Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org, I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with more indications of major dysfunction and possible treason emerging from Trump's use and abuse of the intelligence community by the unqualified toadies he has put in charge,

with reports emerging that the whistleblower complaint Tulsi Gabbard sat on for eight months came from the NSA,

which intercepted a call between a foreign intelligence service and someone close to Trump.

Normally such explosive information would be disseminated and go straight to the National Security Advisor,

but Gabbard took it to Susie Wiles so that it would go only to

Trump and be buried. We'll discuss this and concerns from Senators Wyden and Warner on the

Senate Intelligence Committee that something has happened at the CIA and needs investigating,

but again is being sat on. Joining us at Gregory Treveton, a senior advisor with the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies,

and a professor of the practice of international relations at the University of Southern California.

He has served in government for the first Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Hand handling Europe for the National Security Council, and was chairman of the National Intelligence

Council from 2014 to 2017.

His books include dividing divided states, beyond the Great Divide, Relevance and Uncertainty

in National Intelligence, and science for policy.

Then we'll look into Trump's rupture of the rules-based world order in which alliances are

valued only insofar as they deliver immediate tangible benefits. The Gaza Board of Peace

Plan mirrors Trump's approach to NATO trade policy and negotiations with Ukraine and Iran.

High-stakes bargaining conducted through threats or extortion.

What matters is not the infrastructure of peace and stability, let alone institutional legitimacy,

but the optics of a deal struck by the world's strongest power complete with the promise of lucrative contracts.

Joining us is Aziz Rana, University Professor of Law and Government at Boston College,

where his research and teaching centered on American constitutional law and political development,

...