Exclusive: U.S. Won’t Share Invasion Intel With Ukraine

[babylonsister]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/08/exclusive-u-s-won-t-share-invasion-intel-with-ukraine.html

Exclusive: U.S. Won’t Share Invasion Intel With Ukraine
Eli Lake

World News
04.08.14

American spies have spotted all the signs of an all-out Russian invasion of Ukraine. Why won’t they tell the Ukrainians about the forces on their border?


U.S. intelligence agencies now have detailed information that Russia has amassed the kind of forces needed for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But the Obama administration hasn’t shared with Ukraine the imagery, intercepts, and analysis that pinpont the location of the Russian troops ready to seize more Ukrainian land, The Daily Beast has learned.

President Obama has repeatedly and publicly expressed solidarity with the Ukrainian people—and warned Russian leader Vladimir Putin that there will be consequences if he takes over any more Ukrainian territory. Yet Obama’s administration has so far been reluctant to hand over the kind of intelligence the Ukrainians could use to defend themselves. U.S. officials and members of Congress briefed on the crisis in Ukraine tell The Daily Beast that senior U.S. military officers have been instructed to refrain from briefing their Ukrainian counterparts in detail about what the United States knows about the Russians troops amassing on the border.


snip//

A senior U.S. intelligence official confirmed to The Daily Beast that Ukraine was not receiving detailed U.S. intelligence analysis of Russian troop positions. This official said the practice of sharing intelligence with a country like Ukraine is dictated by long-standing intelligence sharing agreements. In the case of Ukraine, the United States historically does not share much out of concern that the information provided to Kiev would make its way back to Moscow. Until February, Ukraine’s military maintained close ties to Russia. The chances that its military is penetrated by Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU are high. “We have to strike a balance between the information we share and the desire of foreign intelligence services to understand our sources and methods,” this official said.

snip//

The current estimate is that Russia has amassed 80,000 troops on Ukraine’s border. Vice Admiral Frank Pandolfe, the director for strategic plans and policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that the Russian forces include fixed and rotor wing aircraft, tanks, artillery, light infantry and special operations forces. Pandolfe said the Russian military has the ability to deploy these different units in a “synchronized manner.”