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.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
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.
Well before the FBI searched Trump's home for classified information concerning nuclear weapons, officials worried that as an ex-president Trump could pose a unique national security risk. washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
Experts then said Trump checks the boxes of a classic counterintelligence risk: He is deeply in debt and angry at the U.S. government, particularly the “deep state” conspiracy he claimed tried to stop him from winning the White House in 2016 and robbed him of reelection.
Experts raised those fears before we understood the lengths Trump and his allies would go to attempt to overturn the 2020 election. “Anyone who is disgruntled, dissatisfied or aggrieved is a risk of disclosing classified information," @DavidPriess noted.
Heated exchange between Sen. King and DIA director Gen. Berrier on whether the intel community failed to predict/understand Ukraine's will to fight. Berrier: "there was never an intelligence community assessment that said the Ukrainians lack the will to fight."
King: "The assessment was Ukraine would be overrun in a matter of weeks. That was grossly wrong."
Berrier: "Grossly wrong. But not not not a question of will to fight...we assessed their capacity to face the size of the Russian forces that were massed on their border...
...was going to be very difficult for them."
King: "Well, all I'm saying is the intelligence community needs to do a better job on this issue."
Berrier: "I think the intelligence community did a great job on this issue, Senator."