Latest news with #JohnBrennan
BreakingNews.ie
9 hours ago
- Politics
- BreakingNews.ie
Ex-CIA director praises Ireland for recognising Palestinian statehood
The Irish Government has been praised by a former US intelligence boss for standing up against Israel. Last May, Ireland formally recognised the State of Palestine. Advertisement The Hamas-run Health Ministry estimates more than 55,000 people have been killed in Gaza since fighting re-ignited more than 20 months ago. John Brennan, who served as the director of the CIA between 2013 and 2017, said Ireland is a world leader when it comes to standing up for the people of Palestine. Mr Brennan said: "Bibi [Benjamin] Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition really do not want to allow the Palestinian Authority or any Palestinian governing body to be able to flourish. "And I think a lot of Americans were very pleased when we saw that Ireland recognised the Palestinian State... and has taken a very hard line against Israel. "It's unfortunate that the situation, over the last many decades has deteriorated to such an extent."
Spectator
5 days ago
- Politics
- Spectator
It's not foolish to believe Putin will attack Nato
Many in Europe may still believe that a Russian invasion of one or more Nato countries is unlikely, if not absurd. This view seems convenient, but it is increasingly divergent from reality. Confidence in the alliance's principle of so-called collective security is, sadly, becoming not a deterrent but an incentive to aggression by Moscow. The idea floating in the air in Europe seems to be the following: 'Russia is bogged down in Ukraine. How can it threaten Britain or the Baltic states?'. This is rhetoric from another era. War is no longer what it used to be. And neither is Russia. The future invasion of the Baltic states will not be a copy of the Ukrainian campaign While Western armies rehearse parades and calculate brigade potential, the Russian military-industrial complex is betting on the mass production of FPV drones, electronic warfare systems and swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles. Today, 95 per cent of those wounded in Ukrainian hospitals have mine and explosive injuries, more than 70 per cent of them sustained from drone strikes. Artillery and armoured vehicles are becoming a thing of the past. So are most of the defence approaches adopted by Nato. Ukraine is on the front line of this new war. Contrary to expectations, it is Ukraine that today has perhaps the most combat-ready army in Europe. As former CIA director John Brennan said in an interview with Sky News: 'Compared to other armed forces, [the Ukrainian military] outperforms virtually any army in the world, including the United States.' Not because we have more weapons, but because we have adapted. Europe has not yet done so; would only a crisis force the continent to evolve? The most dangerous illusion today is to underestimate Moscow's goals. The Kremlin is not waging war for new territories. The Russians' goal is not Donbas or even Kyiv. Their goal is a new map of Europe, where the Kremlin once again writes the rules. Putin's ambitions are geopolitical. That is why no truce will suit them. A ceasefire is not part of Moscow's strategy because its goal can only be achieved by continuing the aggression against Ukraine. Earlier this month, Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov directly repeated Putin's 2021 ultimatum to Nato: the conflict will not end until the alliance retreats from Eastern Europe. There is a widespread belief in the West that if Russia risks 'testing' Nato in the Baltic states, it will receive an immediate and harsh response. I would like to believe that. But 'immediate' is not what we saw in 2014 in Crimea, between 2014 and 2022 in Donbas, or even in the first days of the full-scale invasion. Confidence in deterrence, alas, becomes a vulnerability in itself. The future invasion of the Baltic states will not be a copy of the Ukrainian campaign. It will not start with tanks and will not be accompanied by declarations. It will be unexpected: with communication blackouts, drone strikes on infrastructure and civilian convoys in uniform without identification marks. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania may simply wake up as part of Russia. Without a single shot fired by Nato. The operation will take no more than several days. Nato troops stationed at Adazi in Lithuania (about 5,000 men) would not even be able to stop a convoy of civilian minibuses. A political decision in London or Brussels to open fire on 'unidentified persons' may not come in time. Or it may not come at all. Yes, to effectively deter Russia, it is not necessary to spend 5 per cent of GDP, as Nato chief Mark Rutte is pushing for. FPV drones cost less than nuclear submarines and are more effective. But what definitely does not work is to mistake wishful thinking for reality. Where the Baltic states are incapable of defending themselves, Poland is vulnerable to Kaliningrad and Belarus, and the rest of Europe is only building ammunition factories and dual-use border surveillance systems with a view to them being ready by 2027 and beyond. This is not a strategy. It is a window of opportunity for the Kremlin. And for its masters in Beijing. China and Russia will simply divide Europe into zones of influence. Putin