The hottest Intelligence Substack posts right now

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Robert Mueller’s Tarnished Legacy

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 129 implied HN points • 23 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Intelligence
  1. He was widely respected for long public service and praised for helping protect the country after 9/11 and for his commitment to the rule of law.
  2. The president’s blunt posthumous insult shows how extreme, routine vitriol has become in the current political era.
  3. He missed the chance to decisively debunk the Trump-Russia claims, and that failure let the scandal fester and helped fuel the rancorous MAGA politics, tarnishing his legacy.

Kash Patel Embraces Big Brother

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 2465 implied HN points • 19 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Intelligence
  1. The new administration’s intelligence leaders kept core surveillance tools in place instead of dismantling the system.
  2. The FBI reported a 34% jump in searches on Americans in a foreign intelligence database in 2025 versus the prior administration’s final year.
  3. The increase and low public attention suggest officials are preserving or expanding spying powers while keeping the activity out of the spotlight.

CIA Prepares Criminal Referral of Tucker Carlson, as Israel and Its Loyalists Demand His Arrest

Glenn Greenwald • 6506 implied HN points • 15 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Intelligence
  1. U.S. intelligence is reportedly preparing a criminal referral against a high-profile journalist over his communications with Iranian contacts, suggesting journalists could be prosecuted for critical war reporting.
  2. Influential Israeli-aligned voices and their U.S. allies pushed an orchestrated campaign demanding his arrest, showing growing efforts to punish and intimidate critics of Israel and the Trump-Netanyahu war.
  3. Evidence points to domestic and allied surveillance of the journalist’s communications, highlighting how spying and legal pressure can be used to chill independent reporting and free speech.

How Israel Convinced Trump to Wage War Against Iran (w/ Max Blumenthal) | The Chris Hedges Report

The Chris Hedges Report • 231 implied HN points • 19 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics Intelligence
  1. An influence campaign by Israeli-aligned actors and wealthy backers leveraged Trump’s transactional instincts and fears to push him toward aggressive action against Iran.
  2. The FBI’s use of informants and sting operations appears to have manufactured or exaggerated assassination plots on U.S. soil, reinforcing the belief that Iran was targeting Trump and helping justify escalation.
  3. Those pressures contributed to a damaging war that shut down negotiations, provoked heavy retaliation, and raised the risk of a wider or even nuclear confrontation while leaving key questions about motives and accountability.

British spies were commissioned to gather information in Libya by the Democratic Party's overseas political action arm in aftermath of execution of Gaddafi

All-Source Intelligence Fusion • 712 implied HN points • 16 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics Intelligence
  1. The National Democratic Institute hired a UAE-based firm run by former SCL staff to conduct MEPI-funded focus groups in Libya after Gaddafi’s fall, showing overt democracy programs used contractors with intelligence backgrounds.
  2. Court documents and emails suggest that the UAE firm (IAS) acted as a cut-out for information-warfare contractors like MSI and SCL, with covert data-collection work — including plans to offload “dodgier” tasks and mobile-phone tracking — moving between private firms.
  3. Declassified records and staff movements reveal long-standing informal links between NED/NDI and U.S. intelligence, blurring the line between overt public diplomacy and covert operations and raising transparency and accountability concerns.
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Joe Kent Resigns. Will Others Follow?

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 996 implied HN points • 18 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Intelligence
  1. Joe Kent, who led the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned in protest over a potential war with Iran and is being hailed by some as an anti-war dissident.
  2. His resignation letter claims President Trump was misled by Israel and its backers about an imminent Iranian threat, which raises doubts about Kent's reliability as an intelligence witness.
  3. Reactions are divided—Tucker Carlson praised Kent as brave while figures like Tulsi Gabbard defended the president—so it’s unclear whether more officials will follow his lead.

