New York Times: A new U.S. letter highlights shortcomings in intelligence reports on Russian wealth

New York Times: A new U.S. letter highlights shortcomings in intelligence reports on Russian wealth

Citing three officials, the paper reported that the National Intelligence Council, led by National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe, wrote a two-and-a-half-page letter, dated Wednesday – just days after the first Times reported last week on intelligence officials ’findings on White House effects and inactivity.

Officials told the Times that the timing and prominent letters, which are said not to contain new details, imply that it was aimed at stepping up the administration’s efforts to defend itself by keeping silent until the news. Multiple former national security officials told the paper that the presentation of the memorandum suggested that it may have been shaken by political intent.

The letter states that the CIA and the National Counterterrorism Center assessed with “medium confidence” that the unit of the Russian military intelligence agency GRU offered benefits, and two officials were informed about the contents of the memorandum.

However, the National Security Agency and other members of the intelligence community found that they did not have adequate evidence to reach that level of security and therefore had less confidence in the decision, the two officials said. A third officer familiar with the document told the Times that the CIA’s confidence in the conclusion was greater than that of other agencies.

A spokeswoman for the DNI office declined to comment. CNN also contacted the CIA.

News of the deal follows White House denials that President Donald Trump has been “personally informed” of reports that Russia has offered to fight Taliban fighters to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
But intelligence is included in one of Trump’s daily intelligence reports sometime in the spring, a U.S. official said with direct knowledge of the latest information. A source familiar with the situation told CNN that the White House was provided with such intelligence in early 2019.
CNN also reported on Wednesday that Trump’s resistance to intelligence warnings about Russia forced his national security team, including those who carried the president’s daily, to report orally less frequently to threats related to Russia, according to several former administration officials who reported Trump, were present at the meetings and who were preparing documents for his intelligence briefings.

The Times reported on Friday that the memorandum allegedly goes through the intelligence behind the agencies’ conclusions. These include reports of meetings between Russian military intelligence and criminal network leaders with links to the Taliban, a GRU account that transferred money to the network, and captured lower-level members, confirming Russia’s use of allegiance to incite such killings.

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Two officials who worked out the minutes in more detail, however, told the Times that the document highlighted a lack of evidence of what GRU officials and leaders said exactly at the meetings – and thus could not be sure that Russia had explicitly extended the thunder. for the death of American soldiers.

She also stressed that the NSA lacks surveillance footage of alleged accounts of captured members or clear evidence that the transferred money should have paid creditworthiness, officials told the Times.

The memorandum also states that the Defense Intelligence Agency lacks evidence that would directly link the alleged offers to the Kremlin, officials said.

CNN’s Alex Marquardt, Zachary Cohen, Jim Sciutto, Barbara Starr, Paul LeBlanc, Jamie Gangel, Kevin Liptak and Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.

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