Gabbard draws two senior intelligence officials focused on the evaluation of threats to us
Cnn
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The director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard dismissed the two main career officials leading the National Intelligence Council, the most main analytical group of the intelligence community whose work consists in understanding and evaluating the greatest threats facing the United States.
Gabbard dismissed Mike Collins, the acting chair, and his assistant, Maria Langan-Riekhof, on Tuesday, a spokesperson confirmed to CNN.
The layoffs come when Gabbard has sworn to eliminate what she described as a politicization of the intelligence community, and launched a war against the media leaks which, according to criticism, avoid the intelligence community of the necessary expertise of experienced professionals.
Jonathan Panikoff, a former intelligence official who sat on the NIC and worked with the two people, said Collins is “an incredible professional who served altruistic for 30 years and is a real expert in China”, and Langan-Riekhof “is not only a strategic thinker but an incredibly gifted analyst.
“The director works alongside President Trump to end the armament and politicization of the intelligence community,” the office of the national intelligence director said in a statement.
CNN contacted Collins and Langan-Riekhof via an intermediary because their contact details were not immediately available.
The layoffs come shortly after the ODNI – which Gabbard directs – published a declassified assessment of the network card on the Venezuelan gang Tren of Aragua which undervalued the key argument of the Trump administration to invoke the law on extraterrestrial enemies to accelerate deportations, the main measures of which have already disclosed the media and Gabbard said Subject.
Gabbard, asked about the evaluation, castigated the media for “torsion and manipulation of information assessments in order to undermine the president’s agenda to ensure the security of the American people”.
It is not clear if the two episodes are linked in any way – but Gabbard’s repression against unauthorized disclosure to the media was a key pillar of her general efforts to do what she described as depoliticizing the intelligence community.
Gabbard recently told the conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly that there were 11 internal investigations on unauthorized disclosure to the media and said that she had returned three cases to the Ministry of Justice for potential prosecution.
“Really what is happening when they do it is that they undermine our democracy because what they do … This is to say:” I do what is best for the country and I know what is better for the country that the majority of the American people who chose this duly elected president, “Gabbard told Kelly.” The only way to do the responsibility is to do the work. ”
