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...
Category: ODNI
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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...
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Pelosi Upbraids Counterintelligence Chief Over Russian Meddling
While it is highly debatable whether Russian social media activities could swing the 2020 election, there’s not much doubt that the Russian state agent, including Yevgeny Prigozhin, are trying to help Trump. The Trump White House would rather not share what the U.S. government knows about the subject. When William Evanina, chief of counterintelligence for...