Ex-CIA Chief Sees at Least ‘One in Five’ Chance of War with North Korea
In Fordham Law School interview, John Brennan also says Trump is either uninformed or misleading public about Iran deal
Former CIA Director John Brennan estimated that the U.S. has at least a 20% likelihood of becoming engaged in military conflict with North Korea amid President Donald Trump’s discord with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
.. “Having this back-and-forth on the public stage is not the way to de-escalate here,” Mr. Brennan said during an onstage interview at Fordham University School of Law on Wednesday night.
Mr. Brennan said only back-channel negotiations would “allow these two individuals to save face.”
Otherwise, “I can’t see either one of them saying, ‘OK, uncle! You win.’”
.. On Wednesday, Mr. Brennan said that although Russian operatives are “very sophisticated observers of the American political scene,” he nevertheless believed they were assisted by at least some individuals within the U.S. in their campaign to meddle in the election.
“It’s hard for me to believe that the Russians—as good as they are, as sophisticated as they are—were not able to get some Americans to cooperate with them, either wittingly or unwittingly,” he said. “I find it implausible.”