How Israel Is Hunting Members of the Iranian Regime

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 811 implied HN points • 18 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics Intelligence
  1. Israel has escalated operations against Iranian regime officials, with the Israeli Air Force operating over Tehran and strikes growing more daring and consequential.
  2. Iran’s leadership was caught off guard because it behaved like a conventional state and underestimated the risk, unlike groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah that accept becoming targets when they attack Israel.
  3. Top Iranian security figures are taking extreme precautions—moving frequently and avoiding predictable patterns—to avoid being targeted.

The Havana Syndrome Edition

Why is this interesting? • 723 implied HN points • 10 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics Intelligence
  1. A compact, silent, backpack-sized directed-energy device with foreign components is now plausible and was reportedly tested, making a covert attack on diplomats more believable than previously thought.
  2. Officials ran two parallel narratives: public, lawyerly assessments downplayed foreign responsibility while private communications and meetings showed sympathy for victims, suggesting an intentional effort to manage political and escalation risks.
  3. Scientific panels pointed to pulsed microwave energy as a plausible cause for some cases, and the weapon’s engineered waveform—rather than just hardware—raises fresh questions about coverups, delayed responses, and past incidents like the Moscow Signal.

EXCLUSIVE: The FBI's Secret Stash Finally Uncovered

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 5866 implied HN points • 06 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Intelligence
  1. The FBI has long kept a separate, non-searchable "prohibited access" filing system that only a very small number of senior officials can access.
  2. Whistleblowers and congressional pressure have prompted a task force to begin examining decades of those hidden files, and some records have already been turned over to Congress.
  3. The files reportedly include off-books surveillance and politically sensitive investigations spanning both parties since at least 1999, raising serious oversight and constitutional concerns.

Are We Winning the War in Iran? Plus. . .

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 329 implied HN points • 19 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics Intelligence
  1. The war has escalated with strikes and the targeted killing of senior Iranian figures, and leaders are debating whether a decisive military victory is even possible.
  2. The conflict is already spilling into the global economy and region—oil prices are surging, major energy sites have been hit, and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been disrupted.
  3. The fight is politically fraught and uncertain: U.S. officials face pressure and resignations, intelligence describes Iran as degraded but intact, and experts disagree whether decapitating the regime will topple it or reveal its resilience.

How Israel Is Helping Iran’s Opposition

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 380 implied HN points • 19 Mar 26
🌐 International Intelligence
  1. Israel is actively targeting Iranian security forces blamed for killing protesters, aiming to weaken those who crushed demonstrations.
  2. Israeli forces may provide air cover if another uprising breaks out, suggesting readiness to intervene more directly during future protests.
  3. This pattern shows Israel moving beyond diplomatic support toward clearer military or covert backing for Iran’s opposition.

50 Years of Secrets: Why You Should Care About the FBI's 'Prohibited Access' Files

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 4232 implied HN points • 06 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Intelligence
  1. Hidden "prohibited access" FBI files could reveal decades of off-books domestic surveillance and misconduct, similar to past intelligence scandals.
  2. Since 9/11 the FBI shifted toward intelligence and political spying, expanding secrecy and intrusive collection practices with weak oversight.
  3. Releasing these files to Congress is a rare chance for transparency and reform, but the disclosures may be incomplete or blocked unless sustained political pressure forces real accountability.

Kash’s Cache: Locating The FBI’s Secret Files

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 3268 implied HN points • 06 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Intelligence
  1. The FBI uses a separate top‑secret database (called Sentinel Gold) to hold “prohibited access” files that aren’t kept in the bureau’s regular case system.
  2. Information marked prohibited is hidden from normal searches and can be withheld from FBI agents, Congress, and other oversight bodies, leaving gaps where records of misconduct or spying should be.
  3. Only a very small, specially privileged group can access those files, which raises serious accountability and oversight concerns.

Tucker Carlson Fails His Own Loyalty Test

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 718 implied HN points • 16 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Intelligence
  1. A prominent commentator says the CIA read his texts and may be preparing criminal charges because he talked to people in Iran before a military operation.
  2. If true, surveilling a broadcaster or using laws like FARA to punish routine contacts with foreign sources would be alarming and could threaten free speech and press protections.
  3. He frequently questions other Americans’ loyalty, so insisting he’s being framed as a foreign agent exposes a clear hypocrisy and undercuts his own arguments.

