{"id":51484,"date":"2025-02-12T22:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T06:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=51484"},"modified":"2025-02-13T13:50:48","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T21:50:48","slug":"vips-memo-to-new-dni-tulsi-gabbard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2025\/02\/12\/vips-memo-to-new-dni-tulsi-gabbard\/","title":{"rendered":"VIPS Memo: To New DNI Tulsi Gabbard"},"content":{"rendered":"

MEMORANDUM FOR:<\/b> DNI Tulsi Gabbard
\nFROM:<\/b> Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
\nSUBJECT:<\/b> Ready and Equipped to Help<\/strong><\/p>\n

NOTE:<\/b> The first in VIPS\u2019 series of memoranda for President Joe Biden (listed below) made reference to a memo we had sent President-elect Biden on Dec. 20, 2020, titled \u201cDon\u2019t Be Suckered on Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that memo, we said: \u201cWe stand ready to support you with objective, tell-it-like-it-is analysis.\u201d<\/b><\/i> Former DNI Avril Haines had no use for such analyses. You may recall her statement in Dec. 2022<\/b><\/i> <\/b>that the Russians were running out of ammunition and had no indigenous capability to produce what they were expending on the battlefield.<\/p>\n

With this memorandum, we offer to provide you and your associates agenda-free analysis \u2013 \u201cuntreated reporting\u201d as President Truman put it. We hope that our record, particularly on Ukraine, as shown in our attempts to inform President Biden, will suggest to you that VIPS\u2019s views are worth serious consideration.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

May 1, 2022<\/b><\/p>\n

MEMORANDUM FOR:<\/b> The President
\nFROM:<\/b> Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
\nSUBJECT:<\/b> Nuclear Weapons Cannot Be Un-invented, Thus \u2026<\/a><\/strong>
\nREFERENCE:<\/b> Our Memo of 12\/20\/2020, Don\u2019t Be Suckered on Russia<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cThe growing possibility that nuclear weapons might be used, as hostilities in Ukraine continue to escalate, merits your full attention.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Sept. 5, 2022<\/b><\/p>\n

MEMORANDUM FOR:<\/b> The President
\nFROM:<\/b> VIPS
\nSUBJECT:<\/b> Ukraine Decision Time & Secretary of Defense<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf Austin tells you Kyiv is beating back the Russians, kick the tires\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Jan. 26, 2023<\/b><\/p>\n

ALERT MEMORANDUM FOR:<\/b> The President
\nFROM:<\/b> VIPS
\nSUBJECT: Leopards to Ukraine: Decisions in an Intelligence Vacuum<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cNone of the newly promised weaponry will stop Russia from defeating what\u2019s left of the Ukrainian army. If you have been told otherwise, replace your intelligence and military advisers with competent professionals \u2013 the sooner the better.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a large conceptual \u2013 and exceptionally dangerous \u2013 disconnect. Simply stated, it is not possible to \u201cwin the war against Russia\u201d AND avoid WWIII. It is downright scary that Defense Secretary Austin may think it possible. In any case, the Kremlin has to assume he thinks so. It is a very dangerous delusion.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

January 25, 2024<\/b><\/p>\n

ALERT MEMORANDUM FOR:<\/b> The President<\/p>\n

FROM:<\/b> VIPS<\/p>\n

SUBJECT:<\/b> Throwing Good Money After Bad<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOn Jan. 26 last year, we reminded you that National Intelligence Director Avril Haines had said Russia was using up ammunition extraordinarily quickly and could not indigenously produce what it was expending.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cOn July 13, you said Putin \u2018has already lost the war.\u2019 You may have gotten that from C.I.A. Director William Burns who, a week before, wrote an op-ed in <\/i>The Washington Post saying: \u2018Putin\u2019s war has already been a strategic failure for Russia \u2013 its military weaknesses laid bare.\u2019 Both statements are incorrect. Nor is the war a \u2018stalemate,\u2019 as Jake Sullivan has claimed more recently.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

March 25, 2024<\/b><\/p>\n

ALERT MEMORANDUM FOR:<\/b> The President<\/p>\n

FROM: <\/b>VIPS<\/p>\n

SUBJECT: The French Road to Nuclear War<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 And if France and the Baltics insist on sending troops into Ukraine, it must also be made clear that such action has no NATO mandate; that Article 5 will not be triggered by any Russian retaliation; and that the U.S. nuclear arsenal, including those nuclear weapons that are part of the NATO deterrent force, will not be employed as a result of any Russian military action against French or Baltic troops.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cVoid of such clarity, France would be leading the American people down a path toward a nuclear conflict decidedly not in the interests of the American people \u2013 or of humanity itself.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Our attempts to warn presidents go back 22 years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s our first VIPS Memorandum:<\/i><\/p>\n

Powell\u2019s UN Speech and the Case for War<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President
\nSUBJECT: Today\u2019s Speech by Secretary Powell At The UN<\/strong>
\nFebruary 5, 2003<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

And here is one that was particularly timely. (With two trustworthy VIPS members on board, who had been Technical Directors at NSA, how could we get this one wrong? Please note the early date.)<\/p>\n

US Intel Vets Dispute Russia Hacking Claims <\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

MEMORANDUM FOR: U.S. Senate
\nSUBJECT: Allegations of Hacking Election Are Baseless<\/strong>
\nDecember 12, 2016<\/b><\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

FOR THE STEERING GROUP,
\n<\/b>VETERAN INTELLIGENCE PROFESSIONALS FOR SANITY (VIPs)<\/b><\/p>\n