America-Led Spy Network Risks Collapse Over Trump-Russia Fears

 https://www.newsweek.com/america-led-spy-network-risks-collapse-over-trump-russia-fears-2039941

This Anglophone intel-sharing arrangement, dubbed the Five Eyes, has seen its members through the many decades since, an elaborate web of intelligence capabilities pitted against threats they all agree pose a danger.

But in a matter of days, U.S. President Donald Trump and his top officials have shredded the order, and the consensus, that has dominated for 80 years. Upending U.S. foreign policy, slapping tariffs north of the border and splattering America's allies with disdain, the new administration quickly had those relying on Washington asking whether they can trust the U.S. to provide vital, and sensitive, capabilities.

Little is more sensitive than the Five Eyes, its gaze long fixed on Moscow and Beijing. It is, in short, the "most important intelligence sharing agreement in history," said Calder Walton, a historian specializing in national security and intelligence at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

Some are now actively discussing reeling in the intelligence they share with the U.S. because of the administration's Russia stance, NBC reported on Thursday, citing four anonymous sources with knowledge of the debates.

As it stands, Putin "could not dream of doing better than having the Five Eyes alliance undermined and sabotaged from within," Walton said. "Whether Trump knows it or not, he's doing Putin's bidding for him."