Matthew Savill
The US Intelligence Community is under sustained attack from its own government. Countries like the UK will try to minimise the fallout but will have to consider the US a less reliable intelligence partner for the duration of the crisis.
The US Intelligence Community is under attack. That in itself is not news – its officers wage a daily, usually unseen struggle with adversary services from countries like Russia, China and Iran. What is new is that this adversary now sits in Washington DC: the current US administration. It knows precisely where US intelligence is vulnerable and how to wound it.
The Call is Coming from Inside the House
Clashes between intelligence professionals and political leaders are not unusual. After events like the Iraq War, or Russia’s expanded invasion of Ukraine, politicians have often demanded reforms or new leadership. But the scale and intensity of the current upheaval is almost unprecedented, and probably not matched by anything seen in more than a generation
Within seven months of President Donald Trump's inauguration, the heads of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) have been forced out, along with the NSA's deputy, the acting Chair of the National Intelligence Council (NIC), and other intelligence officials. FBI officials linked to investigations of 6 January or Trump’s earlier conduct have been sidelined. Serving intelligence staff have seen their security clearances stripped: a career-ending punishment. Units dealing with election interference and foreign influence had their mandates curtailed or disbanded. In effect, Washington has launched a purge of its own intelligence apparatus.
It is the 'Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax'
The rationale is no secret. Senior officials, most notably Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Kash Patel, say they are cleansing the community of 'politicisation' and 'abuse' supposedly committed under Democratic administrations. The core of their case is that US intelligence abetted what Trump calls the 'Russia collusion hoax' or in Gabbard’s phrase a 'years-long coup against the president'.
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