CIA Director William Burns, a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, said the White House’s decision to declassify intelligence to counter Russia’s false narratives has played a key role in the war in Ukraine, Defense One reported Thursday.
“The decisions to declassify intelligence are always very complicated ones, but I think when President [Joe] Biden has decided very carefully and very selectively to make public some of our secrets, it’s played a very effective role over the course of the last six months, and I think it can continue to—again, if we make it the exception, not the rule,” Burns said Thursday during a cybersecurity summit.
He noted that declassification of intelligence has limits when it comes to cybersecurity threats and needs to be carried out “carefully.”
“I think we’re gonna have to be careful looking at other instances, whether it’s in terms of cyber threats or other kinds of challenges that the United States and our allies will face in the future,” Burns said.