A Strategic Failure in Iran

QTR’s Fringe Finance • 32 implied HN points • 23 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics Intelligence
  1. A short, intense bombing campaign caused tactical damage but failed to achieve its strategic goals: Iran’s nuclear program survives and the regime remains intact, with hardliners gaining strength.
  2. Claims that Iran was only weeks from a bomb lacked credible evidence, and U.S. negotiators and intelligence failures meant diplomacy was mishandled while airpower alone cannot destroy dispersed, deeply buried nuclear materials.
  3. The conflict risks dragging the United States into a prolonged, costly war that disrupts global energy markets and may incentivize Iran to keep or pursue nuclear capabilities, so further escalation would be dangerous and costly.

Debating the Ex-IDF Spokesman About the War in Iran on Piers Morgan's Show, with Mike Pence

Glenn Greenwald • 2787 implied HN points • 03 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics Intelligence
  1. The war with Iran is rapidly expanding and risks turning into a wider regional conflict, which is driving intense public and media debates.
  2. Some prominent U.S. figures remain steadfast in defending past military interventions and continue to advocate for new wars with little change in their arguments.
  3. Participants questioned whether Israel places key military and intelligence command centers inside residential areas of Tel Aviv, and former military spokespeople gave responses that many found revealing.

Iranians Use an App to Map Military Bases and Missile Sites—and So Does Israel

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 347 implied HN points • 16 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics Intelligence
  1. There is a civilian-run app that lets ordinary Iranians geotag military bases and missile sites on a map, and it can work even during government internet blackouts.
  2. Israeli intelligence has been using the crowd-sourced geotags from that app to help identify and sometimes strike targets like missile launch sites.
  3. The app was created by an Iranian-American activist and is tied to anti-regime sentiment, with many citizens reporting locations to oppose the government.

IRAN'S UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS

Seymour Hersh • 26 implied HN points • 24 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics Intelligence
  1. The US-Israel bombing campaign has already disrupted global energy and shipping, causing fuel shortages and halting much traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
  2. Iran seems to lack strong anti-aircraft defenses so far, so strikes have been largely uncontested, but Iran has not surrendered and the conflict could become prolonged and uncertain.
  3. Decision-makers missed unpredictable risks — the “unknown unknowns” — leading to unforeseen strategic and economic fallout and raising doubts about leadership competence.

Gone Fishin’: How The FBI Can Spend Years Trying To Hook You

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 3072 implied HN points • 27 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Intelligence
  1. The FBI can open informal "assessments" and collect information without a warrant or even suspecting a crime.
  2. These assessments can last for years as agents "fish" for wrongdoing, but they frequently turn up nothing and are quietly closed.
  3. The information gathered can be shared with other agencies and can become a lasting federal record about individuals.

How Politicians Smear The World, Vol. 1: The Contract

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 5125 implied HN points • 19 Feb 26
🌍 World Politics Intelligence
  1. A party-linked think tank hired APCO to run an offensive campaign against reporters, using human intelligence, forensic accounting, media packaging, and “stakeholder outreach” to target their work and networks.
  2. The operation fed outlets and intelligence channels misleading claims and used legal and cyber scare tactics that caused papers to kill stories and left reporters facing lost work and investigations.
  3. Those methods mirror long-standing smear and reputation-management playbooks tied to Russia-scare tactics, revealing industry hypocrisy and prompting a government inquiry and calls for resignations.

Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest Unwittingly Reveal the Severity of the U.S. Surveillance State

Glenn Greenwald • 5960 implied HN points • 13 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Intelligence
  1. Home security devices are no longer just for private use — features like neighborhood-wide camera linking and AI search can turn them into mass surveillance tools that threaten biometric privacy.
  2. Big tech may store or provide access to footage even for unsubscribed users, and law enforcement can recover that data, showing that personal video isn’t always truly deleted or private.
  3. Facial recognition, AI, and close ties between companies and state agencies are rapidly normalizing a powerful surveillance system that erodes privacy and civil liberties despite earlier public outcry.

