Page 4 - John Cipher News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Foil an alleged plot to assassinate president zelenskyy. a group of elite to kill zelenskyy when they were killed near kyiv last weekend. joining me now, john cipher, retired 28 veteran of the national clandestine surgery, ran the cia's worldwide program from 2000 to 2002. so john, how do you interpret these claims and who are these forces and how likely is it they would even be involved in this kind of plot? >> the chechnyaen thing is quite interesting. in 1994, the russians invaded chechnya and it turned out bloody them terribly, and they destroyed everything in chechnya, and now it's essent...

Here's a question, based on how things can work together, one thing causes the next, do you think the situation with brittney griner may have prompted the state department to invoke the warning saying to americans, get out of russia now? >> it very well may have. but remember, the embassy is quite decimated, there's been a number of tit for tat expulsions, an ambassador habd kicked ou embassy is in crisis. this might have been the last straw. it's important to publicize the case. that's the best thing that keeps her safe because russians have a tendency to not treat people well. >> if the emba...

Have been nervous about this. they don't trust the government. remember the iraq war, the intelligence turned out not to be true. but here, we're trying to avoid war. and secondly, this information is not meant to try to convince american citizens anything. anybody except one person, putin. he's the one that knows this information is true or not. he knows that there's intelligence information, he knows if we're saying people are planning to do a, b, or c, it has to affect his calculus. oh, what else do they know? i was planning to do this secretly. now i can't do that. i think the administrati...

If these russian soldiers are guilty. s >> i want to bring in john cipher. when you see that piece and what he experienced, tell me what is your take away. >> i don't think it was good they filmed that. the russians could have taken their phones and it could have gotten bad. you have language differences. everybody is scared. life is on a razor's edge in those situations. it's quite scary. you can imagine what the citizens of ukraine are having to go through every day. you see people around you and you don't know if they will shoot at you or not. you don't know which way to go.

Let me also share with our viewers something on a practical note, within the declaration of the state department, u.s. citizens should note credit and debit cards may be declined as a result of the sanctions imposed on russian banks. it goes on to say there are reports of cash shortages, so getting out, that might also add to your problems, literally paying to get yourself out. at this point, the united states is not going to pay to get you out. you've got to try to do it on your own. there's a lot packed into this one. joining me now is john cipher, a retired veteran of the kri's clandestined...