Spy chief John Ratcliffe signals to Congress he is willing to testify on world threats but with one condition

After a delay earlier this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, the nation’s top spy chief has informed the Senate Intelligence Committee that he is willing to appear before the panel for a worldwide threat hearing in early August that is only partly open to the public. The terms laid out on Tuesday by Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who has overseen the nation’s 17 intelligence agencies since taking over for former Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell in May, will likely rankle Democrats not only because of the format but also because the House Intelligence Committee has yet to receive such an opportunity. In his letter, obtained by the Washington Examiner, Ratcliffe, a former Republican congressman from Texas and a Trump ally, said he wants only opening statements to be aired public and everything else, including questions, moved to a closed setting due to the classified nature of the information. “During my nomination hearing before your Committee in May, I indicated that, if confirmed, I would appear as the Director of National Intelligence at a worldwide threat hearing. I remain committed to doing so,” Ratcliffe said. “I will appear before your Committee for an open and closed hearing session” during the week of Aug. 3, he said, saying that it would coincide with appearances by CIA Director Gina Haspel, FBI Director Christopher Wray, NSA Director General Paul Nakasone, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Director Vice Adm. Robert Sharp. “During the open session, the IC could provide an unclassified Statement for the Record to provide transparency. Each panel member could also provide individual opening remarks on global threats to more fully meet the public interest,” Ratcliffe wrote. “Following any remarks you wish to make and opening remarks form the panel, a closed session with a thorough change of classified questions and answers between the panel and committee members could be conducted to ensure members receive the threat information they need.”

Earlier in the year, before Ratcliffe became spy chief, the intelligence community delayed such briefings not only because of logistics, but officials also told outlets such as Politico of their concerns that their findings could upset President Trump considering how in 2019 they broke with him on several national security matters, including Russia, North Korea, Iran, and the Islamic State. Republicans and Democrats have asked for the world threats briefing. Ratcliffe’s request for a mostly closed session to discuss classified information is not without precedent. Then-DNI James Clapper sent a letter in 2013 to then-Chairman Dianne Feinstein of California and Vice Chairman Saxby Chambliss that said that “given the increasingly complex nature of the threats we face, and the challenges associated with discussing inherently classified matters at the unclassified level, I feel strongly that we should refrain from having open global threat assessment hearings.” “We have learned that we can discuss matters pertaining to national security threats candidly and accurately most effectively only in closed sessions,” Clapper wrote in 2013. “As we have seen in the public discussion of national security events during the past several months, the difference between what we can say at the unclassified level in relation to what we can say at the classified ed level can and often does lead to confusion and misunderstandings about intelligence matters.”

Ratcliffe said he reached his decision to push more a classified closed-door questioning session “after consultation with other Intelligence Community element heads and with consideration for the collective concern about the exchange of information that is inherently classified.” “You have my commitment to deliver timely, accurate, and objective intelligence and to speak truth to power, be that with Congress or within the administration,” Ratcliffe said in his opening statement during the Senate Intelligence Committee’s confirmation hearing in May. “Let me be very clear: Regardless of what anyone wants our intelligence to reflect, the intelligence I will provide, if confirmed, will not be impacted or altered as a result of outside influence.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/spy-chief-ratcliffe-signals-to-congress-he-is-willing-to-testify-on-world-threats-but-with-conditions

https://twitter.com/RichardGrenell/status/1285321282687389697

'Not a Russia-only problem’: Intelligence community disputes media’s 2020 interference reports

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/not-a-russia-only-problem-intelligence-community-disputes-medias-2020-interference-reports

'Extreme dysfunction': New York City dropped $52M on a coronavirus hospital that served fewer than 80 patients

New York City spent $52 million building a hospital in a tennis facility that only ended up serving 79 coronavirus patients as other hospitals in the city were flooded. The temporary hospital established in the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center remained mostly empty for the roughly one month it was open during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report from the New York Times. Documents from the hospital, which opened on April 10, revealed that doctors at the facility were paid as much as $732 per hour but hardly had any patients to treat. Katie Capano, a nurse practitioner from Baltimore who worked in the facility, said she was embarrassed to have done so little while the pandemic raged through the city. "I basically got paid $2,000 a day to sit on my phone and look at Facebook,” Capano said. “We all felt guilty. I felt really ashamed, to be honest.” Bureaucracy and miscommunication have been blamed for the debacle.

Doctors who worked at the facility were saddled with additional paperwork, and the facility was barred from accepting patients who had a fever, which is a standard symptom of COVID-19. The facility also only had two ventilators, preventing the hospital from assisting severely ill patients. Getting patients to the temporary hospital was also difficult. Patients had to be transferred to the center because the city did not allow the temporary hospital to accept 911 patients via ambulance. The temporary hospital also faced red tape in transporting patients between facilities because of exclusive contracts between the ambulance companies and individual hospitals. Some public hospitals were hesitant to turn patients away by referring them to temporary hospitals because of revenue losses. The hospital built at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center was the only facility constructed by the city. The federal government also constructed a temporary hospital at the Javits Center and aboard the U.S.S. Comfort. Both of the federal facilities were also under-used, with most of the patients being referred from private hospitals rather than the overrun public hospitals. In total, roughly 1,400 patients were treated at these temporary hospitals. New York has had more than 400,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Jackie Bray, the staff member who oversaw the facility for Mayor Bill de Blasio, said the city decided patients would be better off in existing hospitals, even if they were overcrowded, as the rate of infections was just begging to level off. “The alternative space was less used than we expected it to be because we broke the curve, thank goodness," Bray said. Dr. Timothy Tan, the director of clinical operations at the Queens Hospital Center emergency department, said the city was wrong to not utilize the temporary hospitals. "The conditions in the emergency room during this crisis were unacceptable and dangerous,” Tan said. “Knowing what our patients had to endure in an overcrowded emergency department, it’s frustrating how few patients were treated at facilities such as Billie Jean King.” Dr. Kim Sue, who worked in the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, blamed "extreme dysfunction" for the hospital's failures. The facility was shut down on May 13.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/extreme-dysfunction-new-york-city-dropped-52m-on-a-coronavirus-hospital-that-served-fewer-than-80-patients

>>10040355

>>10040281

Spy chief John Ratcliffe signals to Congress he is willing to testify on world threats but with one condition

>>10040484

And to sit on facebook all day long…Great Job, where can I sign?

>>10040585

Ahemm…2016

Thinking this: What if the Twitter purge is the very thing that forces the Q question?