Spencer Ackerman of Daily Beast calls it “a proxy war.” The nomination of Avril Haines to serve as director of the Office of National Intelligence (ODNI) has set off a power struggle between the center-left and center-right factions of the Democratic policy world. This is a consequential fight, the ODNI overseees–but does not actually run–17...
Category: ODNI
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All About Avril Haines, Biden’s Pick for the Top U.S. Intelligence Job
Avril Haines is President-elect Joe Biden’s choice to run the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). if confirmed, she will effectively serve as the chairwoman of the U.S. intelligence community. The ODNI doesn’t control the budgets of the 17 U.S. intelligence agencies, but it does coordinate and set direction. It is not as...
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The Spies Who Predicted COVID-19
Former CIA spokesman Kent Harrington runs down the history of warnings from the intelligence community about pandemics. There were quite a few. Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama paid attention. The intelligence community first raised the alert immediately after President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, when then-DNI Dennis Blair testified that, “The most pressing...
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Intelligence Findings on COVID19 Origins: Not Man-Made or Genetically Modified
“I will tell you, more and more, we’re hearing the story [that the new coronavirus emerged from a Wuhan lab,” President Trump said last April. On April 30, Trump said he had a “high degree of confidence” the new coronavirus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China. Trump said he was “not allowed” to revealed his sources,...
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When It Comes to Intelligence Briefings, Trump Prefers to Pass
Trump went from a high of 4.1 briefings per week on average in March 2017 to 0.7 per week since July 1, shortly after it became public that he had ignored intelligence reports about Russia offering bounties to the Taliban for each American soldier killed in Afghanistan. Monday’s briefing, in fact, was the first in...
