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Breakdown Between Biden and US Intel Community Behind Pentagon Leaks

Somebody in the White House or the Pentagon apparently got weary with Team Biden's Ukraine adventurism and instructed the US mainstream press to publish the "Pentagon leaks," argued former CIA analyst Ray McGovern commenting on Sy Hersh's recent op-ed about a breakdown between Biden and the US intelligence community.
Sputnik
Earlier this week, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh shed light on the US intelligence community's growing frustration with the Biden administration whom the American spooks see as completely incompetent and reckless.
According to the veteran journalist, the Ukraine government, headed by President Volodymyr Zelensky, has been using American taxpayer funds to pay for diesel that is keeping the Ukrainian army on the move in its conflict with Russia. What's more, Zelensky takes a considerable share of incoming foreign funds for himself - thus irritating his generals, something that the Biden administration is well aware of.

"Well, [Zelensky's] a sleaze," McGovern told Sputnik. "The very telling part of what Sy writes here is that [CIA Director] Bill Burns (...) was sent to see Zelensky tête-à-tête, one on one. And he says: 'Look, you're taking too much of a cut and the other guys are getting mad, including the generals, you've got to pare down your own cut.' And someone who knows told Sy Hersh that. Another thing Sy talks about is the advisers, Jake Sullivan and Tony Blinken and the others – you know, I call them sophomores – and Sy has promoted them to juniors, calls them juniors now. But he says, you know, they had no experience, no judgment, no moral integrity. They just tell lies, make up stories, diplomatic deniability or something else. But then they just lie through their teeth. Well, you know, there's a breakdown in trust between these guys who have been able to do what they want until now and the intelligence people who see something really bad is coming. And that 'really bad thing' is the Russian offensive that is likely to start late May, early June, as soon as the mud is okay to traverse. And what's going to happen then is going to force decisions on the administration, most unwelcome decisions."

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McGovern also referred to the apparent "Pentagon leak" which he appears to see as part of the intelligence community and Department of Defense's dissent against Team Biden's unprofessional handling of foreign affairs.
The dump particularly shed light on Ukraine war plans and the upcoming spring offensive, as well as on the Biden administration's failures to force its allies into jumping on its proxy war bandwagon to bleed Russia white.

"This notion that they got another year in these documents that were released – not Sy's, but others – they talk about DIA assessing – it's a great word, isn't it, 'assessing' – and they assess that this will drag on into 2024 for sure," McGovern continued. "This is coming to a head, as soon as the Russians can move on the dirt roads, as well as the highways, they're going to go all the way to the upper river. And then it's going to be decision time. And if the American people are completely unprepared for this – and those documents show that our key leaders have been lying through their teeth about all this – that is going to be really hard for Biden to decide, his juniors to decide what to do. This is very very dangerous because they have a lot of capital sunk in this business about doing it for as long as necessary. So it's coming to a head. This is nothing funny at all about this. And the total breakdown, as Sy puts it, between the White House leadership and the intelligence community is really key."

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McGovern has drawn attention to the fact that the latest Pentagon leaks have been largely circulated by the US press, in particular the New York Times and the Washington Post. (The two have long been criticized by alternative media for being too close with the Democratic administrations and the intelligence community).
For comparison's sake, Sy Hersh's bombshell has been nearly completely ignored by the US mainstream media. The supposed Pentagon documents describe a gloomy picture of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' unpreparedness for a spring offensive, including a shortage of ammo and manpower. They also shed light on NATO special operation forces' presence on the ground in Ukraine and involvement in the bloc's ongoing proxy war against Russia, something which is fraught with a risk of a direct clash between major nuclear powers.
"I may have said this before, but I'll emphasize it. The New York Times ran with these leaked documents. So did The Washington Post. They could have simply submerged them. They could have ignored them, but they didn't. Now, the New York Times never does anything without checking with the White House these days. That's a fact. Okay, so somebody in the White House or the Pentagon said: 'Yeah, you lay it all out, let people see. Yeah, let people see that Milley, Sullivan, Blinken, Biden, all these guys, have been lying through their teeth. Let them see that now and maybe more sensible decisions will be made because they're going to have to be made in the next couple of months'," McGovern concluded.
For more sharp analysis, check out the latest episode of Sputnik’s podcast the Critical Hour.
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