US intelligence under fire over Ukraine

The nation’s top intelligence office denies
suggestions the United States was caught off guard
by Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine, calling
reports to that effect “highly inaccurate.”
Shawn Turner, a spokesman for Director of National
Intelligence James Clapper, said in a statement
Wednesday that the intelligence community has
“frequently warned of worrisome trends with
respect to Russia’s foreign policy” since Vladimir
Putin returned to the presidency in 2012.
He included examples issued several days before
Russia’s movement last week into the Crimean
peninsula during political upheaval in Ukraine.
Some members of Congress have been vocal in
their questioning of intelligence ahead of the military
steps taken by Putin, and vowed to investigate.
On Tuesday, House Intelligence Committee
Chairman Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican,
ordered a review of the intelligence assessment
leading up to the intervention, Rogers’
spokeswoman Susan Phalen said.
Separately, Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican
and a member of the Permanent Select Committee
on Intelligence, said on CNN’s “Erin Burnett
OutFront” that Russia’s intervention was “not
predicted” but was “among a list of possibilities.”
He said lawmakers would look at whether “more
intelligence could have been gathered” or whether
there was a problem with the analysis.
“Now the CIA is right in that they did give that as a
possibility but they certainly didn’t say it was going
to happen,” he said, noting there would be hearings
on the matter.
“But clearly we were not anticipating this level of
attack, this level of incursion by the Russians and
that is something that as we’re going to have I
believe an ongoing series of crises with the
Russians we have to do better in the future,” he
said.
In the Senate, John McCain pressed Defense
Secretary Chuck Hagel at an Armed Services
Committee hearing on Wednesday on whether
Russia’s Crimea action was a surprise.