CBS Margaret Brennan interviews CIA Director William Burns about the current status of the conflict in Ukraine. Director Burns outlines his discussions with Ukraine government officials as well as his talks with intelligence counterparts in Russia.
Within the conversation Director Burns outlines the importance of the CIA to continue providing enhanced intelligence operations to support both the conflict and the propaganda that surrounds the World War Reddit effort. Additionally, Burns confirms for the first time that his intelligence analysts now believe China has moved their status from improbable to possible in sending additional weapons to support Russia. WATCH:
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[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: On the cusp of Russia’s invasion, you flew to Kyiv, and you told President Zelenskyy — tell me if this is right — the Russians are coming to kill you.
Was that the very first thing you said?
WILLIAM BURNS (CIA Director): It wasn’t the very first thing I said to President Zelenskyy.
But President Biden had asked me to go to Kyiv to lay out for President Zelenskyy the most recent intelligence we had, which suggested that what Vladimir Putin was planning was what he thought would be a lightning strike from the Belarus border to seize Kyiv in a matter of a few days, and also to seize an airport just northwest of Kyiv called Hostomel, which he wanted to use as a platform to bring in air — airborne troops, as a way, again, of accelerating that lightning conquest of Kyiv.
And I think President Zelenskyy understood what was at stake and what he was up against.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You also have said — and tell me if this is correct — that it was only a group of about three or four people around Vladimir Putin who knew that he was actually planning this invasion.
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: Mm-hmm. No, I think that’s true. Putin had narrowed his circle of advisers, and it was a circle in which he prized loyalty over competence.
It was a group of people who tended to tell him what he wanted to hear. That was one of the deepest flaws I think, in Russian decision-making just before the war is, it was such a close circle of people reinforcing one another’s profoundly mistaken assumptions.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Does he take counsel from anyone these days?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: I think he’s become increasingly convinced that he knows better than anyone else what’s at stake for Russia.
I think his sense of destiny, and his appetite for risk has increased in recent years as well.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You recently went back to Kyiv, and you met with President Zelenskyy. And three months ago, I understand you met with Russia’s top spy chief.
Is there any kind of opening that you are finding here, any kind of opportunity?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: No, I mean, the conversation that I had with Sergey Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s external intelligence service, was pretty dispiriting.
My goal was not to talk about negotiations. That’s something that Ukrainians are going to need to take up with the Russians when they see fit. It was to make clear to Naryshkin and, through him, to President Putin the serious consequences should Russia ever choose to use a nuclear weapon of any kind as well.
And I think Naryshkin understood the seriousness of that issue, and I think President Putin has understood it as well.
MARGARET BRENNAN: There’s not a lot of contact with Russia right now.
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: There’s not a great deal; you’re right.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But you still have that line of communication with your counterpart?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: Yes.
And I — and I think, even in the most deeply adversarial relationships — and that’s certainly what our relationship with Russia is today — it’s important to have those lines open. And the president believes that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: What do you walk away from those conversations with? You said it was dispiriting.
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: Mm-hmm.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Why?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: There was a very defiant attitude on the part of Mr. Naryshkin as well, a sense of cockiness and hubris, reflecting Putin’s own view, his own belief today that he can make time work for him, that he believes he can grind down the Ukrainians, that he can wear down our European allies, that political fatigue will eventually set in.
And, in my experience, Putin’s view of Americans, of us, has been that we have attention deficit disorder, and we’ll move on to some other issue eventually. And so Putin, in many ways, I think, believes today that he cannot win for awhile, but he can’t afford to lose.
MARGARET BRENNAN: He doesn’t seem to have that assessment, though,
I mean, 97 percent of his ground force is in Ukraine.
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: Right.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It’s a meat grinder. Does he just look at his population and say, I have enough young men I can continue to send off to die?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: He’s…
MARGARET BRENNAN: I mean, what is the price that makes him change his mind?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: He’s — Putin is certainly not a sentimentalist about the loss of Russian life or the huge losses that he’s taken in terms of Russian armaments as well during the course of the war.
But there’s a lot of hubris that continues to be attached to Putin and his view of the war right now. And I think what’s going to be critical is to puncture that hubris on Putin’s part and regain momentum on the battlefield.
I don’t think the Russians are serious today. And I think it’s only progress on the battlefield that’s going to shape any improved prospects for negotiations down the road.
MARGARET BRENNAN: At what point does Putin say, I can’t win?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: I think Putin is right now entirely too confident of his ability to wear down Ukraine, to grind away.
And that’s what he’s giving every evidence that he’s determined to do right now. At some point, he’s going to have to face up to increasing costs as well, in coffins coming home to some of the poorest parts of Russia. There’s a cumulative economic damage to Russia as well, huge reputational damage. It has not exactly been a great advertisement for Russian arms sales.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: So this is going to build over time, but, right now, the honest answer, I think Putin is quite determined.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about what appears to be potentially a new line of ammunition and weapons for Russia.
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: Secretary Blinken has said publicly we have begun to see — we have begun to collect intelligence suggesting that China is considering the provision of lethal equipment.
That’s not to suggest that they’ve made a definitive conclusion about this.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Secretary Blinken said that the U.S. had picked up information over the last couple of months. But picking up information over the last couple of months to thinking they’re actively considering it, I mean, how confident are you in the intelligence that this is something Xi Jinping himself may change his mind about?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: Well, we’re confident that the Chinese leadership is considering the provision of lethal equipment.
We also don’t see that a final decision has been made yet, and we don’t see evidence of actual shipments of lethal equipment. And that’s why, I think, Secretary Blinken and the president have thought it important to make very clear what the consequences of that would be as well.
MARGARET BRENNAN: To deter it?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: Yes, to deter it, because it would be a very risky and unwise bet.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, why would Beijing risk a tailspin in its relationship with the United States and with Europe by crossing this line?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: It’s a good question, and that’s why I hope very much that they don’t.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you think that Beijing benefits from having the West distracted and involved in a prolonged conflict in Europe…
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: I mean…
MARGARET BRENNAN: … that that’s the aim?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: It’s conceivable.
But I think there’s no foreign leader who’s watched more carefully Vladimir Putin’s experience in Ukraine, the evolution of the war, than Xi Jinping has.
MARGARET BRENNAN: What are the consequences for the conflict in Ukraine if this does happen? What does more ammunition and more weapons mean? Does this — is it a game-changer?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: We also have evidence that the Iranians are providing lethal equipment and munitions, that the North Koreans are doing the same thing as well.
So, wherever that lethal assistance comes from, it prolongs a vicious war of aggression.
