Intel warning

US Intelligence Warned Of "Cataclysmic" Coronavirus Crisis As Impeachment Dominated Headlines

While Congressional Democrats dominated headlines with their impeachment of President Trump - who was ultimately acquitted by the Senate, US intelligence officials were sounding the alarm that a serious illness was sweeping through China's Wuhan region.

A November intelligence report by the National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) outlined concerns over what is now known as the COVID-19 pandemic - warning that it could be a "cataclysmic event," according to ABC News, citing two officials familiar with the document's contents. "It was then briefed multiple times to" the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s Joint Staff and the White House."

"The timeline of the intel side of this may be further back than we’re discussing," said one of ABC's sources. "But this was definitely being briefed beginning at the end of November as something the military needed to take a posture on."

The report was the result of analysis of wire and computer intercepts, coupled with satellite images. It raised alarms because an out-of-control disease would pose a serious threat to U.S. forces in Asia -- forces that depend on the NCMI’s work. And it paints a picture of an American government that could have ramped up mitigation and containment efforts far earlier to prepare for a crisis poised to come home. -ABC News