US says intelligence watching if it 'burned sources' on publishing Russia-Ukraine war info

The intelligence officials are still monitoring if its disclosures of previously-classified information about the Russia-Ukraine war have compromised any “sources and methods” which are heavily guarded, said the US director of national intelligence, Avril Haines on Tuesday. According to CNN, during the public remarks at the Meridian International Center, Haines said that the intelligence community is “cautious” and is still determining if it made the right decision. According to her, they will only know if their methods and sources of disclosures ‘burned’ in the long term.

“We are cautious, but continue to look to see whether or not we made the right calculation in doing that, because it's a long term thing to see whether or not you actually burn your sources and methods through disclosures,” Haines said. 

The US director of National Intelligence said that the community “took a little bit of additional risk than I think we might otherwise take” in releasing information related to Russia’s planning of Ukraine’s invasion. But, Haines added that “we all agreed to it and achieved consensus” within the intelligence community. Her remarks on secret information around the Russia-Ukraine war in the second month of conflict, provide a rare window into the closely-guarded deliberations within the US President Joe Biden’s administration. 

US began releasing information in December 2021

It also provides a peek into the approach of the intelligence community before the remarkable intelligence disclosures made by the community especially in the last four months, including the time when the US had been raising warnings over Russia’s military presence near Ukraine’s border before February 24. Since December 2021, the Biden administration has published previously-classified information revealing Russian forces’ moves near Ukraine.

Officials have even told CNN that those releases by the intelligence, were carefully coordinated among the National Security Council, the intelligence community along with other national security agencies. As per the report, it was done to hamper Russia’s planning, blunt the effectiveness of any “false flag” operations and deter the military action. Even though the tactic involving the release of previously-classified information received bipartisan support, some of the former intelligence officials expressed surprise about the level of detail that the Biden administration made public.

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