DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus US officials warn of stark threat posed by ISIS

today, our intel community pretty much contradicted everything the president has been saying throughout his presidency on a host of issues, this being one of a few topics. I wonder what their views on Venezuela are compared to trump and his advisors?

https://thehill.com/policy/national-secu...roop-withdrawal

Intelligence officials on Tuesday offered stark warnings of the threats posed by the terrorist organization ISIS, a message in contrast with President Trump's declarations that the group has been defeated.

While Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and CIA Director Gina Haspel said the U.S. had made significant gains against ISIS, the report they oversaw argues that any lifting of pressure on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria could allow it to regroup.

“The group will exploit any reduction in [counter-terrorism] pressure to strengthen its clandestine presence and accelerate rebuilding key capabilities, such as media production and external operations,” the report states.


The report also warned that ISIS is still likely to try to attack the United States.

“ISIS very likely will continue to pursue external attacks from Iraq and Syria against regional and Western adversaries, including the United States,” it said.

President Trump last year announced he was removing all U.S. troops from Syria because ISIS had been defeated. The decision led to the resignation of Defense Sec. James Mattis and other officials, as well as criticism from GOP lawmakers.

American forces in Syria have fought with Kurdish troops against ISIS. Many fear that a U.S. withdrawal could leave the Kurds open to attack from Turkey, who label those forces as terrorists.

A suicide bombing in a Syrian town killed four Americans shortly after Trump made his announcement, and ISIS claimed credit for the action. Experts have both pointed to the attack as showing that ISIS remains a persistent threat in the region.

Coats and Haspel painted the picture of an adversary that has been weakened, but notably did not describe ISIS as having been completely defeated.

Coats told the Senate Intelligence Committee that ISIS "still commands thousands of fighters in Iraq and Syria” and “thousands of dispersed supporters around the world, despite significant leadership and territorial losses.”

Haspel said that the U.S. is “going to work very hard to finish that mission," referring to the fight against ISIS.

Coats said the U.S. “should not underestimate the ability of terrorist groups particularly ISIS and affiliated groups,” as well as al-Qaeda tied groups.

“ISIS will continue to be a threat to the United States, and we’re going to have to continue to keep our eyes on that…as the realization that this terrorism threat is going to continue for some time,” Coats said.

The intelligence assessment found that ISIS is “perpetrating attacks in Iraq and Syria to undermine stabilization efforts and retaliate against its enemies” and that the intelligence community believes that ISIS will “seek to exploit Sunni grievances, societal instability, and stretched security forces to regain territory in Iraq and Syria in the long term.”

Intel chief warns Russia will target 2020 elections

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/29/politics/coats-warning-2020-elections/index.html

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said the intelligence community successfully protected the US election infrastructure in the 2018 elections, but warned the 2020 election will be another target for Russia and other foreign countries that are likely to use new tactics to target US elections.

"We assess that foreign actors will view the 2020 US elections as an opportunity to advance their interests. We expect them to refine their capabilities and add new tactics as they learn from each other's experiences and efforts in previous elections," Coats told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.
Coats and other US intelligence chiefs testified Tuesday at the committee's annual worldwide threats hearing, where one of the major themes was the threat posed by Russia and other countries to US elections through direct attacks as well as social media influence operations.
US intelligence chief contradicts Trump on ISIS defeat
US intelligence chief contradicts Trump on ISIS defeat
In his written testimony, Coats said that "unidentified actors as recently as 2018" targeted US election infrastructure, but the US intelligence community does not have any intelligence indicating that election infrastructure was compromised to prevent votes or change vote counts.
Coats also said in the written statement that Russia, would continue with social media efforts "to focus on aggravating social and racial tensions, undermining trust in authorities, and criticizing perceived anti-Russia politicians."
"Moscow may employ additional influence toolkits — such as spreading disinformation, conducting hack-and-leak operations, or manipulating data — in a more targeted fashion to influence US policy, actions, and elections," Coats said.
While Coats and the other US intelligence chiefs have said unanimously that Russia interfered in the 2016 US elections, President Donald Trump has repeatedly downplayed and denied that Russia was behind the election hacking.
Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, asked FBI Director Chris Wray whether US adversaries will continue to try to weaponize disinformation through social media platforms.
Wray responded that Russia did just that during the 2018 election — and other countries are watching with interest.
Roger Stone is expected to plead not guilty in court appearance
Roger Stone is expected to plead not guilty in court appearance
"Not only have the Russians continued to do it in 2018, but we've seen an indication that they're continuing to adapt their model, and that other countries are taking a very interested eye in that approach," Wray said.
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the panel's top Democrat, has been critical of social media companies for being slow to react in 2016 to the threat posed from Russia on their platforms. Asked what progress has been made, Wray said that the FBI is working more cooperatively with social media companies than it was in 2016, nothing that much of the work countering foreign countries on social media has to come from the private companies themselves.
"There were a number of success stories, only some of which we can ever really share, where the social media companies, based on tips we provided, were able to take action much more effectively, much more quickly to block and prevent some of the information warfare that the Russians were engaged in," Wray said. "And I think we're going to need to see more and more of that."
Coats said he was "encouraged with the openness and willingness" the companies have shown to work with the intelligence community, noting that he has personally met with several social media leaders on this issue.

