By Ken Dilanian, Courtney Kube and Carol E. Lee
https://muckrack.com/ken-dilanian
https://muckrack.com/courtney-kube/articles
https://muckrack.com/carol-lee
The White House has ordered intelligence agencies to comb through communications intercepts, human source reporting, satellite imagery and other data to establish whether China and the World Health Organization initially hid what they knew about the emerging coronavirus pandemic, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the matter told NBC News.
A specific "tasking" seeking information about the outbreak's early days was sent last week to the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency, which includes the National Center for Medical Intelligence, an official directly familiar with the matter said. The CIA has received similar instructions, according to current and former officials familiar with the matter.
Asked about the inquiry Wednesday, President Donald Trump told reporters he was receiving information.
"It's coming in and I'm getting pieces already," he said. "And we're not happy about it, and we are by far the largest contributor to WHO, World Health. And they misled us…Right now, they're literally a pipe organ for China. That's the way I view it. So we're seeing and we're looking and we're watching."
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/trump-administration-asks-intelligence-agencies-find-out-whether-china-who-n1194451