The State Department argued Monday that it’s unfair to question the U.S. intelligence assessment that Russia tried to influence the U.S. election just because it mistakenly determined in 2001 that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
“I think to paint them with the same brush that was used in 2001 is highly unfair, and actually, wholly irrelevant and inaccurate to the kinds of gains that have been made in intelligence gathering and analysis since then,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters Monday. “I mean, we’re talking 15 years.”
The U.S. intelligence community released an unclassified report on Friday that said Russia clearly tried to help President-elect Trump win, and tried to “denigrate” Hillary Clinton by leaking emails from her staff. That report contained no evidence, only the conclusions, which has prompted some to question whether those conclusions can be trusted.
Some have cited the faulty intelligence that led the U.S. to invade Iraq after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as an example of why there is room to doubt that assessment. But Kirby rejected those comparisons.
“I don’t think that trying to compare what happened back in 2001 to this assessment is very relevant,” Kirby said.
“Nobody’s saying that there weren’t mistakes made in 2000, 2001,” he said. “But that was what, 15 years ago? And a lot has changed in the intelligence community since then, we’ve learned a lot, we’ve become much more integrated.”
“Back then, the intelligence communities, as you well know, were much more stove-piped. There wasn’t the level of cooperation,” Kirby added. “I mean, we have moved on. We have learned a lot from those mistakes.”
Kirby also said it would have been “irresponsible” for the intelligence community to reveal the evidence for its conclusions in its unclassified report, since that would have revealed sources and methods.
“I don’t think many people would doubt the responsibility of the intelligence community to protect sources and methods,” he said.
“We leave it to the intelligence community when they make unclassified information such as this, to make that determination for themselves on what is appropriate to put out there,” he said.
