Some more backstory on Coats stepping down. As of late last week, it was a done deal. Coats wasn't taken by surprise. A U.S. official tells me he was playing golf Sunday as Trump prepared the official announcement via tweet. washingtonpost.com/world/national…
This comports w/ what Coats wrote in his resignation letter, that he and Trump had already discussed it was time for Coats to move onto his next chapter.
Dems already calling out Ratcliffe as a political operative, suggesting he's not suited to be DNI. Concern on Hill Trump might not appoint deputy DNI Sue Gordon--who Dems like--as acting director. If he does that, "the Hill will raise holy hell," a Congressional official said
I refer back to Ratcliffe's comments to Fox News today as a good indicator where he's coming from on the Mueller investigation and its origins. This was hours before Trump announced him as Coats's replacement. washingtonexaminer.com/news/john-ratc…
On Gordon, she's got enough bipartisan support and is seen as a stabilizing force, so a lot of lawmakers will insist she be acting. And as @BobbyChesney has noted, legally that's exactly what has to happen. Unclear why Trump indicated he'd be announcing an acting.
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This ABC News story about Iran activating sleeper cells sure sounds like what I reported about a Persian-language numbers station today. But if so, there's something off. 🧵
Here's the ABC story, about US officials alerting law enforcement agencies to "communications believed to have originated in Iran that may serve as 'an operational trigger.'" The origin of the broadcast (aka V32) has been very hard to pin down. Possible US gov't has determined this, but... abcnews.com/US/iran-activa…
There are strong indications that the Iranian government is trying to jam or interfere with this signal. That suggests the message is meant for someone acting against Iran's interest, not the other way around. The interference, known as a "bubble jammer," is very similar to what Iran has used to block the transmission of Radio Farda, which is a US gov't run broadcast in Persian.
I've waited nearly ten years to tell this story: In 2016, I developed a source in Iranian intelligence named Mohammad Hossein Tajik. He told me he came from a politically connected family. That he had led Iran's cyber army. And that he had secretly worked for the CIA. 🧵
Mohammad wanted to get back at his enemies in the regime, by leaking their secrets to me. And he wanted to rekindle his relationship with the CIA, which had not ended on good terms. He was angry. He was determined. And he was desperate.
He told me about covert cyber operations and the inner workings of Iranian espionage. Some of his claims were astounding. But he also told me about his favorite movies, his personal life, his hopes and his fears. He kept secrets too, and it took me years to unravel them.
In June 2022, a European intelligence service passed the CIA detailed reporting about a plan by Ukraine's special operations forces to sabotage Nord Stream. The source was an individual in Ukraine.
The information was specific: 6 special ops personnel would rent a boat, and, suing a submersible vehicle and deep-water diving equipment, damage or destroy the pipeline and leave undetected.
EXCLUSIVE: Alleged leaker Jack Teixeira fixated on guns and envisioned ‘race war’ washingtonpost.com/national-secur… Videos and chat logs reveal preparations for a violent social conflict, his racist thinking and a deep suspicion of the gov't he served. By me, @samueloakford, and @chrisd9r
In a lengthy interview, a close personal friend of Teixeira said he wanted to "shoot up" his high school and praised mass killings such as the attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019, which left 51 people dead. (Video by @JonGerberg and @ntabrizy.)
Teixeira shared hundreds of classified documents with his young admirers to reveal secret knowledge he believed the government had hidden from ordinary people. “He had quite a few conspiratorial beliefs,” a close friend said, including "how the government kills their own people."
NEW: The Iranian government has stepped up its efforts to kidnap and kill government officials, activists, and journalists in the U.S. and around the world. Officials now fear a direct confrontation with Tehran. washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/… By me, @smekhennet, and @yjtorbati.
We spoke to targets of Iran's plots, who've been warned to limit their travel and have suffered relentless harassment from Tehran. Our story is the result of months of reporting, interviews with more than a dozen government officials, and access to previously unreported documents
The Iranian plotting has reached a fever pitch in the U.K., which recently submitted a "blue notice" to Interpol alleging a suspected member of the Quds Force had helped to arrange attempted “lethal operations against Iranian dissidents in the U.K. in 2020.”
1.) Last year, the United States intelligence community penetrated multiple points of Russia’s political leadership, spying apparatus and military, and found Vladimir Putin preparing for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
2.) Every decision on arming Ukraine was predicated on not giving Russia a reason to attack the United States and NATO.