WSJ DISCUSSION 200 WORDS IN AN HR

The week in which the Blackboard discussion forum posting is due, select a WSJ article that reports on an ethical dilemma related to the week’s textbook chapter reading.  Read the article and post your personal reaction to the article. You are being asked to form a moral or ethical judgment of the ramifications and implications of the ethical dilemma that you have identified in the WSJ article.

· Review the  Netiquette policies  before posting.

· The approximate length of a discussion forum response should be about 200 words, 20 lines

· Each post MUST (at a bare minimum) include the following: a clearly stated ethical dilemma, the application of an ethical framework to analyze the identified ethical dilemma, and your educated opinion of the ethical dilemma.

ARTICLE

Trump Backs U.S. Intelligence Agencies When Asked About Russian Meddling

But he wouldn’t say definitively whether he believes the report that Russia interfered in 2016 election

By 

Michael C. Bender

Updated Nov. 12, 2017 1:03 p.m. ET

1122 COMMENTS

HANOI, Vietnam—A day after he called three former heads of U.S. intelligence agencies “political hacks,” President Donald Trump said he had full confidence in the agencies and indicated he believed their report that concluded Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election.

But the president’s shift in tone failed to mollify the targets of his remarks back home, with former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan saying he believed Mr. Trump was trying to “delegitimize” the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia had interfered.

“Considering the source of the criticism, I consider that criticism a badge of honor,” Mr. Brennan said Sunday on CNN.

James Clapper, former director of National Intelligence, appearing on the same program, said Russia poses a continuing threat and yet Mr. Trump insisted on “rolling out the red carpet” for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The Russians do not harbor good intentions toward the United States, and there shouldn’t be any illusions or any ambiguity about that,” Mr. Clapper said. “And our president fosters that ambiguity.”

Both Mr. Brennan and Mr. Clapper served under President Barack Obama.

Mr. Trump is in the midst of a 10-day swing through Asia. Standing outside the presidential palace in Hanoi on Sunday with Vietnam President Trần Đại Quang, Mr. Trump begrudgingly acknowledged his acceptance of the intelligence report on the election issued earlier this year. He declined, however, when asked to answer with a yes or no about whether he believed the report was true.

Instead, he expressed confusion that there was any question about his confidence in the agencies and cast doubt on the previous administration, which initially assembled the report.

“I am with our agencies, especially as currently constituted,” Mr. Trump said. “I believe very much in our intelligence agencies.”

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On Saturday, flying from Da Nang, Vietnam, Mr. Trump told reporters that Mr. Putin was  irritated by repeated questions about his country’s involvement  in the election, and he criticized the former heads of the U.S. intelligence agencies that put together the report.

“I mean, give me a break—they’re political hacks,” Mr. Trump said Saturday. “You have Brennan, you have Clapper, and you have [former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James] Comey. Comey’s proven now to be a liar, and he’s proven to be a leaker, so you look at that. And you have President Putin very strongly, vehemently says he had nothing to do with that.”

Messrs. Brennan, Clapper and Comey were in charge of their respective intelligence agencies when those agencies released a declassified report in January that concluded Russia successfully interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Mr. Trump has struggled to put to rest questions about the report—and Russian’s role in the election. “As far as the hacking, I think it was Russia,” he said at the time. ”But I think we also get hacked by other countries and other people.”

In his appearance Sunday on CNN, Mr. Brennan also said Mr. Trump was “naive” to believe that Russia would be helpful toward U.S. interests.

“It’s very clear that the Russians interfered in the election and it’s still puzzling as to why Mr. Trump does not acknowledge that, embrace it and also push back hard against Mr. Putin,” Mr. Brennan said.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, speaking Sunday on CNN, responded to the comments by Messrs. Brennan and Clapper by saying, “President Trump is not getting played by anybody.”

The CIA declined to comment.

At the joint press conference with Mr. Quang, Mr. Trump hailed Vietnam’s growing middle class as “a key market for American goods and services,” listing American energy, agriculture, financial services, aviation, digital commerce and defense products as industries where Americans “are able to meet all of your many commercial needs.” The U.S. trade deficit with Vietnam has widened over the past decade,  exceeding $30 billion last year .

Mr. Trump has focused many of his public comments on urging China to put more pressure on North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program, and to point out the trade imbalances between the U.S. and Asia’s economic powers.

Asked about North Korea on Sunday, Mr. Trump said it was a “possibility” that he could have a friendly relationship with Kim Jong Un. The two leaders have engaged in a war of words, with each disparaging the other’s looks and mental capacity.

“Strange things happen in life—that might be a strange thing to happen, but it’s certainly a possibility,” Mr. Trump said. “If that did happen, it would be a good thing for, I can tell you, for North Korea. But it would also be good for lots of other places, and it would be good for the world.”

After the news conference, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said Mr. Trump spoke with Mr. Putin about the North Korea issue. The two leaders  crossed paths on Friday and Saturday at the APEC conference  in Da Nang.

“Any port in the storm,” Mr. Kelly said about seeking Russia’s help. “Any friend we can get on that regard is a good thing.”

Asked whether Mr. Trump’s tweets helped the nuclear crisis with North Korea, Mr. Kelly said he tells White House staff not to react the president’s social-media posts. Mr. Trump on Sunday suggested on Twitter that Mr. Kim was “short and fat.”

“The tweets don’t run my life—good staff work runs it,” Mr. Kelly said. “We develop policy in the normal, traditional, staff way.”

—Natasha Khan contributed to this article.

Write to Michael C. Bender at  [email protected]