MARGARET BRENNAN: How good is our visibility into Xi Jinping’s thinking and his decision-making process?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: Oh, it’s always the hardest question for any intelligence service as well, you know, in — in an authoritarian system where power is consolidated so much in the hands of one man.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But you had such exquisite intelligence when it came to Russia and Vladimir Putin and his inner circle. Do we have that for Xi Jinping?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: Oh, we work very hard to develop that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Working on it?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: I think we work very hard to develop the very best intelligence we can.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But I wonder if, when you’re talking about his thinking and his decision-making if he suffers from the same kind of yes-man culture that you said Vladimir Putin does, because Xi Jinping got rid of a lot of people in his government.
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: It’s a — Margaret, it’s a concern in any authoritarian system.
And I think what we’ve seen in Beijing is President Xi consolidating power at a very rapid pace over the course of the more than a decade that he’s been in power as well.
And as we’ve seen, where Putin’s hubris has now gotten Russia, and the horrors that he’s brought to the people of Ukraine in that kind of a system, a very closed decision-making system, where nobody challenges the authority of their insights of an authoritarian leader, you can make some huge blunders as well.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You’ve said Xi Jinping told his military to be prepared to invade Taiwan by 2027. The intel community seems a little bit more ambiguous in its conclusions here.
Do you think it’s an outright invasion, or do you think China’s more likely to slowly strangle democracy in Taiwan?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: We need to take very seriously Xi’s ambitions with regard to ultimately controlling Taiwan.
That doesn’t, however, in our view, mean that a military conflict is inevitable. We do know, as has been made public, that President Xi has instructed the PLA, the Chinese military leadership, to be ready by 2027 to invade Taiwan. But that doesn’t mean that he’s decided to invade in 2027 or any other year as well.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: I think our judgment, at least, is that President Xi and his military leadership have doubts today about whether they could accomplish that invasion.
I think, as they’ve looked at Putin’s experience in Ukraine, that’s probably reinforced some of those doubts as well.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you when the intelligence community will have some insight into what Beijing was collecting with that spy balloon over the U.S.?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: It was clearly an intelligence platform.
And I think we’ll be able to develop a pretty clear picture of exactly what its capabilities were.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But it will be a while, won’t it?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: It takes some time, but I think my understanding is that we’re managing to pull up quite a bit of evidence and material from that platform.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you think Xi Jinping knew that balloon was sent here?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: I don’t know.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You have an idea.
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: Well, I think the Chinese leadership obviously understood that they had launched this capability, that it was an intelligence platform.
Whether — when and what the Chinese leadership knew about the trajectory of this balloon, I honestly can’t say.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You’ve said in the past, there’s the beginnings of a full-fledged defense partnership between Russia and Iran. Exactly how far does the alliance go?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: Well, it’s moving at a pretty fast clip in a very dangerous direction right now, in the sense that we know that the Iranians have already provided hundreds of armed drones to the Russians, which they’re using to inflict pain on Ukrainian civilians and Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.
We know that they’ve provided ammunition for artillery and for tanks as well. And what we also see are signs that Russia is proposing to help the Iranians on their missile program and also at least considering the possibility of providing fighter aircraft to Iran as well.
So it’s a quite disturbing set of developments.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Have Iran’s leaders made the decision to pursue a nuclear weapon?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: To the best of our knowledge, we don’t believe that the supreme leader in Iran has yet made a decision to resume the weaponization program that we judge that they suspended or stopped at the end of 2003.
But the other two legs of the stool, meaning enrichment programs, they’ve obviously advanced very far, you know, over the course of the last couple years.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Eighty-four percent purity, reportedly.
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: They’ve advanced very far, to the point where it would only be a matter of weeks before they could enrich to 90 percent, if they chose to cross that line.
And also, in terms of their missile systems, their ability to deliver a nuclear weapon once they developed it, has also been advancing as well. So, the answer to your question is, no, we don’t see evidence that they have made a decision to resume that weaponization program, but the other dimensions of this challenge, I think, are growing at a worrisome pace too.
One of the lessons that should be learned from the war in Ukraine on the anniversary of the start of Russia’s Special Military Operation is that the United States has the most expensive military in the world but is unprepared to fight a first-world power. During the last year, we have learned that javelins, stingers, and HIMARS are not game-changers for Ukraine. The war in Ukraine has exposed the weakness of the U.S. and European military-industrial bases. NATO has lost its ability to produce essential ammunition required to sustain Ukraine’s needs in the battle and lacks stockpiles of tanks and armored vehicles that Ukraine begs for daily. The U.S. is no longer the industrial behemoth that churned out tanks, planes, aircraft carriers, destroyers, and bombs in the Second World War.
-Larry Johnson-
Its the logical result of outsourcing the heart of our industrial base, to increase profits.
Globalists were bleating far and wide that, an “interconnected world” will foster mutual dependencies, that will make world wars less likely.
What a load of HS.
And when it is taken into consideration that NATO (US) has been training, equipping and preparing Ukraine for this proxy war for 8 years the reality sinks in.
Merkle, Hollande and others let the cat out of bag on that bit of information….
4gypsybreeze: Good point.
And even with those 8 years, they have no idea what they are doing.
It is not to win, but to fleece all the citizenry that they can while dragging out the fake/proxy war on social media.
George Soros.
Yes, weren’t we fed this baloney when Nixon first went to Chyna?
That is because “Globalism” isn’t, it’s global socialism or more apt Corporate Fascism.
They stole our money to buy up the worlds controlling interests in all the world’s materials and produce to control the production.
That is not globalism, which we had with sailing ships and real sovereign countries trading around the world.
Take back the language and the meaning of words that socialists use to obfuscate and hide behind while attacking “normies” for non-compliance to that failed system and ideology.
They are not “Globalists”, they are elitist. It is not a global economy, it’s a monopoly of corporate fascism.
“The U.S. is no longer the industrial behemoth that churned out tanks, planes, aircraft carriers, destroyers, and bombs in the Second World War.”
Two decades ago Washington think tanks were theorising that if nuclear primacy could be achieved then the US would be in a position to mount a nuclear first strike on its nuclear antagonists such that that the capacity for a counter-strike would be effectively eliminated. The US would not need the tanks, planes, aircraft carriers, destroyers and bombs to match the offensive capabilities of its foes.
It would need the will and authority to launch a first strike. It would need a compliant population and a centralised one-party state. It would need effective control of the news and social media.
An outline of the theorising appeared in Foreign Affairs magazine in March 2006 titled “The rise of U.S. nuclear primacy” by Keir A Lieberman and Daryl G Press. The article is in a paywall archive at FA but can be found on other websites.
They are up to something, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t put anything past the folks behind the Russian Collusion, BLM destruction and COVID sabotage of our Nation. They don’t care about our society and must be extremely evil to do all of this.
