Washington DC: As on April 9th 2020, United States of America (USA) has reported over 435,160 positive cases and 14,797 deaths since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic globally.
Sadly, US has become the epicentre of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Interestingly, as early as November 2019, a report published by ABC News yesterday, stated that US Intelligence officials were warning the US government that a contagion was sweeping through China’s Wuhan region.
Officials from the, (NCMI) which a small unit within the US Defence Intelligence Agency warned about the contagion. The NCMI officials perceived that the contagion might get out of control and pose a serious threat to the US forces in Asia.
The NCMI briefed the US Defence Intelligence Agency, Pentagon’s Joint Staff and the White House.
ABC News report: “NCMI report was the result of analysis of wire and computer intercepts, coupled with satellite images. It raised alarms because an out-of-control disease would pose a serious threat to U.S. forces in Asia – forces that depend on the NCMI’s work. And it paints a picture of an American government that could have ramped up mitigation and containment efforts far earlier to prepare for a crisis poised to come home.
From that warning in November, the sources described 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. All of that culminated with a detailed explanation of the problem that appeared in the President’s Daily Brief of intelligence matters in early January.”
US Commander-in-Chief is the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump.
In response to ABC News report, the US Defense Department provided a statement from Col. R. Shane Day, Director of the NCMI: “As a matter of practice the National Center for Medical Intelligence does not comment publicly on specific intelligence matters. 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,” the statement said.
Interestingly though even before ABC News reported that US Intelligence Officials warned the White House in its reportage yesterday April 8th, 2020. In the first week of January 2020, Newsweek broke the story: “Document from the Department of Defense (in possession of NewsWeek that first reported the story in the first week of January) showed that officials were preparing for the possibility that COVID-19 may have a significant global impact. US officials expected that COVID-19 would likely become a global pandemic within the next 30-days in early January.
In fact US Officials expected global cases would spread. the National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) raised the Risk of Pandemic warning. It went from WATCHCON 2, a probable crisis, to WATCHCON 1, an imminent crisis, due to sustained human-to-human transmission outside of China.”
With NCMI denying a coronavirus assessment report in November 2019, it will remain classified whether White House ignored the warnings of coronavirus pandemic in November 2019. But what is a hard truth is that US is the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic globally with 14,797 deaths and 435,160 positive cases.
If this is the case, then it is probably the most irresponsible & indecisive leadership that nation has. They had the intelligence inputs & yet their leaders failed to protect them. i recollect a prophetic tweet from the same author a few days ago mentioning that US is going to become the epicenter of this & that has indeed come true now. While no two countries can approach this pandemic, it appears US does not yet fully understand or acknowledge the gravity of this. Or maybe their priorities are misplaced even at this hour.
If this is the case, then it is probably the most irresponsible & indecisive leadership that nation has. They had the intelligence inputs & yet their leaders failed to protect them. i recollect a prophetic tweet from the same author a few days ago mentioning that US is going to become the epicenter of this & that has indeed come true now. While no two countries can approach this pandemic, it appears US does not yet fully understand or acknowledge the gravity of this. Or maybe their priorities are misplaced even at this hour.