Intelligence gathered by the CIA exposed Putin’s plans and allowed Washington to warn other countries of impending war, President Biden said.
US President Joe Biden has thanked staff at CIA headquarters for warning the world about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plans to invade Ukraine, hailing the “quiet bravery” of America’s spies.
Marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), President Biden said he has known its work for 52 years, first as a senator on a committee established in 1975 to investigate mind-control experiments and other abuses by the service.
Intelligence gathered by the CIA exposed Putin’s plans and allowed Washington to warn other countries of impending war, President Biden said. “Thanks to the incredible work of intelligence professionals, we were able to warn the world about Vladimir Putin’s plans regarding Ukraine,” he said.
Before the Russian invasion on February 24, while Moscow was massing more than 100,000 troops on the border with Ukraine, Putin repeatedly accused the US and other Western powers of deliberately creating a scenario to drag Russia into a war.
Officially, the Kremlin characterizes the invasion of Ukraine as a “special military operation”.
Biden’s speech was in stark contrast to that of his predecessor, Donald Trump, who in his first speech as president at CIA headquarters criticized the media and his political opponents in front of the “wall of stars,” which the dozens of CIA agents who fell in the line of duty.
President Biden noted that two more stars were added this year. “Your physical health and well-being is of vital importance to me and to your leadership here at the CIA,” Biden said, in a possible reference to Havana Syndrome, which is linked to incidents of health problems that have affected about 200 US diplomats and officials. of US intelligence around the world.
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