U.S. Intelligence Director Ratcliffe before boarding President Trump‘s Air Force One helicopter on Dec. 12, 2020.
On Jan. 7, U.S. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe submitted his assessment of foreign interference in the 2020 election to Congress. What’s behind the late arrival of this report? U.S. media “Washington Watch” obtained Ratcliffe and the report at the same time submitted a confidential letter and a 14-page report by senior intelligence officer Barry Zulauf, may reveal the secret.
Intelligence Inspector: Intelligence Analysis Should Avoid Politicization
On January 7, Barry Zulauf, a senior intelligence officer and analytical inspector for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), released a 14-page report to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Zulauf revealed that analysts conducting analysis against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) appear reluctant to assess CCP actions as undue influence or interference, and analysts are reluctant to present analysis against the CCP because they disagree with the Trump administration’s policies. In effect, this behavior violates intelligence analysis standards, which should be independent of politics.
In response, Ratcliffe’s letter accommodated Zulauf’s recommendations, including “strengthening direct communication between the Office of the Director of Intelligence and the intelligence agencies and between the upper and lower levels of the agencies; emphasizing the integrity of the analysis; and reaffirming that the analysis must strive for objectivity and avoid politicization of policy and execution.”
The August intelligence assessment showed that both Russia and Ukraine opposed Biden, and that only the Chinese Communist Party wanted Trump out of office.
In his letter, Ratcliffe said, “I have read through all of the most sensitive intelligence the U.S. government has on the Chinese Communist Party, and I do not believe that most of the views expressed by Intelligence Community analysts are a fully accurate reflection of the Chinese Communist government’s influence on the 2020 U.S. federal election.”
“Similar actions by Russia and the CCP, while both would be assessed, would be communicated to decision makers in different ways, and could lead to the misperception that Russia is trying to influence the election but the CCP is not.” He added.
An August intelligence assessment warned that Russia “is taking a series of steps to destroy Biden” and noted that Ukrainian MP Andrii Derkach (Derkach is the MP who exposed the collusion between the Biden family and corrupt Ukrainian forces) was working to undermine Biden. . And Iran is trying to “undermine” Trump and divide the country by 2020. We assess that the Chinese Communist Party prefers that President Trump …… not be re-elected” and that the Communist Party “has been expanding its influence” through November 2020, the report said. The report “recognizes that all of these efforts” could influence the election.
Ratcliffe insists on truthful response to Communist influence
Ratcliffe insisted that “the CCP’s actions were designed to influence the election,” the monitor said.
The analysis concluded that “the Office of the Director of National Intelligence must ensure that different views, even if they are minority views, are expressed. Ultimately, the Director of National Intelligence insisted on putting in material on the CCP, also aware of the objections of the intelligence analysts.”
The Ombudsman revealed that two national intelligence officers wrote a “National Intelligence Alternative Analysis Memorandum” in October “expressing alternative views of potential CCP influence on election activities,” and that Director of National Intelligence Ratcliffe agreed with the concerns expressed in the alternative analysis memo about CCP interference in the election.
Ratcliffe: Chinese Communist Party is the biggest threat
A senior intelligence official told the Washington Examiner, “The analytical inspector believes Ratcliffe is not a political figure, and Ratcliffe was honest enough to say that intelligence on the Chinese Communist Party’s influence on the U.S. election was suppressed for political reasons.”
Ratcliffe said that “most of the points in this intelligence assessment of the CCP’s influence on the election fall short of the mark” and that “other points about the CCP’s election interference efforts were not accepted to the extent they should have been.” The intelligence assessment, which is still classified, “gives the false impression” that national intelligence officials on the Internet “are the only analysts with a minority view of the CCP.
As an example, Ratcliffe said, “A 1962 national intelligence assessment stated that it was unlikely that the Soviet Union would drop missiles on Cuba. John McCone, then director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said the Soviet Union was unlikely to drop missiles on Cuba. John McCone, who strongly disagreed with the analysts, ordered a reconnaissance by U-2 aircraft and found that missiles had in fact been deployed. Based on all available intelligence resources, applying consistent definitions, independent of political considerations or undue pressure, and in the same spirit, I want to make my voice heard and support the minority view that the Chinese Communist Party influenced the 2020 U.S. federal election.”
The intelligence community’s top official, an appointee of President Trump, addressed the debate in the intelligence community in a December interview with Washington Watch, “Some intelligence analysts are from a Cold War-era perspective, used to analyzing Russia, or have experience in counterterrorism over the last 20 years. Now it’s not that they don’t have experience, but the biggest threat we face is the Chinese Communist Party. We need to put more focus on the Chinese Communist Party.”
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