The Politics of the U.S. Intelligence Radical Break from Past Strategies Stumps Russians March 6, 2022 – Twenty years after colossal blunders claiming Iraq weapons of mass destruction and failing to intercept the 911 hijackers, U.S. Intelligence agencies are being praised for exposing Russian plans to invade the Ukraine. “Someone decided to make a pretty radical break from what has been the practice for decades,” former New York Times national security reporter Scott Shane said. “What they did at each stage is they put the intelligence out.”