Email — For IC Coord by 7 Oct: NIC Alternative Analysis on China/Election (7 October 2020)

A CIA East Asia CI Division SME (Operations/IIA/Office of East Asia Pacific) writes it "speaks exactly to what has been on my mind but what was left out of the mainline IC assessment" and "looks very good!" (p.1-2).

An NSA senior described as "one of the few seniors that remained analytically focused" is noted as being on board (p.1).

The Director writes he has "burned enough political capital arguing with CIA and FBI about this," and is unsure "why so many in the community want to close down the possibility that China might have done or be doing *something*" (p.3).

Notes that at the last COI meeting "everyone around the table at NSA had thoughts similar" but many were reticent to express them because FBI and CIA "seemed so adamant about their stances" (p.3).

They label the piece alternative analysis representing the perspective of the NIO Cyber and the Director only; they will include a large text box laying out the mainline view, and request input by COB Wednesday 7 October (p.7).

The Director, Election Threat Analysis (NIC/DNI Election Threat Executive) and the NIO — Cyber announce they are publishing an alternative analysis NIC memo because they have a different take on the China/election story than what has appeared in production (p.7).

Their lead, in "short non-compartmented form": they assess "that Beijing has taken some low-level, exploratory steps to denigrate the President and shape voter perceptions ahead of the election" (p.7).