One thing for certain, we don’t have the industry for a long war. I have had a seatbelt on order for over a year for a Jeep. I can’t get it, because it’s likely made in China. Every day it beeps endlessly as if I’m not wearing it, that beep is my daily reminder of how broken our industry is.
How pathetic that our once great nation has come to rely on another (enemy) country for ANYTHING!
Only the geniuses in those think tanks don’t understand that ALL wars are won with boots on the ground.
Their “nuclear arsenal” is merely another wunderwaffen.
Actual war is much more brutal and ugly than that. You’re going to be dragged into a thoroughly conventional slugging match which consumes every sort of resource in gigantic quantities. You’d better be able to replace them in real time.
The uS being unable to churn out weapons of war as in the days of WWII is a canard. Thankfully, America is not on a war footing. Otherwise, I have no doubt the ability to ‘churn out’ weapons of war would prove to be no problem.
Only God knows why anyone would think this is a bad thing??
Answer two questions. How many steel plants, foundries and coking ore mines do we have as compared to what China or Russia have?. Secondly, how many machinists do we have compared to China and/or Russia?
The fact is, we have been told for decades we are a service economy, not a manufacturing or mining economy. We have outsourced our industry. During Covid we couldn’t even make PPE for the medical industry. Two years ago we stopped drilling for new oil and nat gas.
We are in sad shape, and no nuclear weapons strategy will make it better.
I don’t know the answer(s) to your questions.
My point is I just can’t figure out or comprehend such eagerness to build and provide weapons of war and killing to export around the world.
I’m not hoping for world war and I’m certainly not dismayed at our inability to spread it. I personally reject the idea of such behavior outside of defending the homeland.
Involving ourselves in, “Unnecessary entanglements in foreign affairs,” is hardly something we should be eager to plan for or remiss we can’t or don’t.
As I said, “Only God knows why anyone thinks the inability for mass production of weapons of destruction is a bad thing.(?)”
Agree with all that but it would be great if we were able to maintain a powerful military presence for a clearly defined deterrent if nothing else.
We shouldn’t be equipping the world with weapons and engendering the massive death and corruption that entails.
But we should be able to give our enemies pause in attacking us.
At this point are enemies have no respect or fear of us.
Peace through strength works but our strength has fizzled away.
Our strength may have fizzled somewhat. However, I find that to be a result of being the worlds police and meals on wheels. Defending the homeland should be our only military purpose.
Exporting soldiers, equipment and technology is a fool’s errand and a sure path to our death and destruction. Throw in a misguided policy of sodomites and transvestites in uniforms doesn’t do much to instill fear. Nor does the government approval of disarming the citizens and the opposition to allowing the formation of local ordered and well armed militias and minutemen.
When Trump deploys the entire US ground force to the Mexican border that will slow down international hegemony.
In WWII the women escaped the kitchen and laundry rooms to work
in military manufacturing plants.
Don’t count us out as a solution!
Don’t worry. This government will not hesitate to throw women into the meat grinder. They’ll be happy to have our daughters and their daughters dying in quantities, equal to their husbands and their sons.
Cannon fodder comes in all shapes, sizes and genders.
There was an article today about why CA has gas prices 500% higher than any state in the nation. The state has only 3 pipelines in, we aren’t producing our own resources because of the green nazis, one of these pipelines had an explosion in 2021 and wasn’t repaired until this February.
If we lack the will and capability to fix a f’ing pipe we can’t build virtually anything today in a timely fashion. Our capabilities have atrophied and are pathetic.
For decades the US-Globo elites have been warned (by Buchanan, Perot, DJT, etc) that if they go down the deindustrialization road they will lose their power to influence global events. The chickens have now come home to roost.
Someone needs to tell Blinken, Biden, Sullivan, Nuland & Burns to “learn to code“, the exact same message they have been telling American workers these past three decades.
Currently, Russia is fielding artillery shells at a rate of 9 to 1 against Ukraine. The US literally cannot keep up. With drones changing the nature of warfare by driving men into redoubts for protection, attrition has become the name of the game. Tens of thousands of drones have made their way through Poland to the front, and this has kept Ukraine afloat. Some of these drones are capable of taking out tanks, making the whole charade recently about tanks moot as Russia has been forced to match Ukraine in these drones. Tanks are fast becoming obsolete. If China should start supplying drones to Russia, there is no way the US could match it. This has the CIA crapping in their pants.
That great sucking sound that you heard after the passage of NAFTA was real. Those rusted factories that you see all over Cincinnati are real. The US does not have the capacity to produce enough weapons to win in Ukraine, and NATO has been emptying its weapons stores. France has a 3 day supply of artillery shells in case of war. Britain has less.
Russia is about to encircle Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut, repeating Stalingrad on a smaller scale. They are grinding Ukraine down with overwhelming artillery fire. They could do the same to NATO and this explains the talk of nuclear war.
Frankly, I don’t care a whit about what Ukraine wants, needs or expects. Especially funding pensions for them. My pension isn’t funded by my government I sure as hell don’t approve they fund Ukraines. Furthermore, I certainly don’t desire or fret about any inability to involve our nation into more foreign entanglements and proxy war mongering.
Perhaps, there are many Americans who see no problem with ‘funding’ other nations with borrowed money? Increasing inflation, directly affecting the poor, the widows and orphans of our country? Enslaving our future generations with insurmountable usurious debts, higher taxes and a crashing economy? Fretting over our inability to mass produce and export war? Serving only to ensure an expansion of war resulting in conscription (man-stealing) of our sons and daughters to be maimed and killed for a cause which is neither moral or righteous.
I don’t believe this to be anything but wicked and evil.
Gen Sensibility: I am glad the US lacks the current capacity to ship more munitions to Ukraine, because, if we did have more capacity, we would ship more munitions to Ukraine.
And don’t forget: NATO and the US have been fighting a hot War on Terror for 20 years, draining men and supplies while China and Russia watchd and LEARNED not only from our mistakes, but also about our vulnerabilities in theaters of operation (Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria). They’ve done the same with our Intel agencies: watched and LEARNED.
Forcing wokeness and the jab on our military has just about finished us off in the eyes of the Chinese and Russians–at least enough to strike while their enemy is at its weakest point and getting weaker by the day.
A note to Parker. Got to have factories that can convert to making war materials. Gen your second paragraph points out our problem in our country. We don’t any factories any more.
Just what we and the western world needs. Big, really BIG, factories that produce huge quantities of mass killing capability.
Do you people really hear what you are wishing for and lamenting our inability to actually achieve?
I’m not sorry, but you’re really twisted. George Washington would not approve. Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, FDR and every other war mongering savage would applaud.
China has factories. Why can’t they build our weapons?
