In a stunning discovery, it echoes through the halls of intelligence that highly secret, classified material related to Russian's integral role in interference in the U.S. election has vanished. This intelligence was deemed so significant and explosive that it was contained within a binder, within a safe, within an additional protective safe stationed in the heart of the CIA headquarters.
As the grand curtain fell on the Trump administration, the divulgence and incidents spread, revealing that the missing binder was transported to the White House amidst a push to declassify documents tethered to the FBI's ongoing investigation. Only to then completely disappear off the radar.
This is not merely the loss of any ordinary classified data. What we are addressing here is the startling vanishing of raw intelligence. Raw intelligence signifies the unprocessed, preliminary pieces of an information puzzle that stand unanalysed and undigested. This kidnapping of raw intelligence generates a deep-seated concern due to its susceptibility to being selectively redacted to formulate and project an incriminating or misleading narrative.
Sources informed that the snatched binder bore raw intelligence that the United States and its NATO allies assembled on Russians and Russian agents. This intelligence explicitly contained the sources and methods that led to the U.S. government's calculated inference of Russian President Vladimir Putin's intentions to help Trump win the 2016 election.
Such a treasure trove of raw intelligence could inflict devastating damage if fallen into the clutching hands of an adversary of the United States. Indeed, this raw intelligence most likely pertains to the indictment of 12 military intelligence officers of the GRU, the Russian Military Intelligence Service, in blatant interference in the 2016 election - particularly penetrating the email system of the Democratic National Committee to sabotage Hillary Clinton's campaign.
The loss of such sensitive raw intelligence not only looms the threat of it being manipulated to influence public opinion but also the disclosure of our sources and methods of collecting such coveted information. Ironically, unearthing the mystery behind this high-profile intelligence disappearance might hold the key to securing our national security and fortifying our intelligence apparatus in the digital age.
