Page 2 - Intelligence Asset News Today

Paul: well, and general mattis said he was for the deployments on the eastern fringe of nato that obama and nato have done, and hes in favor of even permanent deployments in the baltic states which is not going to go down well with vladimir putin. >> its the new west berlin. paul: well, thats very interesting because if thats going to be a variable tension with perhaps president trump, elect trumps ambitions to do a deal with vladimir putin. >> but even trump is backing away from that, isnt he? ...

In poland, that would also send an unequivocal message. paul: well, and general mattis said he was for the deployments on the eastern fringe of nato that obama and nato have done, and hes in favor of even permanent deployments in the baltic states which is not going to go down well with vladimir putin. >> its the new west berlin. paul: well, thats very interesting because if thats going to be a variable tension with perhaps president trump, elect trumps ambitions to do a deal with vladimir putin...

This was an example in which president obama wanted to up-end what he called conventional washington thinking about foreign policy and trying new approaches. and he wanted to begin normalizing relations from the beginning of his presidency. the big snag here was that this guy, alan gross, was abducted by the cubans. i also think obama realized that this so-called intelligence asset, who was a prisoner over there, was a bigger problem than he realized. so, they had to untangle those knots. in fac...

Our chief national security correspondent, jim sciutto, is getting some new information on this u.s. intelligence asset that has been freed, 20 years in captivity for spying on behalf of the united states inside cuba. what are you learning, jim? >> reporter: thats right. until now we just knew it was an intelligence asset. but coming from the director of national intelligence, were learning the united states secured the release of a cuban individual from a cuban prison who the director of nation...

Explaining and some of the pushback you are hearing today maybe he will be an intelligence asset. maybe weve learned more about the taliban through him and they will get more, but they have a lot more explaining to do to the extent that they can. >> i mean the guys on the ground, and we talked to a special forces commander in that area didnt believe he was an intelligence asset, unless -- >> he might have been an intelligence liability. >> you mentioned susan rice, and the not notifying congress...

Or persuading him to be more cooperative on other questions russia has about united states espionage. hes obviously in a space that russia controls but beyond the reach of u.s. authorities and it enables them to manage whatever negotiations are under way to where he goes next. >> react to what greg has said that. the u.s. had a fraught relationship with russia. when we look at it, do they have any diplomatic leverage to get snowden out of this place. and might that be happening, the downloading ...

Investigative project, alan said the cleric is now a dominant player within al qaeda in yemen. >> has anwar al-awlaki, in your opinion, become bolder? >> i think his profile has become slightly larger because we know more about him. his narcissistic personality has prospered but i dont think he is going to prosper. anwar al awlaki does not have a bright future. >> thats clearly a reference to the cia kill or capture order for al awlaki. of course as you mentioned, shep, he is the first american ...

Since the cuban revolution. >> a big diplomatic moment there. and kris, one of the big points of controversy in the presidents announcement is the revelation is wasnt just gross, he stressed unrelatedly another, what he really explicitly said was a swap of those cuban prisoners for an intelligence asset, tell us about that. >> we didnt know about this asset, he is a cuban, we have learned that he was critical in breaking some espionage cases, and seeing that some espionage prosecutions were succ...