CIA's first podcast disses Russia as 'declining' power, warns China is a 'central geopolitical challenge'
Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin has the latest on the week-long drills on 'Your World.'CIA Director William Burns called Russia a"declining" power in the first episode of the intelligence agency's new podcast, while warning that China is a"central geopolitical challenge" for the United States.
Burns pointed to the CIA's formation of the China Mission Center, which was created to counter Beijing and"best position" the agency to address current and future national security challenges posed by China. "We have to deal with declining powers, not just rising ones, like Russia," Burns said."And Putin demonstrates every day that declining powers can be at least as disruptive as rising ones.""We were able to paint a pretty clear picture of Putin’s plans to mount a major new invasion of Ukraine last fall, months before he actually launched that invasion on the 24th of February," Burns explained."That enabled us to help Ukrainians defend themselves.
Burns was referring to intelligence declassified by President Biden earlier this year that revealed Putin’s plans to stage false flag attacks to serve as a pretext for an invasion of Ukraine. "[O]ur job is not to bend intelligence to suit political party or policy preferences or agendas. It is to deliver the best intelligence that we can gather, the best analysis that we can put together, with honesty and integrity," Burns said."Our job is to tell policymakers what they need to hear, not what they want to hear."
As for the CIA's decision to launch the podcast, Burns acknowledged that intelligence agencies are"supposed to collect secrets and keep them and not talk too much about them.""We do usually operate in the shadows, out of sight and out of mind," Burns said."Our successes are often obscured, our failures are often painfully visible, and our sacrifices are often unknown.
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