EXCLUSIVE: U.S. had intelligence of detailed Ukrainian plan to attack Nord Stream pipeline, months before the bombing. washingtonpost.com/national-secur… By me and @smekhennet Some of the key findings of our reporting:

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.

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.)

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

Months of reporting. More than three dozen interviews with senior U.S., Ukrainian, European and NATO officials. Here's our account of the road to war in Ukraine. washingtonpost.com/national-secur… W/ @karendeyoung1, @ikhurshudyan, @AshleyRParker, and @LizSly Some of the key takeaways of our reporting:

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.

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.

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...

Expanded my spy movie education with The Eiger Sanction. I can't speak for the novel, but the film feels like it burped out of a mid-70s cultural stew of paranoia, misogyny, and thrill-seeking. Recommended. imdb.com/title/tt007292… I won't give away the plot. It stars and was directed by Clint Eastwood, who plays a 35-year old (lol) ex-CIA assassin (what?) turned art history teacher who's an expert mountain climber. Hired for a "one last job," the aforementioned "sanction," or hit, adventure ensues.

The Saudi embassy issued a statement today "in response to a recent media report," clearly referring to our investigation of the embassy. washingtonpost.com/national-secur… First, the embassy's statement, in full. Then some points and observations. 🧵

NEW: The Saudi embassy has helped its citizens facing criminal charges flee the United States. washingtonpost.com/national-secur… This story is the result of a long investigation. Here are some of the key findings. Two citizens of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah Hariri and Sultan Alsuhaymi, are wanted in Greenville, NC, on charges of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Raekwon Moore, who was 22. But Hariri and Alsuhaymi will likely never see the inside of a U.S. courtroom.

NEW from @yabutaleb7 and me. Inside the Trump administration's hunt for a pandemic "lab leak." washingtonpost.com/national-secur… Here's some of what we found: On Feb. 1, 2020, a group of top experts convened via teleconference in the first known effort by senior U.S. and international health officials to determine whether human engineering or a laboratory leak might explain the emergence of the virus.

“The White House’s handling of the period between the first known symptoms—those of Hicks on Wednesday—and the president’s infection, which was confirmed about 1 a.m. Friday, is what experts considered a case study in irresponsibility and mismanagement.” washingtonpost.com/politics/trump… “Trump thought he could go to the fundraiser and keep it secret that Hicks  had it,” Republican donor Dan Eberhart said.

A former Saudi official close to the CIA alleges in a new lawsuit that Mohammed bin Salman tried to have him killed in Canada, in a plot that bears striking similarities to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. washingtonpost.com/local/legal-is… by @hsu_spencer and me Aljabri asserts the MBS pressured him to return to Saudi Arabia, sent agents to the US to locate Aljabri, had malware implanted on his phone, and when Aljabri was ultimately located in Canada, sent a “hit squad” to kill him, the lawsuit asserts.

NEW: Brian Murphy, the DHS official whose office compiled "intelligence reports" about the work of journalists and protestors, has been removed from his job. washingtonpost.com/national-secur… Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of DHS, decided on Friday to remove Murphy. Wolf had ordered I &A to stop collecting information about journalists after our story on Thursday.

New: Trump blocked John Brennan from seeing his classified notes and records, ex-CIA director writes in forthcoming memoir. washingtonpost.com/national-secur… Notably, Brennan says that he still has his security clearances, contrary to Trump's case that he revoked them. But Trump issued a directive, Brennan writes, "that purportedly forbids anyone in the intelligence community from sharing classified information with me.”

Re: US closure of China's consulate in Houston, I'm told it has long been on the list of facilities the US might shut down in response to Chinese espionage. In Houston, China had targeted corporate intellectual property, including in the oil and gas sector, as well as NASA. The Chinese are expected to respond, probably closing a US facility in China. (That's the traditional tit-for-tat choreography.) The Houston facility would have been picked expecting a commensurate Chinese response, one that US officials calculated they could bear.

New: The 9/11 attacks fundamentally changed the U.S. approach to national security. Will the coronavirus pandemic do the same? washingtonpost.com/national-secur… @missy_ryan and I spoke to nearly 30 experts to find out. Their key recommendations: Don’t create a new department for pandemic preparedness. Experts were nearly unanimous on that, many seeing the Homeland Security Dept. as an unnecessary reaction to the threat of terrorism. Instead, create or reconstitute a White House coordinator.

New: Elite CIA unit that developed hacking tools failed to secure its own systems, allowing massive "Vault 7" leak, an internal report found. washingtonpost.com/national-secur… by @nakashimae and me The report by the CIA's WikiLeaks task force (completed in Oct. 2017), found that the agency's Center for Cyber Intelligence “prioritized building cyber weapons at the expense of securing their own systems."

Confirmation hearing for DNI nominee Rep. John Ratcliffe has begun. First such hearing held during the Covid-19 pandemic. A bearded committee chairman Richard Burr explains social distancing rules. Members will rotate in and out to keep space between them. intelligence.senate.gov Burr explains his beard, which he doesn't normally wear, is a tribute to the late Sen. Tom Coburn, who he says went without shaving in times of crisis.

Trump says more nasal swabs for virus tests coming, hours after R and D governors said feds weren't doing enough to get them and was shifting burden onto the states. "We have them coming by the tens of millions. You’ll have so many swabs you won't know what to do with them." So far, tho, Trump hasn't said anything about procuring reagents (got to have those too), or complaints from governors and a former FDA chief that the administration can do more to get the reagents states need.

Trump says that the China was both transparent and not transparent enough about its experience with the virus and wishes they would have provided earlier warning. This is what we reported about Trump's views on China and how they were coping. washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

Second time's a charm? Ratcliffe's nomination met with opposition in Congress last time over questions of padding his resume and a lack of credentials. Trump said he was treated "very unfairly." washingtonpost.com/politics/ratcl…

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1233518334282489861

Some points to keep in mind here: Ratcliffe didn't withdraw because he was waiting for an IG report (not even clear which one Trump means). He flamed out after Democrats and Republicans told the WH he wasn't qualified. That led Trump to Joseph Maguire.