I wonder about that ability. We have outsourced so much. We rely on others for resources, and for manufacturing. We have lost much of the know how that was available at that time. Our military has developed very high tech weapons, difficult and time consuming both to manufacture and to train on.
We built up a vast MIC, but the I part has collapsed as many were forced to merge or die off.
And, even if we secure the resources, redevelop the know-how, and rebuild the Industry, is that even compatible with our high tech way of war?
Speaking of high tech, where would we be without the far-east? Chip shortages means weapons are useless.
And you have seen how screwed up we became with difficulties in transport. Once shipping gets targeted in a war, who is going to risk containerships and their massive loads? How can we protect them?
Finally, those things were achieved by great men. Trump is proof such men still exist. But we seem to have replaced them with simpering dreck. Who will accomplish all this? Jack from Jack’s Magic Coffee?
Personally, I’d prefer the government arm and train the citizens to defend the homeland. Rather the government is plotting to disarm us. Yet, they and many Americans are demanding we arm foreign nations and are remiss about our failing ability to mass produce and export huge quantities of such weapons all over the globe.
Frankly, I believe this ideology is twisted, misguided and evil.
As I spoke earlier, more borrowing, to ‘fund,’ this war mongering is sinful and only results in death, destruction, pain and suffering. It’s simply wrong.
I want a citizen expeditionary force that we could deploy to Canada and Australia. Two evil countries that would make great territories.
Crimea taken by Russia under Obama. Russia lays quiet during Trump years.
Under Biden, Russia attacks Ukraine again for even more territory.
Some might see a pattern here.
As much concern we have for Ukraine citizens and their borders, this is about weakening US dollar reserve system. Russia is leading the charge and needs to be punished.
Unfortunately for US citizens, Biden is bungling /accelerating the demise of the system further with sanctions and removing Russia from SWIFT.
It is noteworthy US made no effort to deescalate this war AND has only expressed an interest in prolonging it?
Ukraine is not part of NATO.
So we are left with many unanswered questions/concerns.
Perhaps it can be answered by an Obama comment to Russian leader under a hot mic,“tell Vlad I can do more after the election”.
This newest conflict is a result of Biden and cronies once again being in office.
The Minsk agreement per Merkle, Hollande and others was only signed to give NATO the time to arm and train Ukraine.
Then NATO began telling Ukraine they could be part of NATO and the push for that began right after Biden was installed. A deliberate provocation.
The genocide of the Russian population in Donbas increased.
When President Trump took office people like Nuland had to put their plans on hold. Once Biden was in office they started their original plan which we are now experiencing.
BRICS was basically dormant during the Trump years. Now it is becoming more powerful due to Sanctions.
Because, by all accounts, we are headed for a war and we no longer have the ability to “churn out” the weapons we need for that war.
We don’t have the ability to churn out anything. From car parts to kitchen stoves to coffee cups to yard tools to hand tools. Clothes . walk through any store and look at the made in label.
We could convert all the UPS and Fedex trucks to troop carriers.
We may not be able to supply the world to wage war but we can certainly defend the homeland. But then, it appears our nation is next to last on the priorities list.
We don’t need to engage in world war. That’s a fascist dream.
We really shouldn’t be concerned with “churning out,” weapons to the world.
Why should we?
I am highly doubtful that we could “churn out” weapons and munitions.
Just to build the facilities would take years.
Example- we currently only produce 250 Patriot missiles per year.
It has been in the works for years to build/increase current facility to increase production.
In 2024 the facility will be completed to increase our production to—400 per year.
It has taken years to build the facility.
The “high tech” to build missiles and equipment has decreased our ability to “churn out” military equipment.
We no longer have the manufacturing capability we once had. Just to build the facilities would take years.
Whereas Russia maintained their weapons manufacturing plants and it required little effort for them to go on war time manufacturing. Their plants are now operating 24/7.
I am not familiar with China capability but my first thought is that the country is already manufacturing based so a conversion would not be very difficult.
I recommend watching YouTube of The New Atlas.
It is one of the best sites regarding arms and munitions.
By the way, the Patriot missiles don’t actually work.
Agree. The mere fact that this guy talks about the need for more effective lies (to whom BTW) points directly to your conclusion.
So we watch as FJB and Milley and Birns and the others grope for a game changing weapon or strategy while China introduces a real game changer. When was the last time stingers made a difference? In Afghanistan in the 80’s? When was the last time tanks were the difference?
Well, there’s always wind, solar and lithium power. That should do the trick
Oh, yuck…Larry Johnson
I think China will negotiate a deal between Russia and Ukraine in order to
usurp the US as the world’s leader. Makes more sense than getting involved
in the war. The future of BRICS is more important to them.
Let’s try and see this without the prism of who is going to kill the most
soldiers and blow up buildings and military equipment.
The US and NATO (the West) have already scoffed at China attempt to even present a road map to end the conflict.
This only increases the negotiations that BRICS will have when recruiting more countries into BRICS.
They are taking the approach that BRICS builds. The West destroys.
Peace and cooperation is always a better approach.
Very clearly, NATO missed ordering another several million 155mm and 152mm shells in 2014….
They are merely wunderwaffen. The same things that Nazi Germany thought would turn the tide of war and give them easy victory. A billion-dollar Patriot missile system burns up just as quickly as anything else does when hit by a precision munition targeting an ammo dump. Or while traveling nearly a thousand miles by train from your border to the war zone, beneath skies that you do not control.
One day’s serious battle might call for the firing of 500 missiles on that one day and then again the next day and the next. You simply don’t have them, and could not produce them for several years.
Desert bedouins discovered that the Abrams tank could be incapacitated by a small and simple bomb designed to blow a huge cloud of sandy dust into the air directly in front of it – where the cloud was sucked into the air intakes of the tank’s turbine engine which is powered by jet fuel. A literal example of “throwing sand into the machinery.” Once disabled, the tank could not be repaired in the field and had to be hauled away.
Russia and China both know that they could land just a few swift, well-placed punches and this so-called “savior of the world” would land hard on the mat and not get up again. The illusions would be shattered in the same instant.
We currently only produce 250 Patriot missiles per Year.
The facilities so that we can produce 400 per year has been going on for years. It will be completed 2024.
Many reports and statements that Ukraine is firing more ammunition in One day that is produced in a Month. And that the training of Ukraine troops now focuses on….using less ammo.
A Patriot missile battery is easily defeated. Just shoot more missiles at the battery than there are defending missiles. A Patriot battery is only about 25% effective, meaning each target has to be engaged by 4 missiles.
In case anyone has not read the white papers China published in the last week — the one about USA hegemony in the world in particular — I recommend it as at least amusing and good read.
Every time the official US spokespersons open their yap they are just proving the exact points made in that document. And these are NOT good points to be proud of.
