US spy agencies are significantly expanding operations against Russia

American intelligence agencies are diverting counterterrorist resources to Russian accounts, prompting some commentators to describe the move as the greatest expansion of spy operations against Russia since the Cold War. In a leading article published on Wednesday, The Washington Post’s Greg Miller cites unnamed United States officials in describing “a shift in resources across spy services”. The shift allegedly reflects an increasing emphasis on Russia, with many of the resources coming from accounts focusing on terrorism threats and war zones in the Middle East and Central Asia, which were created in the aftermath of 9/11.

“Early signs of Russian intent”

One of the (many) problems is that America’s intelligence community has been intentionally rendered into an unintelligence community by the Obama administration.

Analysts whose internal reports tell the real story of what’s transpiring in the field are now having their reports heavily redacted, edited, polished up and portrayed as happy news for public consumption. This is why you hear America is “winning” the war against ISIS, even though America’s military leadership says otherwise. This has lead to rifts and even an open revolt within the unintelligence community.

If you diminish the quality of your intelligence community, it leads to failures and blunders such as the one this article points out. All the signs were there, the threats were already known and correctly assessed, but a blind eye was turned at the top of the hierarchy.

 

That’s the front page headline of today’s Washington Post (paper edition). The story is about signs in August that Putin was mobilizing for a military offensive in Syria. Despite these signs, the Obama administration was “caught flat-footed” when the Russian offensive materialized two months later.

In a larger sense, “Russian intent” has long been clear. Putin has said he consider the fall of Soviet power a geopolitical catastrophe. He wants to restore Russian influence to the maximum extent feasible.

US Defense Intelligence Agency director reportedly being forced out

Both the director and deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon announced on Wednesday that they are to leave their jobs by early fall. The move is thought be the result of mounting pressure by top Washington officials.

United States DIA Director Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn announced to Pentagon staff that he is walking away from that role a year earlier than anticipated.

The news came via a joint statement made by Flynn and the agency’s deputy director, David Shedd, who will also be vacating his post.