sat up straight and the smile wiped off his face. He said that instead of voicing his concerns to his direct superiors, Snowden “ran off to China and Russia,” countries without the right to freedom of speech. He criticized the media’s coverage as well, stating that the media has not and cannot point to a single abuse of the PRISM programs, only their potential for abuse, which he claims is a valid debate. He also assured that PRISM was no secret to those inside the government; Congress and the federal courts reviewed and approved its implementation and continues to regulate its use, like any other legitimate government program.
Hearing Donilon speak about his day-to-day experiences as the National Security Advisor was absolutely fascinating. There is no denying that he has played a key role in shaping the future of this country and has already made history. However, when talking about current events, he avoided using talking point not already heard in news reports. Donolin can’t give additional information because it compromises our security, the same reason why the press doesn’t have knowledge of this information either.
There was a certain irony in listening to a man whose job it is to keep information away from the public speaking in front of an audience.
Photo courtesy of: BayVoice