Oh yea, question how many billions of dollars go into the CIA on a year? Given this, the CIA comes up with some solid intelligence “We THINK that they may be CONSIDERING support, POSSIBLY.” Ya think?
Brought to you by the same people that said Saddam had chemical weapons.
The See Aye A is totally untrustworthy, and decidedly evil. I look forward to the day they are dismantled totally. I love my country, but absolutely LOATHE those ‘in charge’ and hope there will be change for the better in our lifetime[s]. I support Putin, and admire his love of his own country, especially after the US and minions have done their best to destroy them, for their own selfish reasons, mainly, IMO, to take control of Russia’s immense resources. Past time for the US NOT to assume they are the world’s policeman.
He did have chemical weapons but not yellow cake.
noting: “I mean, 97 percent of his ground force is in Ukraine.”
this is FALSE…russia has deployed fewer than 19 percent of active combat ready troops into Ukraine. IN TOTAL from beginning of this 2020 conflict to present.
there are so many false gas lighting.
also noting: why is the media interviewing a CIA operator about his contact with russian cia counter part? isn’t the business of discussing FORMAL foreign policy matters held at PRESIDENTIAL LEVELS and next up at state department?
none of this cia bull shit makes any sense.
this is a propaganda hangout. This was intended to promote inner turmoil within the putin administration, namely that his top cia counter part is discussing “matters” with the US.
I actually doubt the meeting even happened or that if it did, there was no substantive discussion about any matters regarding this war. Meetings like this are “developed” to produce a media spot to cause inner party paranoia and self doubt.
but UNLIKE the blithering joe malarkey regime, the russian federation and putin pulled the gloves off years ago, being forced to do so as nato and the US violated agreements that were made.
This war is not going to end any time soon, and we will all be very very lucky if we don’t have a nuclear escalation.
WHEN (not IF) china gets involved, combined with the completely corrupt joe malarkey regime only has one outcome: escalation and a depression that will spread faster than that damned china bioweapon…
God Bless America
Their original idea, and goal was “regime change” in Russia, caused by the Russian people being so hurt by the economic sanctions, and being booted out of the Swift system, that THEY would eliminate Putin.
Instead, as a direct result of the U.S.’s actions, the petrodollar will soon be no more, and after that, the $ as the Worlds reserve currency will also go away.
And with that, the Feds ability to ‘print’ money in unlimited amounts, and therefore Congresses ability to SPEND and Skim, will be GONE.
Which may well lead to a long overdue “regime change” right here in the USA.
Talk about “flipping the script”!
it’s really difficult for me to speculate the consequences of this war and the continued refusal for the US and EU nations states/nato, including UK to broker a peaceful negotiation and settlement.
it’s inexplicable. And so, my worst fears are ever present: nuclear war.
when china gets involved…this is what will happen. and probably from a CIA false flag operation.
it’s not like it hasn’t happened before.
the world monetary system notwithstanding.
I fear our Government doing a false flag also.
That – and Mission Creep.
Transnistria is still up in the air but since Russian Intelligence called Ukraine and Moldova out on their awareness of Moldova and Ukraine plans– publicly and internationally
it seems to be cooling down.
You can’t out Commie a former Commie because they already Know the reality of that failed Socialist system.
Sadly, the average consumer of the Propaganda Parrot Media is not willing to go outside their intellectual comfort zone and question the load of BS the CIA is pushing about Russia, Putin or the “war”.
If Putin decided to finish this war immediately, there would be nothing the NATO nations could do short of nuclear warfare. They have bled their reserves to the point that they probably won’t be able to ramp up production fast enough to replace them. When the US is drawing down from South Korea and elsewhere, you have problems.
Sadly the nutcases in NATO are too willing to push the rest of the world into the abyss rather than back down and let Russia be. May God have mercy on us all.
I believe the people in charge of the USA government WANT a nuclear war to promote their goals of depopulation and one world government for the NWO.
The CIA has an official policy to gaslight the US media. Obama passed a law making it legal.
After doing such a great job with the JCPOA (which still may be causing the IRGC to be disinterested in nuclear weapons), he is working hard to ensure similar outcomes with Russia and China. How comforting.
This psychotic nutjob running our CIA makes me ashamed to be an American. He speaks about Putin using virtually the IDENTICAL myths fabricated about President Trump … such as “surrounding himself with a very small group of yes-men who never challenge him. And that he is an insane, Rasputin-like character wandering empty rooms at night RAGING and talking to himself. What a load of refuse. Does this FOOL actually BELIEVE these tired old canards are believed by anyone other than a psychotic Mother Jones subscriber?
What an utter FOOL and disgusting propagandist … and not a very good one at that
the cia has unchallenged power to do and act as it sees fit. with a complete fool in the white house surrounded by utter morons, what could possibly go wrong?
does joe malarkey get his daily sitreps at all?
or do they just let him watch them on the tele, like the rest of us experience just now?
does he even care, and more pointedly, are those who are really in control of the POWER of the presidency, the executive command in chief powers, do they even have the experience or the aptitude for understanding war/conflict operations?
I shudder to even imagine what is actually happening in the white house.
I shudder to consider that it is far more likely that the entire war strategies are being conducted BY the DOD/CIA and the white house just signs off on it.
God Bless America
World War Redditt has made very clear they are simply trying to convince the nitwit masses.
No idea why that would be the target audience.
Burns is just doing what the rest of the POTATUS admin is doing.
I fee your pain Kenji.
I too, at times ,have said that scum like Burns make me ashamed to be an American.
I know you are venting ,we all are venting.
We need to vent for our sanity.
After reflecting ,when I said the same thing ,I clarified my thoughts .
BURNS MAKES ME ASHAMED THAT HE IS AN AMERICAN.
THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ANY DEEP STATE SWAMP OPERATIVE CAN SAY THAT COULD MAKE ME ASHAMED TO BE AN AMERICAN.
NOTHING !!!, PERIOD.
At times when discussing affairs with the useful idiots ,in an attempt to enlighten them ,
they would say “you shouldn’t say things like that”.
Especially when they get that stupid look of confusion ,brought on by facts,on their faces.
When they do I could care less what they think.
At that moment the conversation would be over.
Their not listening at that point so what is the point of it.
This right here.
The USA is the GREATEST country in the world due to the fact of it’s Constitution, the ONLY legal law of the land that EVERYONE must abide. Any politicians or government agent that does not abide the USA Constitution has, is, and will be committing treason.
The USA Constitution is the contract/Compact that created the federal government. The federal government does not have any power or authority to change the USA Constitution, ever, period. That requires and Article V Convention of States, which is why I am against such measures as all we need to do is restore the USA Constitution and remove all the corruption.
