UNM faculty among spies who falsely called Hunter Biden story Russian disinfo
The “intelligence” community was desperate to smear the Hunter Biden laptop story that was proven true, and media outlets were forced to issue retractions. But those now admitting their faults do not include the 51 “intelligence” experts who co-signed a letter attempting to discredit the story as “Russian” disinformation.
The 51 wrote that “this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this,” adding, “There are a number of factors that make us suspicious of Russian involvement.”
Among the detractors are at least two University of New Mexico faculty members.
Doug Wise, former Defense Intelligence Agency deputy director, and former senior CIA operations officer, teaches at the University of New Mexico. The New York Post contacted him for comment on the now-debunked Russian disinformation hoax he propped up in the letter, but he did not respond.
In 2019, he spoke at length about a lecture regarding Afghanistan, saying he doesn’t consider himself an “expert” on relations with the country, but apparently, he finds himself to be an expert on Joe Biden’s son’s laptop full of disgraceful information that has lead to criminal charges.
He later said in 2023, “All of us figured that a significant portion of that content had to be real to make any Russian disinformation credible.”
Wise claims that critics, “whether they‘re members of the conservative journalist community, conservative politicians or just ultra-right wing extremists, they haven’t paid attention to the content.”
“I don’t regret signing it because the context is important,” he added. “Remember [former Mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy] Giuliani had just been in Ukraine trying to dig up evidence on the Bidens and he met with a known Russian intelligence official” — an apparent reference to pro-Moscow Ukrainian politician Andriy Derkach.
Another faculty member who signed the now-discredited letter is Emile Nakhleh, the former director of CIA’s Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program and former CIA senior intelligence analyst. He is now a research professor and director of National Security Programs at the University of New Mexico.
He has doubled down on his support for the misinformation written in the letter, telling the New York Post, “I have not seen any information since then that would alter the decision behind signing the letter. That’s all I can go into. The whole issue was highly politicized and I don’t want to deal with that. I still stand by that letter.”
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