Sadly, our intel community is as hapless as our president.

ISIS exists and thrives because we murder innocent people constantly.

If we don’t address that, everything is just window dressing.

We shouldn’t be in Syria. Period.

I'm not disagreeing with the premise Swish but isn't this a little self-serving?

It's like my exterminator telling me the bugs in my house have been pretty much eliminated... BUT if I reduce my funding to him, they will return... so I need to keep giving him as much money as he asks for... it's for home defense after all, who can say no to that?

isn't that the same argument you and others have used for why Trump has gained so much support?

the correlation is there, because we're talking about the ideology here. we liberals were constantly told that ignoring the "forgotten" people of america, which tended to be those who basked in the "deplorable" label or alt right, is the reason the conservative base moved further right and elected trump. we thought we defeated white supremancy in the civil war, but then it came back with jim crow and segregation. we thought we defeated supremacy in the civil rights movement, but then anti-drug bills and other criminal justice measures replaced the issues we thought we addressed. we thought we were moving to a post-racial society by elected barrack obama, but the alt right rose out of that, and ultimately trump was elected based on white identity politics. Yes, we've reduced the amount of ISIS fighters, but ignoring them is only going to make them keep coming back. the only real way to defeat ISIS is to keep people from getting sucked into the ideology. and unfortunately, just simply picking up and leaving is no longer a viable option.

just like bugs. your exterminator might have ulterior motives that you have to look out for, such as price hikes to services and such, but unfortunately, he is correct in the main idea.

why? because most people still have the exterminator come through at least twice a year, because if they don't, the infestation can and will come back. and they learned that lesson using their own experience, regardless on if the exterminator confirmed their beliefs or sold it a bit more than what it was.

using that same analogy, the common solution thrown around is to move out of the house that keeps getting infested. that sounds all good, until you inevitably have to deal with an infestation into your new residence. whats the solution? to just pick up and leave again?

or to deal with the root issue, that way you're dealing with a couple roaches at a time instead of a mass amount all at once.

thats the ultimate grey area when it comes to balancing military use, the industrial complex itself, and diplomatic efforts vs isolationist and anti-nation building rhetoric.

its the ultimate "have your cake and eat it too" situation. everybody wants to make sure America remains #1, but nobody wants america to do #1 type things that keeps us in that position.

its why the middle east is beyond complicated. everyone agrees we've been in combat roles way too long, but at the same time, we all realize that the wrong influence in the region could have long term devastating results, and quite possibly lead us into further conflicts.

i don't know all the answers, but here's what i do know: declaring something has been defeated when it clearly has not doesn't tend to have great endings, as we've seen throughout history.

ISIS thrives for multiple reasons, one being we do absolutely nothing to stop saudi money from flowing to them, a so-called ally btw.

i think we should have a presence in syria. im not for overthrowing assad anymore because that window closed a while ago, but there needs to be outside of the box ideas to bring long term solutions to the region that can help stabilize the region by doing outside work first and closing in on ISIS dominant areas:

Supporting a free state of Kurdistan

Two state solution to Israel/Palestine conflict

re-entering the Iranian Nuclear Agreement

ending the support of Saudi's proxy war in Yemen

and putting more pressure on Turkey are things we can do to ultimately provide more safety and security to the civilians in the region.

in my opinion, of course.

Trump disputes 'naive' intel chiefs on North Korea, Iran

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-pushes-back...--politics.html

Trump supporters have to understand that it’s comments like this that absolutely has people wondering who this dude works for, and it ain’t the American people.

This is absolutely an idiotic thing to say.