will get his Warsaw Block 2 from the countries of Eastern Europe. And China will get influence over Western Europe, which it will then 'defend' from invasion by barbarians from the East. In fact, Beijing is already preparing to adopt US President Donald Trump's strategy on Ukraine: 'the best defence of Western Europe is Chinese business on your territory'. Economic absorption will replace a tank offensive. And for the European elites, it will prove even more tempting. Russia is not betting on numerical supsuperiority on the element of surprise and its nearly unlimited tolerance for a high number of casualties. It is also banking on the psychological unpreparedness (enhanced by unwillingness) of Western leaders to give the order to destroy any 'civilian' invaders hiding behind Vilnius or Narva. The capture of the three Baltic capitals, the cutting off of the Suwalki corridor and the blocking of Nato's response are not fantasies. These scenarios have already been modelled. The next step in Russia's plan is simple: wait for Polish troops to approach the Suwalki corridor and slam the trap shut. This territory is within firing range of Kaliningrad and Belarus, and Nato's logistics are impossible here. Don't think that a hypothetical operation in the Baltics would be something unique: it would be a direct continuation of what Ukrainian troops experienced during their offensive into the Russian territory of Kursk. The large-scale use of drones and the strategy of disrupting logistics have already been tested by the Russian army during their attempts to de-occupy the region. Nato headquarters should study these cases not as exceptions but as the future of war. And they should already be planning their counter-operations based on the Ukrainian model. This development can only be stopped by shifting from reactive defence to proactive deterrence. For example, by creating a Ukrainian-Polish military contingent focussed on the Grodno region of Belarus. And by rethinking Belarus itself: not as a neutral zone, but as the vanguard of a possible invasion. The United Kingdom is not just the NHS and pensions. It is also Winston Churchill. And the union for freedom. Today, Europe is once again falling asleep, refusing to acknowledge the new reality. General Waldemar Skrzypczak, former commander-in-chief of the Polish army, said in an interview with Polsat News: 'If Ukraine loses, we will be next.' He is wrong about only one thing: the invasion processes in Ukraine and the Baltic states will run parallel. And it is not about Russia's strength. It is about Europe's weakness, including its unwillingness to cooperate. If you do not want war to come to Dover, you must act now. Because the war has already begun. It is just that not everyone has heard it yet.
The Independent
12-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Former CIA director says Donald Trump's plan for war in Ukraine is ‘naive and unsophisticated'
Donald Trump's plan for peace in Ukraine has been branded 'naive' and 'unsophisticated' by former director of the CIA John Brennan. In the first five months of his second term, the U.S. president has aggressively pushed for peace but refused to offer unconditional support to Kyiv in its defence against Russian aggression. Mr Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine on the first day of his presidency while on the campaign trail, but diplomatic efforts have stalled and Russia has recently launched some of its largest attacks of the war so far. The US President recently suggested it might be better to let Ukraine and Russia 'fight for a while' in a sign of his waning interest in ending the three-year conflict. Speaking on Sky News, Mr Brennan said the U.S. president's approach to forcing through a quick peace deal in Ukraine was 'naive' and 'unsophisticated'. "I think that Donald Trump doesn't know what he will do,' said Brennan when asked what the President will do next to secure peace in Ukraine. Delegations from Russia and Ukraine have met for talks multiple times within the past month. But beyond agreements to exchange of prisoners of war, no major breakthrough has been made towards peace. Mr Brennan and Mr Trump have a tense history, and the former has previously been critical of the U.S. president's foreign policy. During his first term in office, Mr Trump described him as the 'worst' CIA chief in history - and in January he revoked Mr Brennan's security clearance. The former intelligence official was involved in Ukraine during his time in Langley and first visited the country in 2014 - the same year Russian forces invaded and annexed the Crimean peninsula. Asked about the strength of the Ukrainian military, Mr Brennan told Sky News: "Pound for pound, [it] punches above the weight of virtually every other military on the globe, I would say including the United States, given the tremendous experience that they've gained on the battlefield". He also suggested that Ukraine's allies were likely aware - at least in part - of the drone attack on Russian airfields deep inside its territory. "I don't doubt for a moment that they were given some additional assistance from Western intelligence and military authorities and capabilities,' Brennan said. "The Ukrainians have done a lot on their own, but I think a lot of this is initially enabled by some ideas that come from their Western allies."