If the feds can change the Constitution at will, all contracts are worthless, and there is no legality in the government.
The general misconception is that any statute passed by legislators bearing the appearance of law constitutes the law of the land. The U. S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and any statute, to be valid, must be in agreement. It is impossible for any law which violates the Constitution to be valid.
“All laws which are repugnant to the Constitution are null and void.” Marbury vs Madison, 5 US (2 Cranch), 137, 174, 176, (1803)
It’s well known that China essentially shut the CIA covert operations down in China. The CIA likely has no clue.
You mean when Hillary gave them the names of 20 or so CIA “operatives” in China?
and THERE IT IS:
“MARGARET BRENNAN: I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you when the intelligence community will have some insight into what Beijing was collecting with that spy balloon over the U.S.?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: It was clearly an intelligence platform.
And I think we’ll be able to develop a pretty clear picture of exactly what its capabilities were.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But it will be a while, won’t it?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: It takes some time, but I think my understanding is that we’re managing to pull up quite a bit of evidence and material from that platform.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you think Xi Jinping knew that balloon was sent here?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: I don’t know.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You have an idea.
DIRECTOR WILLIAM BURNS: Well, I think the Chinese leadership obviously understood that they had launched this capability, that it was an intelligence platform.
Whether — when and what the Chinese leadership knew about the trajectory of this balloon, I honestly can’t say.”
see how this works?
first: surveillance balloons.
second: no, amateur weather balloons
third: no, chinese weather balloons that got blown off course
now we are back at: chinese militarized surveillance collection platforms.
and why now? why the complete reversal?
because between the period of these balloons and the recent chinese advertisement that they WILL give russia weapons of war.
so the narrative NOW has to be: intel collecting platforms.
EVEN IF IT MEANS THAT WHAT WE ALL SAW WITH OUR OWN EYES: that the US militar inexplicably allowed these damned things to fly over some of the most sensitive national security assets this nations posseses.
this is NOT WINNING.
the CIA needs to get their shit straight because this is how you lose a war by marching right directly into one that you have only about a 50/50 chance of winning. I personally don’t care for those odds.
God Bless America
50%? More like zero percent.
“Additionally, Burns confirms for the first time that his intelligence analysts now believe China has moved their status from improbable to possible in sending additional weapons to support Russia.”
Just a thought, is this China resupplying Russia with weapons because Russia is running out?
Or are they like the US in that they are supplying weapons to a battlefield to see real-world testing?
How about China supplying intel, on how to thwart American weopons systems, which they got by examining all the weoponry left behind in Afganistan?
I don’t think Russia is having nearly the armements supply problems the Ukes are.
agreed..what russia has fielded thus far, is just a tip of what it is capable of applying…
whereas UKR is totally dependent on suppliers for its war effort.
also noting: those leopards and abrams (and other sophisticated weapons “promised”)? at best will not be shipped until early 2024…and in small numbers that will make no differences.
russia wins this war, because it has the will to win it and the capability to supply the effort, even without china’s assistance. But china WILL get involved in supplying because the opportunity is RIPE to push the joe malarkey regime nose face down in the manure it has created. (and also allows china to operationally test it’s own weapons that have never seen combat action, so there is some military refinement agendas…we shall see some rather sophisticated drones, some not publicly known, and weaponized very soon…courtesy of the US, that failed to stop the transfer and theft of many critical technologies…it may seem trivial, but those afghan milgear left and not destroyed? it’s the night vision equipment…it’s really so much more than just night vision…drives me nuts thinking how incredibly dense that action was to not destroy that equipment. And guess WHO walked over to russia in the weeks ahead of withdrawal and advertised the action? yes, this same BURNS jackwagon..meeting AGAIN with his fsb counter part.
God Bless America
God Bless America
Russia is dismantling the equipment. They actually got a “trophy” tank supplied by France.
They tore it apart gave ratings and said thanks for the prototype, we can now make one and make it even better.
They ended it with–send your better equipment.
That is why the Abrams we are supposedly sending is being retrofitted-so that Russia cannot get the technology.
Russia was the first in space, they have personnel on our space station, they have their own satellites.
They may work and share technology with China but I do not believe that they are in any way reliant on China for technology. They can build/develop their own.
We are actually running around the world begging for other countries to send ammo to Ukraine.
I first saw interviews with southern Command Laura Richardson saying that 6 South American countries have Soviet arms and ammo that the US was going to ask them to “donate ” to Ukraine. Then I saw reports where they all said…..Nope.
US is saying we aren’t sending our good stuff because we don’t want Russia to get hold of the technology…..
it would be incredibly stupid to field sophisticated weapons to UKR given that it does not have control over this war. It would be stupid also for other reasons, the most simple is that UKR troops would not be properly trained and experienced in using them. When we supplied aghans with manpads back in the days when we were conducting ANOTHER CIA OP to defeat russia (another energy war to prevent russia from installing a gas line thru afgh btw!), it took about 4 weeks to train. it made sense to give these weapons because most of the technology that is important is actually within the warhead and not the launcher. It would not be expected under any circumstance that russia could glean any serious breakthroughs anyway…they had already achieved a level of competency with similar manpads beyond the simple and common rpg. So there was a intelligent choice to provide the stingers. What would not be expected is that for instance the US has supplied the agfhans with something like jamming equipment or jdam technology…or how forward fire directors operate in a network.
having said that, at this point, i can not be led to any certainty that THIS ADMINISTRATION is being careful about most of anything.
It would not surprise me ONE BIT if the damned cia is down there dealing with the cartels and trading cocaine money for weapons that UKR troops are already familiar with…it’s been done before…iran-contra.
When you see the pattern, it’s unmistakable in its scope and breadth…the corrupt secret police state does just about everything wrong. That’s the consequence of small group interests served. It operates in a silo of stupid.
God Bless America
Agree 💯.
I like the term Silo of Stupid. Good description.
Or they are working for regime change/Color Revolutions in the countries that are not cooperating.
Recently I read a brief bio of Nikita Khrushchev, a rough but interesting man who actually did quite a bit of good for his people. When he took over from Stalin, one of his challenges was reining in the secret police, who had way too much power. He had Beria executed and then broke the secret police into several sections and made them subordinate to the party.
Surprising, but we are at a place in the US where American leaders may have something to learn from challenges faced by leaders of the USSR.
the mistake of the former KGB is that is operated independently and often at odds with the agenda of the wealth class oligarths…what krush did was crush that agency into bits and then reformed it to the interests of the wealth class so that it would never again be a threat.
if there are comparison to be made, clearly it is that the CIA/DOD has become entirely too cozy with corporate wealth class, whose business models and streams of wealth are nearly always counter productive to the US national security interests.
exhibits: the DOD and CIA are the largest customers of google, aws/amazon, and microsoft…three of the largest tech companies in the world, who have direct business contracts with CHINA< RUSSIA< AND IRAN…and no one wants to talk about it.