The Death Throes of Keir Starmer's Government

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 5216 implied HN points • 14 Feb 26
🌍 World Politics Intelligence
  1. A senior government is facing a crisis after authorizing a private firm to investigate journalists and passing that work to a national cyber agency, creating calls for resignations and political chaos.
  2. A private intelligence/PR firm produced sweeping, false accusations and used a former insider to build a smear campaign, showing how paid research can be weaponized against reporters.
  3. The episode highlights a wider, systemic problem: media outlets and political actors can collude with private spy firms to suppress reporting, a tactic that undermines press freedom and has international implications.

EXCLUSIVE: Brits Spied on Racket, Other Journalists

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 5251 implied HN points • 12 Feb 26
🌍 World Politics Intelligence
  1. A group aligned with the U.K. Labour leader hired a private firm to investigate Racket and several journalists, then passed the findings to an office linked to Britain’s GCHQ equivalent.
  2. The probes targeted multiple reporters from outlets including the Sunday Times, the Guardian, and others after Racket published a series of exposĂŠs.
  3. Official statements minimized the scope of the investigations, creating controversy and renewed concerns about political surveillance of journalists and threats to press freedom.

EXCLUSIVE: FBI Gathered Intel On 1,000 Journalists, Politicians, Religious Organizations On Flimsy Grounds

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 4022 implied HN points • 12 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Intelligence
  1. The FBI used so-called “assessments” to collect information on more than 1,000 journalists, politicians, and religious organizations without any evidence of a crime.
  2. Those assessments allow agents to gather personal details and build dossiers on people even when there is no criminal suspicion, which raises serious privacy and oversight concerns.
  3. The details came from a confidential government report that directed recipients to destroy it, indicating the matter was treated as sensitive and not publicly transparent.

March 19, 2026

Letters from an American • 33 implied HN points • 20 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Intelligence
  1. Top Justice Department officials refused to testify under oath and held closed briefings about the Epstein files. Lawmakers say this behavior looks like a cover-up of ties between powerful figures and Jeffrey Epstein.
  2. Senior intelligence and law enforcement leaders evaded direct questions about Iran and whether the intelligence community warned of an imminent threat before strikes. The FBI also acknowledged buying commercially available location data, raising alarms that agencies are sidestepping Fourth Amendment protections.
  3. Whistleblowers claim employees stole Social Security records with detailed personal data on hundreds of millions of people and may have shared that data for political ends. The SSA inspector general is investigating and lawmakers are pushing for prosecutions and stronger privacy safeguards.

The Epstein Files: The Blackmail of Billionaire Leon Black and Epstein's Role in It

Glenn Greenwald • 2340 implied HN points • 16 Feb 26
📰 News Intelligence
  1. Epstein used intimate secrets to extort Leon Black, forcing him to pay millions and desperately try to hide an affair.
  2. Epstein embedded himself in billionaires’ lives to gain control over finances and relationships, and he used private investigators and threats—including invoking Russian contacts—to silence dangers to those ties.
  3. Official claims denied a broad client-list blackmail scheme, but the public documents show clear extortion tactics and many redactions leave bigger questions unanswered.

The Race to Capture the Ayatollah’s Treasure

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 426 implied HN points • 09 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics Intelligence
  1. Almost 900 pounds of 60% enriched uranium are sealed in a lead-lined cache under a mountain near Isfahan, making it an extremely valuable and highly radioactive asset.
  2. The U.S. and Israel entombed the material during the June war so it appears largely inaccessible without a major excavation, but intelligence says a very narrow access point might still allow retrieval.
  3. Whoever manages to reach and secure this uranium—Iran, the U.S., or Israel—would gain major strategic and nuclear leverage, turning control of it into a high-stakes international race.