Sky News
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Ex-CIA director John Brennan calls Donald Trump's plan in Ukraine 'naive' and 'unsophisticated'
It is nearly 150 days since Donald Trump took office for the second time, promising peace in the Middle East and Ukraine. For the latter, the war grinds on, with reports last week that Russia passed the grim milestone of one million deaths. Ukraine continues to be bombarded, with Russia launching its biggest drone attack against the country since the start of the war. Most likely in retaliation for Ukraine's audacious Operation 'Spiders Web' at the beginning of the month, which saw remote-controlled drones launched deep into Russia, blowing up billions of dollars' worth of military equipment. Russia saw this as a significant escalation, as Moscow's ambassador to the UK told me in a sit-down interview last week. Peace feels a long way off right now. Ex-CIA director John Brennan does not think so. On this week's The World podcast, he called Trump's understanding of both Ukraine and Vladimir Putin "naive" and "unsophisticated". I asked him what he thinks the president may do and, in no uncertain terms, he told me: "I think that Donald Trump doesn't know what he will do." It is no secret that the former director holds a low estimation of the president. For what it's worth, the feeling is mutual. In January, Trump revoked the director's security clearance, and during his first term called him the "worst" CIA chief in history. But, Brennan knows Ukraine. Some reports say that it was during his time as director that the CIA began training Ukrainian spies. 3:31 When he first visited the country in 2014, he recounts how the forces "were still riddled with a lot of the Russian services", but a decade later, what is his assessment of the country's military? "Pound for pound, [it] punches above the weight of virtually every other military on the globe, I would say including the United States, given the tremendous experience that they've gained on the battlefield". So, does the director really believe Ukraine's allies had no prior warning of Ukraine's drone attack? A career spook, he trod carefully around the questions, but admitted: "I don't doubt for a moment that they were given some additional assistance from Western intelligence and military authorities and capabilities. "The Ukrainians have done a lot on their own, but I think a lot of this is initially enabled by some ideas that come from their Western allies." As the battlefields of Ukraine dry out to face another summer of war, this conflict continues to prove it is the "laboratory of the future", as my co-host Richard Engel described it. The drone war intensifies, as does the battle of words between the two countries. As a war of attrition continues in Ukraine, will Donald Trump, now preoccupied with protests in Los Angeles and unleashing thousands more troops on demonstrators, walk away from Ukraine and abandon it?
Sky News
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Is Ukraine winning the spy war? In conversation with ex-CIA chief
👉Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim on your podcast app👈 This week, Richard is in Ukraine, recording just hours after the country was hit with 500 drones from Russia. He is in Mykolaiv and brings Yalda up to speed with what the city is like, over two years into the conflict. Yalda then takes Richard behind the scenes of her headline-making interview with the Russian ambassador to the UK who blamed Britain for the Operation "Spiderweb" drone attack. Then, they are joined by ex-CIA director John Brennan who was head of the spy organisation from 2013 to 2017. He was in post when the CIA began working with and training Ukrainians and he tells Richard and Yalda why he thinks Ukrainian spies are now some of the best in the world. He also gives his take on Donald Trump's peace plans, which he calls "naïve" and "unsophisticated". The three of them also dissect the protests going on in LA. To get in touch or to share questions for Richard and Yalda, email theworld@ Episodes of The World With Richard Engel And Yalda Hakim will be available every Wednesday on all podcast platforms.
