intelligence agencies

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Spy Chiefs in 5 Nations Sound Warning on China

Five Eyes intelligence chiefs say Chinese spies are operating at an 'epic scale'

(Newser) - Spy movies have taught us to suspect figures lurking around military bases and federal buildings, yet the focus of Chinese spying in the US looks quite different, according to the heads of spy agencies in the Five Eyes coalition—US, Canada, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand—who gathered for an...

Agency Sides With Theory That Lab Leak Sparked Pandemic

Energy Department agrees with FBI's conclusion, for a different reason

(Newser) - The COVID-19 pandemic probably began with a laboratory leak, the Energy Department has decided. The agency, which had not expressed a view on the origin of the coronavirus, added its finding to a previous classified intelligence report sent to the White House and certain members of Congress, the Wall Street ...

He Lost His Job for Not Predicting Russian Invasion
He Lost His Job for Not
Predicting Russian Invasion
in case you missed it

He Lost His Job for Not Predicting Russian Invasion

Gen. Eric Vidaud, France's chief of military intelligence, had only been in the role for 7 months

(Newser) - As the US warned earlier this year that Russia may try to invade, others pushed back on that prediction, including the new chief of France's military intelligence. Now, just seven months after he was hired, Gen. Eric Vidaud is out of a job, Reuters reports, citing an internal email...

Intelligence: China Told Russia to Wait Until After Olympics

Putin sent troops into eastern Ukraine the day after the Games ended

(Newser) - The closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics was Feb. 20. On Feb. 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin deployed troops into eastern Ukraine after giving a speech attempting to justify the move. Three days later, the Russian invasion began in full. There's a possible explanation for why Russia, which had...

Biden Steps Up Effort to Trace COVID's Origin

Criticism of WHO's dismissal of lab theory increases

(Newser) - Saying Wednesday that the investigations so far have been inconclusive, President Biden gave intelligence agencies 90 days to find the origins of the coronavirus. Biden said he wants the agencies' "most up-to-date analysis of the origins of COVID-19, including whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal...

CIA/NSA Bickering Nearly Sank the Deal of the Century

But the CIA and West German intelligence eventually bought the Swiss firm Crypto AG

(Newser) - Friction between the CIA and NSA has come up before—think 9/11 intelligence failures—but it turns out their bickering nearly sank a deal that later revolutionized intelligence gathering, the Washington Post reports. "There was not a lot of love lost between CIA and NSA over the years,"...

Trump Taps New Director of National Intelligence

Texas Republican John Ratcliffe has been up for this post before, amid bipartisan criticism

(Newser) - President Trump on Friday picked Rep. John Ratcliffe to be the nation's top intelligence official, just months after abruptly ending an earlier effort to install him amid bipartisan criticism that the Texas GOPer was unqualified for the post. Trump initially named Ratcliffe for the job last summer, but then...

Trump Sees 'Hoax No. 7' Underway in DC

He slams report of Russian meddling in the 2020 election

(Newser) - Reports that intelligence officials informed Congress that Russia is meddling on President Trump's behalf in the 2020 election have caught Trump's attention, and he's not happy with the news—specifically that the lawmakers were informed about it. Sources told the New York Times and Washington Post that...

Report: Official Said Trump's Ukraine Call Was 'Crazy'

Whistleblower listed 3 reasons why he might be accused of anti-Trump bias

(Newser) - New details have surfaced from the whistleblower complaint that sparked the Trump impeachment inquiry. In a memo reviewed by the New York Times , the whistleblower wrote that a White House official who listened to President Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukraine's president found the conversation "crazy"...

Whistleblower Complaint Filed Over Trump Phone Call

House Intelligence chief wants to see 'urgent' complaint

(Newser) - A phone conversation between President Trump and a foreign leader alarmed an intelligence official so much that they filed a formal whistleblower complaint, sources tell the Washington Post . The sources say the complaint filed with the inspector general of the intelligence community involved a "promise" Trump made to the...

Intel Chiefs' Disagreements Were Misquotes, Trump Says

He says they're all on same page after a few days of public friction

(Newser) - Two days after his intelligence bosses contradicted him in public testimony, President Trump said they told him they’d been misquoted. CNN asked the president Thursday if he'd discussed with CIA Director Gina Haspel and national intelligence chief Dan Coats their testimony before a Senate panel. In that testimony,...

Trump 1st Since Nixon to Not Read Daily Intelligence Briefs

According to 'Washington Post' report

(Newser) - Donald Trump is the first president since Richard Nixon to not regularly read the President's Daily Brief—a comprehensive update on the world put together by US intelligence agencies—sources tell the Washington Post , and that has some intelligence experts concerned he's putting the US at risk. Sources...

2 Views on Claims Our Spies Aren't Telling Trump Everything

'WSJ' report says this isn't entirely novel, but the reason for it is

(Newser) - "Information is illegally given out by 'intelligence' like candy," tweeted President Trump Wednesday. A new report from the Wall Street Journal alleges some of that candy is being withheld from the president himself. Some of what's allegedly being kept from Trump by US intelligence officials are...

Trump Wants NY Billionaire to Review Intelligence Agencies

FBI releases Trump files from the '70s

(Newser) - President Trump is planning to shake up the intelligence services with the help of a fellow New York billionaire, the New York Times reports, citing administration sources. The officials say Trump wants to bring in Stephen Feinberg, a co-founder of the Cerberus Capital Management hedge fund who currently serves on...

Trump Says 'Criminal Action' Brought Down Flynn

He says this is all a distraction from 'many mistakes' of Clinton's losing campaign

(Newser) - President Trump is again insisting that the leaks from the intelligence community that brought down Michael Flynn are a bigger story than the national security adviser's abrupt resignation. "Intelligence, papers are being leaked. Things are being leaked. It's a criminal action—criminal act—and it's been...

Trump Plans to Do More Than Just Criticize CIA

He wants to restructure US intelligence agencies, sources say

(Newser) - Donald Trump plans to do more than just criticize US intelligence agencies—he plans to restructure the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency, sources tell the Wall Street Journal . "The view from the Trump team is the intelligence world has become completely politicized,...

Trump Appears to Trust Assange Over US Intel

He's accused of 'mocking' intelligence officials who risk their lives

(Newser) - The American intelligence community had concluded Russia is to blame for cyberattacks during the US election, including those targeting Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange disagrees. And in a move one Republican political consultant sees as "mocking American men and women who … put their...

Intelligence Officers Worry About Trump Payback
Intelligence Officers Worry
About Trump Payback
THE RUNDOWN

Intelligence Officers Worry About Trump Payback

Bolton claims hacking could be 'false flag'

(Newser) - In a development that characters in a Tom Clancy novel would probably dismiss as far-fetched, intelligence figures fear that the next president might retaliate against the CIA and other agencies that have linked Russian hackers to election interference . "There is not just smoke here. There is a blazing 10-alarm...

Sources: Spy Agencies Lose Access to Analyzed Tweets

Twitter is blocking Dataminr service to government, says a WSJ report

(Newser) - Twitter has barred US intelligence agencies from accessing a service that parses tweets to alert clients to events like terror attacks over fears of appearing too chummy with federal agencies, sources tells the Wall Street Journal . For two years, the government has had access to the service, provided by private...

Rapper Eyed in Beheading of James Foley

UK intelligence said to have found a suspect

(Newser) - British officials say they've identified the ex-pat who beheaded James Foley but won't yet release his name, the Sunday Times reports. Investigators narrowed the case down to four suspects—including a British doctor's brother and an ex-gang member who went to Syria—but UK rapper Abdel-Majed Abdel...

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