On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell criticized the “almost hysterical” media coverage of intelligence reports that Russia may have placed bounties on U.S. soldiers and stated that military commanders “did not think that it was as serious a problem as the newspapers were reporting and television was reporting.”
Powell said, “[W]hat I know is that our military commanders on the ground did not think that it was as serious a problem as the newspapers were reporting and television was reporting. It got kind of out of control before we really had an understanding of what had happened. I’m not sure we fully understand now.”
He added, “Remember, it’s not the intelligence community that’s going to go fight these guys. It’s the guys on the ground, it’s our troops, it’s our commanders who are going to go deal with this kind of a threat, using intelligence that was given to them by the intelligence community. But that has to be analyzed, it has to be adjusted, and then you have to go find out who the enemy is. And I think we were on top of that one, but it just got — it got almost hysterical in the first few days.”
(h/t Mediaite)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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