The Epstein Conspiracy Wasn’t What We Suspected

Michael Shellenberger • 1151 implied HN points • 26 Feb 26
📰 News Intelligence
  1. The available evidence does not support the claim that Epstein ran a government-backed sex blackmail operation; his photos, emails, and meetings point more toward amateur methods and personal exploitation than a coordinated intelligence kompromat scheme.
  2. Epstein primarily used charm, money, sex, and financial services to build ties with powerful people and to serve his own interests, acting as a fixer or contractor rather than a controlled agent of intelligence agencies.
  3. Belief in a broad intelligence conspiracy was driven by motivated reasoning, moral panic, and weak sourcing, so conclusions should be cautious and open to new evidence rather than jumping to grand explanations.

Iranian Kurds Won’t March on Tehran

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 370 implied HN points • 08 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics Intelligence
  1. Kurdish party leaders say they have no interest in operating outside the Kurdish region and are not planning a march on Tehran.
  2. U.S. officials have discussed supporting Iranian Kurdish fighters, but there’s no concrete agreement or deployment yet and the idea remains hypothetical.
  3. Groups like Komala and the KDPI have bases in Iraqi Kurdistan near Iran’s border, yet their forces have not crossed into Iran to start an uprising.

The Clock Is Ticking for Iran’s New Supreme Leader

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 310 implied HN points • 09 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics Intelligence
  1. The new Supreme Leader faces immediate personal danger because precision strikes recently killed his predecessor and other senior figures.
  2. Every smartphone, smart appliance, modern car, and camera increases the chance his location will be exposed. He needs to avoid or tightly control personal tech and public exposures to survive.
  3. Advances in sensors, data collection, and targeting have made assassinations more feasible from a distance. That change forces leaders to treat everyday technology and data as direct security threats.

The Western Press Are Trying To Spin Epstein As A RUSSIAN Agent

Caitlin’s Newsletter • 2221 implied HN points • 03 Feb 26
🌍 World Politics Intelligence
  1. Big Western media outlets are running stories that Epstein was a Russian spy, pointing to alleged meetings with Putin and KGB connections.
  2. Other investigations and leaked documents suggest Epstein had ties to Israeli intelligence and figures like Ehud Barak, with some released DOJ files cited as supporting that link.
  3. Some commentators argue the Russia angle is a deliberate media spin to protect Western and oligarchic interests by distracting from possible Israeli or Western intelligence involvement.

The Rescuers Who Go Where the U.S. Government Can’t

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 366 implied HN points • 02 Mar 26
🌐 International Intelligence
  1. A private nonprofit made up of former special-operations and intelligence veterans runs daring international rescue and evacuation missions where governments can’t or won’t act.
  2. They’ve pulled off high-profile extractions using covert tactics and mixed transport like cars, boats, and private planes, and are getting many urgent requests from Americans stuck in dangerous places.
  3. Facing high-risk situations, the team is mobilizing to evacuate people from Middle East conflict zones and other hotspots, highlighting growing demand for private rescue options.

Middle East-focused US/UK intel contractors discussed price for their spies to 'break stuff'

All-Source Intelligence Fusion • 773 implied HN points • 18 Feb 26
🌍 World Politics Intelligence
  1. Court filings show US/UK intelligence contractors discussed charging extra to move spies from passive surveillance into risky operations, including possible electronic attacks framed as an "internet coverage test".
  2. Messages reveal planning of port surveillance projects targeting Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz to monitor Iran–China trade after their 2021 agreement, with codenames like METALLICA and QUIXOTE.
  3. The firms operated through layered shell companies and strict compartmentalization while holding large U.S. defense contracts, and their covert acquisition, payouts, and PR risks led to lawsuits and internal concern.

The Q-Day Edition

Why is this interesting? • 1025 implied HN points • 05 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Intelligence
  1. Nation-states are quietly collecting huge amounts of encrypted data today that they can’t read now, betting that future quantum computers will let them decrypt it later.
  2. That strategy flips the usual logic: instead of information losing value over time, encrypted data can become more valuable as quantum advances approach.
  3. This reality forces a rethink of security and policy — we need post-quantum encryption and stronger counterintelligence because many current secrets are effectively already compromised even if they remain unreadable today.

