FOR THE RECORD
Special to WorldTribune, June 27, 2024[Tenth in a series of excerpts from 'Report on the Biden Laptop' by the Marco Polo Research Group, founded by former Trump White House official Garrett Ziegler.*]
'STATEMENT' FROM BUREAUCRATS & SPOOKS
The statement below should stand as a solemn monument of the harm that the U.S. intelligence agencies and their current and former officials have done to the American republic and her future.
“We are all individuals who devoted significant portions of our lives to national security. Some of us served in senior positions in policy departments and agencies, and some of us served in senior positions in the Intelligence Community. Some of us were political appointees, and some were career officials. Many of us worked for presidents of both political parties.
We are all also individuals who see Russia as one of our nation’s primary adversaries. All of us have an understanding of the wide range of Russian overt and covert activities that undermine US national security, with some of us knowing Russian behavior intimately, as we worked to defend our nation against it for a career. A few of us worked against Russian information operations in the United States in the last several years.
Perhaps most important, each of us believes deeply that American citizens should determine the outcome of elections, not foreign governments. All of us agree with the founding fathers’ concern about the damage that foreign interference in our politics can do to our democracy.
It is for all these reasons that we write to say that the arrival on the US political scene of emails purportedly belonging to Vice President Biden’s son Hunter, much of it related to his time serving on the Board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.
We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails, provided to the New York Post by President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement – just that our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case.
If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this.
There are a number of factors that make us suspicious of Russian involvement.
Such an operation would be consistent with Russian objectives, as outlined publicly and recently by the Intelligence Community, to create political chaos in the United States and to deepen political divisions here but also to undermine the candidacy of former Vice President Biden and thereby help the candidacy of President Trump. For the Russians at this point, with Trump down in the polls, there is incentive for Moscow to pull out the stops to do anything possible to help Trump win and/or to weaken Biden should he win. A “laptop op” fits the bill, as the publication of the emails are clearly designed to discredit Biden.
Such an operation would be consistent with some of the key methods Russia has used in its now multi-year operation to interfere in our democracy – the hacking (via cyber operations) and the dumping of accurate information or the distribution of inaccurate or misinformation. Russia did both of these during the 2016 presidential election – judgments shared by the US Intelligence Community, the investigation into Russian activities by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and the entirety (all Republicans and Democrats) on the current Senate Intelligence Committee.
Such an operation is also consistent with several data points. The Russians, according to media reports and cybersecurity experts, targeted Burisma late last year for cyber collection and gained access to its emails. And Ukrainian politician and businessman Adriy Derkach, identified and sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for being a 10-year Russian agent interfering in the election, passed purported materials on Burisma and Hunter Biden to Giuliani.
Our view that the Russians are involved in the Hunter Biden email issue is consistent with two other significant data points as well. According to the Washington Post, citing four sources, “U.S. intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that Giuliani was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence.”
In addition, media reports say that the FBI has now opened an investigation into Russian involvement in this case. According to USA Today, “...federal authorities are investigating whether the material supplied to the New York Post by Rudy Giuliani...is part of a smoke bomb of disinformation pushed by Russia.”
We do not know whether these press reports are accurate, but they do suggest concern within Executive Branch departments and agencies that mirrors ours. It is high time that Russia stops interfering in our democracy.”
1. Jim Clapper: Former Director of National Intelligence, Former Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, and Former Director of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, and Former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency
2. Mike Hayden: Former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Former Director of the National Security Agency, and Former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence
3. Leon Panetta: Former Director of the CIA and Former Secretary of Defense
4. John Brennan: Former Director of the CIA, Former White House Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor, Former Director of the Terrorism Threat Integration Center, and Former Analyst and Operations Officer of the CIA
5. Thomas Finger: Former Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis, Former Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Research at the Department of State, and the Former Chair of the National Intelligence Council
6. Rick Ledgett: Former Deputy Director of the National Security Agency
7. John McLaughlin: Former Acting Director of the CIA, Former Deputy Director of the CIA, Former Director of Analysis at the CIA, and Former Director of Slavic and Eurasian Analysis at the CIA
8. Michael Morell: Former Acting Director of the CIA, Former Deputy Director of the CIA, and Former Director of Analysis at the CIA
9. Mike Vickers: Former Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Former Operations Officer, at the CIA
10.Doug Wise: Former Deputy Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and Former Senior Operations Officer at the CIA
11.Nick Rasmussen: Former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center
12.Russ Travers: Former Acting Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Former Deputy Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, and Former Analyst of the Soviet Union and Russia at the Defense Intelligence Agency
13.Andy Liepman: Former Deputy Director of the National Counterterrorism Center and Former Senior Intelligence Officer at the CIA
14.John Moseman: Former Chief of Staff at the CIA, Former Director of Congressional Affairs at the CIA, and the Former Minority Staff Director of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
15.Larry Pfeiffer: Former Chief of Staff at the CIA and Former Director of the White House Situation Room
16.Jeremy Bash: Former Chief of Staff at the CIA, Former Chief of Staff at the DOD, and Former Chief Counsel of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
17.Rodney Snyder: Former Chief of Staff at the CIA, Former Director of Intelligence Programs of National Security Council, and Former Chief of Station at the CIA.
