America’s top former intelligence officials were mostly mums on Saturday after the release of internal Twitter documents detailing how The Post’s bombastic revelations were censored by the social media company.
Leon Panetta, a former CIA director and Secretary of Defense, John Brennan, a former CIA director, Mike Hayden, a former CIA director, and Jim Clapper, a former director of national intelligence — all of whom once said they owned the Post’s reporting “all the classic hallmarks of a Russian information operation” — declined or did not respond to a request for comment on whether recent disclosures had changed her mind.
A public statement has been made regarding the Hunter Biden emails.
The quartet made their allegations as part of an open letter denouncing the Post’s reporting as Russian misinformation, signed by dozens of other longtime intelligence officials.
“Our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case,” the letter said. “If we’re right, Russia is trying to influence Americans’ voting in this election, and we firmly believe Americans need to be aware of that.”
Of the four, only Clapper ever publicly addressed the letter, offering a vigorous defense of the Post in March.
James Clapper and other former intelligence officials remained silent after the release of internal Twitter documents detailing how The Post’s bombshell revelations were censored. AFP via Getty Images
“Yes, I stand by the statement made THEN and would like to draw attention to its fifth paragraph,” he said, referring to a section of the letter where the signers admit they have no physical evidence of Russian involvement. “I think it was appropriate at the time to issue such a cautionary tale.”
Another signer of the letter, John Sipher, a former senior CIA operations officer, responded on Twitter by retweeting a post by NBC reporter Ben Collins and dismissing the importance of the files.
“What Elon Musk’s Twitter files have shown so far is that content moderation on Twitter was decided by a team of people with different viewpoints. Now the richest man in the world with an ax decides to grind against a political party – a real scandal,” Collins scoffed.
Leon Panetta, a former CIA director and secretary of defense, declined to comment on whether the recent revelations had changed his mind. Getty Images
John Brennan, a former CIA director, once said that the Post’s reporting had “all the classic hallmarks of a Russian intelligence operation.” NBCU Photo Bank/NBC Universal via
Mike Hayden, a former CIA director, has not commented on the recent revelations. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Other signers of the letter contacted by The Post, including Douglas Wise, a former deputy director of Defense Intelligence, Nicholas Rasmussen, a former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, and Marc Polymeropoulos, a former senior CIA operations officer, did not respond the request for comment.
Steven L. Hall, a former senior CIA intelligence officer, and Don Hepburn, a former national security official, also did not respond to a request for comment.