Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday inadvertently agreed that the U.S. sharing intelligence with China on Russia was bad, despite Biden administration staffers doing exactly that.
Under questioning from Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Austin said that U.S. intelligence reports are not made public in order to protect sources and methods “so that we don’t lose capability.”
Austin also agreed that giving adversaries access to U.S. intelligence reports “is a poor decision.”
Blackburn then asked Austin why senior Biden administration officials held nearly half a dozen meetings with top Chinese officials to share U.S. intelligence on Russian troop movements, as reported by the New York Times in February.
According to that report, Biden officials shared the intelligence with Chinese officials in order to gain their support against Russia, but the Chinese officials turned around and shared that intelligence with Russia.
Austin said he had no insights into those meetings. “I am unfamiliar with the issue that you raised,” Austin said.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley said he has never advised intelligence sharing with China and that he believed intelligence should never be shared with adversaries “period.”
Blackburn asked Austin and Milley who was responsible for sharing intelligence with China.
Milley said the director of national intelligence would be responsible for the intelligence, but the president would be responsible for the government. He said he did not know under whose authority that intelligence was shared.
Milley also claimed not to be aware of what Blackburn was referring to.
The Times reported on February 25 (emphasis added):
Over three months, senior Biden administration officials held half a dozen urgent meetings with top Chinese officials in which the Americans presented intelligence showing Russia’s troop buildup around Ukraine and beseeched the Chinese to tell Russia not to invade, according to U.S. officials.
Each time, the Chinese officials, including the foreign minister and the ambassador to the United States, rebuffed the Americans, saying they did not think an invasion was in the works. After one diplomatic exchange in December, U.S. officials got intelligence showing Beijing had shared the information with Moscow, telling the Russians that the United States was trying to sow discord — and that China would not try to impede Russian plans and actions, the officials said.
Former Trump administration National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien told a small group of reporters last month that the Biden administration was naive to think China would help the U.S. on Russia.
“There’s nothing wrong with talking to our adversaries, but I think it’s a little naive to think that somehow we’re going to convince the Chinese to go to their allies — the Russians — and say, ‘The Americans know where your troops are, so you shouldn’t invade,”’ O’Brien said.
“I think it maybe was a little naive to expect that we were going to get aid from the Chinese on this issue. I mean — especially when China, at the same time that this is happening, China’s sending fighter jets into the air defense identification zone of Taiwan,” he added. “So, it was a little surprising.”
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