The Pentagon late on Wednesday said an ABC News report that said a military intelligence unit wrote a report on the coronavirus in November is not accurate.
Col (Dr.) R. Shane Day, the director of the National Center for Medical Intelligence at the Defense Intelligence Agency, said in a statement that as a matter of practice, the NCMI does not comment publicly on specific intelligence matters. He said”
However, in the interest of transparency during this current public health crisis, we can confirm that media reporting about the existence/release of a National Center for Medical Intelligence Coronavirus-related product/assessment in November of 2019 is not correct. No such NCMI product exists.
A defense official added on background that the NCMI and the DIA spent considerable time over the last 24 hours examining every possible product that could have been identified as related to this topic and have found no such product.
The exclusive ABC News report, published Wednesday morning, said the NCMI warned the military and the White House about the spread of the virus in China as far back as late November:
As far back as late November, U.S. intelligence officials were warning that a contagion was sweeping through China’s Wuhan region, changing the patterns of life and business and posing a threat to the population, according to four sources briefed on the secret reporting.
Thomas Paine Set America Afire with ‘Common Sense’ 250 Years Ago: Pamphlet Made Case for Revolutionary War
USDA immediately suspends all federal funding to Minnesota amid fraud investigation
California projects $3 billion deficit as outside forecasts show bigger shortfall
‘Jeopardy!’ Host Ken Jennings Wants Trump Administration Jailed, Vows to Vote for Candidate Who Will ‘Prosecute’
Trump administration to investigate refugee status of Minnesota residents
Fox News Politics Newsletter: AOC accuses Vance of believing ‘American people should be assassinated’
Hundreds of opposition members still imprisoned as Venezuela plays nice with Trump
Tim Walz Fumes About ‘Accountability’ in Shooting Death of Renee Good – He Should Start by Looking in a Mirror
New top Democrat on House CCP committee took cash from China-linked donors
DC pipe bomb defendant pleads not guilty to federal charges
Watch: Top Chicago Cop Blasts Dem, Media Narrative on Renee Good Shooting, Comes to Defense of ICE Agents Being Attacked with Cars
Fox News True Crime Newsletter: Ohio dentist murders, Kohberger sister’s warning, ‘Torso Killer’ confession
Trump pauses oil exec summit to peek at White House ballroom’s progress
Johnson meets with Muslim man who confronted, disarmed Bondi Beach attacker
Iranian officials have few options if they flee an overthrown regime
ABC News’s report said concerns about what is now known to be the coronavirus pandemic “were detailed in a November intelligence report” by the NCMI, according to “two officials familiar with the document’s contents.”
It said the report analyzed “wire and computer intercepts, coupled with satellite images,” and raised alarms because an “out-of-control disease” would pose a serious threat to U.S. forces in Asia.
One of ABC News’s sources said analysts concluded it could be a “cataclysmic event” and that it was “then briefed multiple times” to the DIA, the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, and the White House.
The sources said there were repeated briefings through December for policy-makers and decision-makers across the federal government as well as the National Security Council at the White House.
Those briefings culminated with a detailed explanation of the problem that appeared in the President’s Daily Brief of intelligence matters in early January, the sources claimed.
ABC News said the NCMI report was made “available widely” to people authorized to access intelligence community alerts, and that after it was released, other intelligence community bulletins began circulating through confidential channels across the government around Thanksgiving.
Thomas Paine Set America Afire with ‘Common Sense’ 250 Years Ago: Pamphlet Made Case for Revolutionary War
USDA immediately suspends all federal funding to Minnesota amid fraud investigation
California projects $3 billion deficit as outside forecasts show bigger shortfall
‘Jeopardy!’ Host Ken Jennings Wants Trump Administration Jailed, Vows to Vote for Candidate Who Will ‘Prosecute’
Trump administration to investigate refugee status of Minnesota residents
Fox News Politics Newsletter: AOC accuses Vance of believing ‘American people should be assassinated’
Hundreds of opposition members still imprisoned as Venezuela plays nice with Trump
Tim Walz Fumes About ‘Accountability’ in Shooting Death of Renee Good – He Should Start by Looking in a Mirror
New top Democrat on House CCP committee took cash from China-linked donors
DC pipe bomb defendant pleads not guilty to federal charges
Watch: Top Chicago Cop Blasts Dem, Media Narrative on Renee Good Shooting, Comes to Defense of ICE Agents Being Attacked with Cars
Fox News True Crime Newsletter: Ohio dentist murders, Kohberger sister’s warning, ‘Torso Killer’ confession
Trump pauses oil exec summit to peek at White House ballroom’s progress
Johnson meets with Muslim man who confronted, disarmed Bondi Beach attacker
Iranian officials have few options if they flee an overthrown regime
Esper was asked Sunday on ABC News’s This Week if the Pentagon received an intelligence assessment on the coronavirus in November. Esper said he did not recall, but that he would have known if such an assessment was briefed to the National Security Council in December.
“I’m not aware of that,” he said.
President Trump was also asked about the alleged report during a press conference at the White House on Wednesday, and when he learned of such intelligence and whether he could have acted sooner.
“When I learned about the gravity of it was sometime just prior to closing the country to China. And when we closed up the flights coming in from China and various other elements — and then, as you know, we closed up to Europe,” he said.
“So, I don’t know exactly, but I’d like to see the information,” he said.
Story cited here.
