In advance of Russia's Feb. 24th invasion of Ukraine, President Joe Biden ordered certain U.S. intelligence declassified as a result of "skepticism" on the part of U.S. allies, according to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.
CNN reported Haines' comments. And Insider said they came Monday at the RSA cybersecurity conference.
"When we explained to our policymakers and our policymakers went to their interlocutors, they found that there was a fair amount of skepticism about it," Haines said, according to CNN. "As a consequence, the president came back to us and said, 'You need to go out and share as much as you possibly can and ensure that folks see what it is that you're seeing, so that we can engage again and perhaps have more productive conversations about how to plan for essentially the potential of a Russian invasion'."
In the days leading up to the Russian invasion, the Biden administration had been selectively declassifying and releasing intelligence surrounding Russia's intentions in Ukraine, both to media outlets and to other nations, according to CNN.
Infosecurity reported Haines also noted, she has been encouraged in the "degree of sharing that we have done during this whole process. This began in the build-up to the conflict, where there was much initial skepticism about Russia invading Ukraine. We learned a lot in that process and developed mechanisms for sharing."
Insider reported that Jeremy Fleming, the head of the UK's Government Communications Headquarters intelligence agency, had said in March that intelligence agencies were releasing "deeply secret intelligence" in an effort "to get ahead of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's actions."
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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