God Bless America
Mark Steyn often says the period of Anglo-American world dominance (300+ years?) will be seen, by future historians, as all of one. And a great chunk of the world, including American leftists and elitists, have never been happy about it.
Liberal democracy remains the irresolvable problem to elitists. Giving the common man a voice in government is silly and illogical to our self-proclaimed betters, and free speech is obscene (we appear to be losing the latter fight).
America’s not so latent enemies see the opening in Ukraine to end the painfully long (to them) time of American hegemony. Indeed, our rump Marxists, like AOC or Crazy Bernie, still delude themselves that socialism will succeed after America goes.
Powerful forces installed the imbecile Biden with some definite goal in mind. Did China foresee the end of American world-dominance being facilitated by their employee slow Joe?
After the humiliation of Afghanistan, what reasonable American leader could possibly think war with Russia and China combined could possibly end well? Defeat is their only possible intent.
Where is all of the concern for “exposing sources and methods” that is the excuse they use so often, to justify abusing the “sorry, thats CLASSIFIED” excuse?
Seems Burns is doing “dis-info”, to try to get Putin to distrust his closest advisors, and Putin is far too smart to fall for it.
And, all the talk of the weakness of an autharitorion system being a leader surrounded by “yes men”, and so making blunders, would be comical if it weren’t so serious, as he is accurately describing the American government, where ANYBODY who questions the Ukraine war is destroyed.
Simple questions like;
WHY are we there?
WHAT is our National interest?
What is our exit strategy?
What does winning look like, and is it possible?
Is this REALLY so important that we are willinh to risk nuclear war over it?
Is Zalenski REALLY a regime we should be supporting?
WHERE IS all the $ going?
Will get you banished and demonised, as a “Putin lover”, but its PUTIN thats surrounded by yes men, and so making tactical and strategic blunders?
Sick, just sick.
Dutchman…
The moniker “Putin lover ” is just a way for the low info folks to try and shut down conversation.
It reminds me of anti-vaxxer moniker they use.
Asking questions that they have no answers for…they resort to name calling.
Which us why you never let them do it.
Two things, very simple;
1) We most definitely need intelligence these painful days.
2) Not the CIA.
After what we’ve witnessed the the last several years there doesn’t appear to any intelligence in any of our three letter agencies.
Oh my goodness!
The propaganda and lies they both spewed during this interview…is off the charts!
The rebuttals should be interesting…..
97% of Russian troops are on the ground? They can’t even keep their lies straight ! Last week they were saying that Russia had amassed troops at the Ukraine border — and to prepare for something big to happen on day of anniversary!
Didn’t happen. And if all the Russian troops are fighting in Ukraine….what troops were amassing at the border?
That’s only one thing about this “interview ” that shows it is pure propaganda.
You gotta kinda wonder how much the CIA Director actually is made aware of what the CIA is up to.
CIA admits they don’t know what either the Chinese or Russians are thinking or they so rapt with Ukraine they don’t want to know. The fog of war. You can here the money being printed.
Chilling. Headline should read, “CIA pokes Russian Bear in the eye.”
“It was to make clear to Naryshkin and, through him, to President Putin the serious consequences should Russia ever choose to use a nuclear weapon of any kind as well.”
Pathetic Propaganda Projection > Ukraine was massing troops to massacre Donbass and Kiev was faint to pull ziolensky away from front. The CIA has been greatest terrorist on planet in a nation captured UNIPARTY dictatorship
I’m beginning to wonder if Ukraine isn’t just another Epstein Island on a larger scale, with blackmail films of our distinguished elite politicians, military and media (and their spouses, children, staff, et al) behaving heinously as they are wont to do.
Especially considering the slimy sleazy sicko character they selected to run the Ukraine.
Ukraine was the world leader in human trafficking for the sex industry. No joke.
The intelligence community claimed Hunter’s laptop was Russian disinformation. This CIA blowhard is undeniably an expert on disinformation. After the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal I have zero faith in our military and intelligence community capabilities. Milley, Austin, Blinken and JoeBama should all be impeached for that failure. Why didn’t dingbat Brennan ask about our porous open borders and the likelihood that foreign spies and terrorists are part of the invasion.
This is truly an obvious attempt by presstitutes and a branch of the warmongers in our government.
It truly pains me as a Christian man, a liberty loving Constitionalist, to hear and read of the leaders and the masses clamoring to fund and prolong the deaths and maiming of soldiers and civilians in any country which is neither a threat nor poses a threat to our vital national interests. If Canada or Mexico were being attacked it may be something of different matter but not this.
Funding Ukraine with billions in equipment and borrowed ‘funding’ strictly to expand and insure more death and destruction is neither moral nor righteous. It is evil and wicked. This funding is doubly wicked in that it harms the poor, the widows and the orphans the most. It is inflationary and usurious, while imposing hidden taxes on all working Americans and forces all to pay for killing and destroying the lives of our fellow humans.
Expanding war subjects our sons and daughters to the savagery of war and will undoubtedly result in conscription (man-stealing) and death and destruction to our own nation should it expand to intercontinental use of tactical nuclear weapons or even conventional weaponry.
Regardless of whether one supports Ukraine or ‘Putin’s war,’ nothing about this is good.
OMG Marge is annoying to listen to.
Burns of course has gotten everything wrong. He should become the last Director and the agency be broken into a million pieces and scattered into wind.
I’m fine with that except there is so much evil money that the entire enterprise would go to private companies. With deep fakes and AI no one would be safe.
Is there any actual fighting going on?
Good website for daily updates is askeptic.substack.com.
Brennan is begging for nukes.
“So, wherever that lethal assistance comes from, it prolongs a vicious war of aggression.”
The amount of truth in this statement reveals exactly how calculated the war is. These people are evil.
China just issued position papers on the Ukraine conflict and the West in general. They have made it clear that they consider the West their adversaries. They also stated that they agree with the Russian position on the origin of the war and Russia’s need to fight it.
So even in the event the fevered rotted brains of people like Victoria Nuland were right about NATO defeating Russia in Ukraine, (fat Chance), it is now obvious that China would never allow Russia to lose. China has more industrial power that the U.S. and EU combined.
Agree.
It would be the same for us geographically as Canada or Mexico being under attack.
China knows that if Russia falls they are next.
And if China would fall it would be Russia next.
NATO threatened China over Taiwan. LOL
Ukraine is a failed state. One which we are desperately propping up to prevent it from collapsing.
After reading 1/4 of this transcript I had enough.