18.Glenn Gerstell: Former General Counsel of the National Security Agency
19.David B. Buckley: Former Inspector General of the CIA, Former Democratic Staff Director of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and a Former Counterespionage Case Officer in the United States Air Force
20.Nada Bakos: Former Analyst and Targeting Officer at the CIA
21.Patty Brandmaier: Former Senior Intelligence Officer at the CIA, Former Deputy Associate Director for Military Affairs at the CIA, and Former Deputy Director of Congressional Affairs at the CIA
22.James B. Bruce: Former Senior Intelligence Officer at the CIA and Former Senior Intelligence Officer at the National Intelligence Council and, according to James, he performed “[c]onsiderable work related to Russia”
23.David Cariens: Former Intelligence Analyst at the CIA and, according to David, he has “50+ [y]ears [w]orking in the Intelligence Community”
24.Janice Cariens: Former Operational Support Officer at the CIA
25.Paul Kolbe: Former Senior Operations Officer at the CIA and Former Chief of the Central Eurasia Division at the CIA
26.Peter Corsell: Former Analyst at the CIA
27.Brett Davis: Former Senior Intelligence Officer at the CIA and the Former Deputy Director of the Special Activities Center for Expeditionary Operations at the CIA
28.Roger Zane George: Former National Intelligence Officer
29.Steven L. Hall: Former Senior Intelligence Officer at the CIA and the Former Chief of Russian Operations at the CIA
30.Kent Harrington: Former National Intelligence Officer for East Asia at the CIA, Former Director of Public Affairs at the CIA, Former Chief of Station at the CIA, and a Former Analyst at the CIA
31.Don Hepburn: According to Don, he is a “Former Senior National Security Executive”
32. Timothy D. Kilbourn: Former Dean of the Sherman Kent School of Intelligence Analysis at the Central Intelligence Agency and Former PDB [Presidential Daily Brief] Briefer to President George W. Bush at the CIA
33. Ron Marks: Former Officer at the CIA and, according to Ron, he was “[t]wice former staff of the Republican Majority Leader”
34. Jonna Hiestand Mendez: Technical Operations Officer at the CIA
35.Emile Nakhleh: Former Director of the Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program at the CIA and a Former Senior Intelligence Analyst at the CIA
36.Gerald A. O’Shea: Senior Operations Officer at the CIA and, according to Gerald, he “[s]erved four tours as Chief of Station at the CIA”
37.David Priess: Former Analyst and Manager at the CIA and, according to David, he is a “[f]ormer PDB [Presidential Daily Brief] Briefer at the CIA”
38.Pam Purcilly: Former Deputy Director of Analysis at the CIA, Former Director of the Office of Russian and European Analysis at the CIA and, according to Pam, she is a “[f]ormer PDB [Presidential Daily Brief] Briefer to President George W. Bush at the CIA”
39.Marc Polymeropoulos: Former Senior Operations Officer at the CIA and Former Acting Chief of Operations for Europe and Eurasia at the CIA
40.Chris Savos: Former Senior Intelligence Officer at the CIA
41.Nick Shapiro: Former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to the Director of the CIA
42.John Sipher: Former Senior Operations Officer at the CIA and Former Deputy Chief of Russian Operations at the CIA
43.Stephen Slick: Former Senior Director for Intelligence Programs in the National Security Council and Former Senior Operations Officer at the CIA
44.Cynthia Strand: Former Deputy Assistant Director for Global Issues at the CIA
45.Greg Tarbell: Former Deputy Executive Director at the CIA and Former Analyst of the Soviet Union and Russia at the CIA
46.David Terry: Former Chairman of the National Intelligence Collection Board, Former Chief of the PDB [Presidential Daily Brief] at the CIA, and Former PDB [Presidential Daily Brief] Briefer to Vice President Dick Cheney at the CIA
47.Greg Treverton: Former Chair of the National Intelligence Council
48.John Tullius: Former Senior Intelligence Officer at the CIA
49.David A. Vanell: Former Senior Operations Officer at the CIA
50.Winston Wiley: Former Director of Analysis at the CIA and Former Chief of the Counterterrorism Center at the CIA
51.Kristin Wood: Former Senior Intelligence Officer at the CIA and Former PDB [Presidential Daily Brief] Briefer at the CIA
52.-61: “[N]ine additional former IC officers who cannot be named publicly also support the arguments in this letter.”
AP will not publish this series. You can with FPI.
* The voluminous footnotes for '<a href="https://donate.stripe.com/dR628l65hgDN8lq6ox" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="color: #333399;"><strong>Report on the Biden Laptop</strong></span></a>' are available online and with the purchased edition.
For The Record Part 1: The DOJ 'has utterly failed at its mission' as documented by the Biden laptop
Part 2: What the FBI did with the Biden laptop and other U.S. officials' electronic devices
Part 3: ‘Tip of the FBI spear’ managed the 2020 ‘assessment’ of the Biden laptop
Part 4: Coverup of the 'modern Rosetta Stone' by former spooks and the media oligopoly
Part 5: Part 5: Hunter's state of mind, those Bank of China wire transfers and the all-important timeline
Part 6 — ‘Thick fog of lies’: After Biden laptop report, prosecutors ‘now have no excuse’
Part 7: Real sex crimes documented from Biden laptop; Hunter's webcams
Part 8: Part 8: Participant-observer Hunter Biden reveals dark world of human trafficking
Part 9: Part 9: The core of the Biden crimes and the Suspicious Activity Reports
