Trump’s CIA pulls 19 intelligence reviews, together with analyses of white nationalism and LGBT+ points | EUROtoday

The Central Intelligence Agency has withdrawn greater than a dozen intelligence reviews, together with some that cowl LGBT+ activism, white nationalism and contraception.

Director John Ratcliffe ordered the “official retraction or substantive revision” of 19 CIA intelligence reviews that the company claims “did not meet” intelligence group requirements and “failed to be independent of political consideration,” the company mentioned Friday.

These paperwork had been recognized by the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, which just lately reviewed lots of of analytic reviews printed over the past decade, the company famous.

The CIA utterly retracted 17 of these reviews — which predate President Donald Trump’s second time period — and pulled two for revisions, in line with The Washington Post. The company publicly shared redacted variations of three affected reviews.

One of the reviews — titled “Women Advancing White Racially and Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremist Radicalization and Recruitment” — was launched in October 2021 underneath former President Joe Biden.

Racially motivated violent extremists had been thought of a major safety risk underneath Joe Biden’s administration and Trump’s first administration. Federal legislation enforcement underneath his second administration has centered on left-wing actions together with antifa, which he labeled a home terrorist group final yr.

The White House additionally claimed in September that “radical left violence” has “permeated the nation in recent years.”

Another report — “Middle East-North Africa: LGBT Activists Under Pressure” — was issued underneath former President Barack Obama in January 2015.

A 3rd report, “Worldwide: Pandemic-Related Contraceptive Shortfalls Threaten Economic Development,” was printed in July 2020, throughout Trump’s first time period.

The CIA mentioned these paperwork “exhibit substantial deviations from the President’s expectations that CIA’s workforce remains independent from a particular audience, agenda, or policy viewpoint.”

A senior CIA official who spoke to journalists on the situation of anonymity mentioned the reviews handled inappropriate subjects for the company to cowl, and in some situations relied on biased sources, in line with The Washington Post.

The official added that coaching for analysts has been “retooled.”

“The intelligence products we released to the American people today — produced before my tenure as [CIA director] — fall short of the high standards of impartiality that CIA must uphold and do not reflect the expertise for which our analysts are renowned,” Ratcliffe mentioned in a press release.

“There is absolutely no room for bias in our work and when we identify instances where analytic rigor has been compromised, we have a responsibility to correct the record,” he added.

Democratic Senator Mark Warner, vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticized the transfer.

“The President’s Intelligence Advisory Board plays an important advisory role, but it is not a substitute for the independent analytic judgment of the CIA and the broader Intelligence Community,” he mentioned.

“When a politically appointed body appears to be dictating what analysis is acceptable, it risks eroding confidence in the objectivity of our intelligence,” he added.

Republican Senator Tom Cotton, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, praised Ratcliffe’s announcement and mentioned he’s “been sending these kind of reports back to the CIA for years and observing that they contain no intelligence.”

“Our intelligence agencies have too often missed critical national-security developments to waste time on, for instance, how ‘pandemic-related contraceptive shortfalls threaten economic development.’ Honestly,” Cotton wrote on X.