Nothing but a bunch of projection coming from this compromised ass-hole.
One lie after another.
If our CIC director actually believed that Russia was plannings to take over Kiev he is as stupid as the character he is trying to paint Putin as.
The fact that he is willing to fabricate such a fantasy tell us how stupid he thinks the majority if Americans are
He is counting on the mass psychosis campaign inflicted on our society with the likes of Margaret Brennan and the media/twitter complex of propagandist.
In just the short part I read of this transcript he ticked off one deception after another to cover up for his failings as a CIA director.
Just think, we had a duplicitous snake like Burns masquerading as a president named George H. Bush in the White House.
Interestingly enough that he was a one time occupant just like Biden will be.
In just long enough to get us into a 20 year meat grinder war based on complete Lies.
One year after withdrawing from that fiasco in disgrace and giving away billions of our best military equipment it seems it is time for a new meat grinder.
One brought to you by the handlers I’d Burns . The military industrial complex in conjunction with the world monetary system.
I have been following the actions of Putin over the last year.
The contrast in the professionalism from the Russians and the USA is stunning.
I am not saying that we should trust the Russians but our team is nothing but one embarrassing bin he of clowns.
I hate the fact that the the USA is enabling the Russians to rightfully laugh at us thanks to our inept representation.
Is there anyone more ignorant and annoying than Margaret B?
FChuck Todd comes to mind. Equally as despicable as Margaret.
Something is coming and it needs more intelligence than the IC have the big smack down will expose all their flaws to the American people to many crisis to cover with lies
Absolutely no signs of human intelligence on Farce the Nation.
Burns says this:
“ So, wherever that lethal assistance comes from, it prolongs a vicious war of aggression.”
The US is equally providing lethal assistance, bu to Ukraine. How hypocritical to point a finger at China and Iran when you are guilty of exactly the same actions.
The hypocrisy is staggering.
DD
Only a stupid people wouldn’t catch it.
They think we’re morons.
If you want to here the truth on Ukraine war you have to listen to Col Douglas MacGreger.
This is George solos propaganda Games again and again using the weaker Globalism joe Biden leadership,
anyway we The people are going Through high inflation hardship Because of socialism world order,
i have hopeless with our Government wherever comes Tomorrow,
The only thing missing from your meme of the porn star and Delusional Joe is CP photo-bombing them in the background with the caption, “I did that.”
CP = Christina Pushaw
A weak enemy with all the intelligence in the world will lose to a stronger enemy.
Must read.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/the-coming-russian-offensive-2023
This dufus is trying to tell us that Ukraine is making “all” their decisions for themselves. BS. I wonder how long he had to practice getting the narrative correct in his head before he would talk to Marge.
And look at all the bypasses they’ve made around speaking about China.
Why do I get the feeling there will be a meeting soon, Biden sitting center drooling oatmeal out of his mouth, and the other so-called cabinet members arguing over who gets to sit where in the “situation room” for the best view of the nuclear strike they’ll make against Russia. Slava Ukrainia, or some such nonsense!
All missile and artillery targeting is being done by the US.
During the Cold War and after the split of the USSR, many thoughtful people in and outside of government wondered about the sustainability of modern intelligence services. James Woolsey even suggested that R&D related reconnaissance imaging technology if declassified might be useful in mammograms. Others wondered about how national intelligence services would remain compatible with the values and aspirations of a nation without a USSR around as the central antagonist focus.
Well, we have our answer. Thanks to W and Obama and others, those services re-focused internally on Americans, became highly politicized and the tools of one party against the adherents of another party, and lied to American’s faces in behalf of their political friends. After a decade of Clapper and Brennan and Morrell and now Burns, all credibility is lost. Why would a CIA director ever go on TV except to lie?
Is it just me, or do all of these deep state dictocrats sound the same. I don’t even mean the rhetoric, that’s a given, none of them have ever had an original thought, outside of how they can use their power against we the people. I’m specifically referring to the actual tone, cadence, dictation and pronunciation of certain words. Turn off the video and listen just the audio. You’ll swear you’re listening to James Comey. The group think is strong with this one!
Margaret Brennan is sexy. Too bad the war fighting class of the red states has abandoned the military. Hope they have a backup plan.
There must be a whole lot of inflation coming if they had to bring out the CIA Director to talk up Russia.
As Rush Limbaugh used to say, “once you learn to read the tea leaves, the rest is easy”
Think of how close, “They’re coming to kill you” is to “We’re coming to kill you [unless you play ball].”
Look! It’s the tiny president of Ukraine – is he standing on some bricks?
I love my country but I hate my government. The criminals are now in charge. GRRRR.
That whole “discussion” cracks me up.
Yep, I’m sure Russia really, really needs assistance from the NorKos and Iran.
That there is “very little” contact with Russia is laughable too. Well guys, if you’d hang around for a meeting or two maybe you could get something going. Not to mention flat out stating that negotiations are a non-starter!!
It’s all about cash low for the MIC. Hang on while I go check my stock in Raytheon and Morton-Thiokol……..
These people have a remarkable ability to talk out of both sides of their mouths. It’s perfectly fine for the USA to bankrupt itself sending money into the world’s greatest money laundry, but totally unacceptable for China to do the same.
As the referenced article points out: “there will be ‘consequences,’ but so what?” The USA has dismantled virtually all of its domestic manufacturing capability and given it all to China in order to “save money.” You cannot snap your fingers and get these things back. China knows that it can simply cancel contracts and order its cargo ships to return home, and the store shelves at Wal-Mart would instantly become empty with no domestic industry available to re-stock them. Much less to produce the materials and weapons of war in the vast quantities required, or to ship them overseas to the places where they would be consumed.
For a master’s class in Full-On Slobbering 101, click over to the comments.
CIA is in over its head. They roll out this guy to calm some nerves on their side.
“We have it all in hand. Full steam ahead!”
Pure evil. Everybody always asks how so many people could support the Nazi government. Well we’re watching it happen here, in real time. Too many people just blindly believe what the government tells them even when you can point to multiple instances where they were caught lying to us. Almost everything they told us about covid was a filthy lie and people are still falling for it.
Simplicus at Substack does an excellent analysis of Russian defense force counts, both currently and historically. Russia has been running about 100k to 120K during the SMO. With allowances for vacation rotations, the Russian forces are well rested and battle tested, as opposed to the Ukie’s 4 hour life spans of wetting themselves in their trenches.
Literally everything Burns said was a lie or wrong.
Also, can you imagine how long it would take for EPA permits to be approved for a new industrial site like a steel mill?
Janet Yellen just went to Kiev to hand the leader of Ukraine in person another 1.25 million.
When you give money away in person does that mean it is your personal money you are giving?
I think you meant more than a measly 1.25 million.