by Jerry Dunleavy
The leaders of the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) are insisting that the gang Tren de Aragua works in coordination with the regime of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro following “twisted” and “illegal” classified leaks which claimed that at least some spy agencies did not believe this to be the case.
ODNI’s director, Tulsi Gabbard (pictured above, right), and FBI Director Kash Patel (pictured above, left) were prompted to publicly argue that the Venezuelan gang — also called the Aragua Train or just TdA — is in fact linked to the Maduro regime after purported classified leaks in recent days. The leaks allegedly revealed the U.S. intelligence community’s National Intelligence Council cast doubt on the idea that TdA is cooperating with Venezuela’s socialist leader Maduro, the successor to dictator Hugo Chavez.
Leaks attempt to undermine Trump’s stance
Over the weekend, the Washington Post cited unnamed “people familiar with the matter” when reporting that “the National Intelligence Council, drawing on the acumen of the U.S.’s 18 intelligence agencies, determined in a secret assessment early this month that the Venezuelan government is not directing an invasion of the United States by the prison gang Tren de Aragua.”
The outlet contended that “the intelligence product found that although there are some low-level contacts between the Maduro government and Tren de Aragua…the gang does not operate at the direction of Venezuela’s leader.”
The ODNI told the Post over the weekend that Trump “took necessary and historic action to safeguard our nation when he deported these violent Tren de Aragua terrorists” and that “now that America is safer without these terrorists in our cities, deep-state actors have resorted to using their propaganda arm to attack the President’s successful policies.”
Last month, the New York Times also cited unnamed officials familiar with the matter when reporting that a late February intelligence report “summarized the shared judgment of the nation’s spy agencies that the gang was not controlled by the Venezuelan government.” The outlet said that the intelligence assessment concluded that TdA “was not directed by Venezuela’s government or committing crimes in the United States on its orders.” The outlet said the intelligence agencies had a “moderate” confidence in their assessment, with “some supporting points put at ‘low’ confidence.”
An anonymous official reportedly told the Times that the assessment “also portrayed the gang as lacking the resources and being too disorganized — with little in the way of any centralized command-and-control — to be able to carry out any government orders” and that the assessment “says that while a handful of corrupt Venezuelan officials have ties to gang members, that does not amount to the gang’s being under the sway of the government as a whole.”
The leaks do not change ODNI’s assessment
Gabbard said in a Monday evening tweet that “The weaponization of intelligence to undermine the President’s agenda is an assault on democracy. Those behind this illegal leak of classified intelligence, twisted and manipulated to convey the exact opposite finding, will be held accountable under the full force of the law […]Rooting out this politicization of intelligence is exactly what President Trump campaigned on and what Americans overwhelmingly voted for. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence fully supports the assessment that the foreign terrorist organization, Tren De Aragua, is acting with the support of the Maduro Regime, and thus subject to arrest, detention, and removal as alien enemies of the United States.”
The Trump administration designated TdA as a foreign terrorist organization in February. Trump in March then invoked the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) of 1798 in an executive order, and argued that members of the Venezuelan gang “unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States” and that “TdA is closely aligned with, and indeed has infiltrated, the Maduro regime, including its military and law enforcement apparatus.”
A senior intelligence official who declined to be named told Just the News this week that there were a number of “facts based on intelligence that the illegal leakers and propaganda media conveniently did not include because it gets in the way of their biased narrative and attempt to deceive the American people.”
Gang provided with sanctuary
The senior intelligence official compared the Taliban’s protection of al-Qaeda to the Maduro regime’s facilitation of TdA.
The official told Just the News that examples include the U.S. going to war in Afghanistan against Al-Qaeda because the Taliban government was providing Al-Qaeda sanctuary. The Taliban were never assessed to be directing Al-Qaeda’s attacks — they provided Al-Qaeda with sanctuary which enabled the Islamist terrorist attack on our country on 9/11.
The official also said that the Maduro regime clearly plays a similar role for TdA, resulting in armed TdA gangs violently seizing territory and entire apartment complexes in America, in addition to the rapes, murders, and human trafficking TdA is involved with.
The senior intelligence official who declined to be named told Just the News this week that “TdA leaders have historically been located and broadly benefited from conditions in Venezuela created by the Venezuelan government” and that “the Venezuelan government gives sanctuary to TdA, aiding and abetting their crimes and terrorist activities against the United States by enabling them to thrive.
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Jerry Dunleavy is the chief investigative correspondent at Just the News.
Photo “Kash Patel” by Kash Patel and “Tulsi Gabbard” is by Tulsi Gabbard.