Lawrence Freedman on Strategy

ChinaTalk • 311 implied HN points • 26 Feb 26
🌍 World Politics Intelligence
  1. Strategic choices are always made with incomplete information and human biases, so leaders often miss warning signs by assuming others will act like they would.
  2. Domestic politics and a leader's need to avoid humiliation or preserve popularity strongly shape whether states respond or escalate, as seen when political pressure forced a decisive military reaction.
  3. Nuclear weapons became almost unthinkable to use because no one could credibly ‘win’ such a war, and arms control mostly formalized that; by contrast, AI poses different, layered risks that won’t map neatly onto Cold War-style treaties.

Google suspends ad account linked to Atlanta influencer which was used to recruit Iranian agents for the Mossad

All-Source Intelligence Fusion • 1566 implied HN points • 20 Jan 26
🌍 World Politics Intelligence
  1. Google suspended the verified ad account tied to Desi Banks Productions LLC and removed the Mossad recruitment ads for violating its advertising policies.
  2. The ads were part of an international campaign linked to the 'Blue Message' network that used deceptive bait-and-switch tactics and targeted family members of Iranian officials, LGBTQ Iranians, and people across multiple countries to recruit Mossad assets.
  3. Desi Banks denied knowledge of the ads while independent investigations showed the campaign operated across Telegram, X, and Google Forms and used AI-generated and misleading content.

The USA And Israel Have Started Bombing Iran: A Primer

Phillips’s Newsletter • 372 implied HN points • 28 Feb 26
🌍 World Politics Intelligence
  1. The US and Israel have concentrated a huge amount of air and sea strike power around Iran — carriers, destroyers, submarines, and stealth aircraft — making one of the largest strike forces in decades.
  2. The publicly stated goal is regime change in Iran rather than a negotiated nuclear deal, with leaders framing limited military action as a way to overthrow the Iranian government.
  3. Key unknowns are how they will achieve regime change: can they locate and decapitate Iran’s leadership, have they secured inside collaborators, and will the Iranian people or military rise up — watch for leadership hits, defections, or mass protests.

American Apotheosis, Lustration, and Conciliatism: Part Three

Dr. Pippa's Pen & Podcast • 32 implied HN points • 17 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Intelligence
  1. The Epstein saga points to a sprawling, institutionalized machine of elites rather than a lone actor, with Epstein serving as a public face and operational node and that apparatus continues even if the individual is gone.
  2. The machine is shifting from physical honeytraps to digital leverage, where AI and data‑mining can automatically find private debts, health issues, or opinions to create permanent, invisible blackmail.
  3. States are pushing back with sanctions, choke‑point strategies, and AI‑driven cybersecurity, which could produce apotheosis, lustration, conciliation, or a prolonged struggle as agentic AI maps and contains these networks.

U.S. federal judge retroactively seals court documents, hiding joint American-British covert action in Iran

All-Source Intelligence Fusion • 834 implied HN points • 03 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Intelligence
  1. A federal judge retroactively sealed four sections of previously public court filings that listed codenames, target countries, date ranges, and other details of covert information-collection programs.
  2. The filings tie a UAE-based contractor (IAS) and U.S. firms to work for U.S. Special Operations Command, describing programs like BEOWULF that targeted multiple Iranian cities and had a roughly $4.5 million price tag.
  3. Counsel moved to seal after the material was publicly disclosed, and the judge ordered redactions and re-filing within seven days, although the sensitive charts had already been circulated.

No Doubt Left: Russiagate Was a Cover-Up

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 14693 implied HN points • 01 Aug 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Intelligence
  1. Russiagate started as a distraction for Hillary Clinton to deflect attention from her email scandal. It became a big story that connected Donald Trump to Russia.
  2. Instead of investigating the supposed claims about Trump, intelligence agencies like the FBI and CIA ended up promoting the narrative, which was seen as a cover-up.
  3. The entire situation showed a failure in the political and media systems, where many people got involved in spreading unverified information without confirming its truth.