Tulsi Gabbard, the new US Secretary of State, has created quite a splash. Specifically, she made her mark by sacking two D/ NIC (Director/ NIC) senior officials. Gabbard’s office confirmed Collins and Langan-Riekhof’s dismissals. Both of them have more than 25 years of intelligence experience. In addition to specific intelligence mission impacts, the removals have raised serious alarm bells about the integrity and nonpartisan nature of the intelligence community.
Gabbard’s choice to cut Collins and Langan-Riekhof is apparently due to their perceived opposition to President Trump’s agenda. Her office badged them as “Biden holdovers.” This decision indicates an intention to refocus the intelligence community to be in line with the new administration’s focus. Allies like Gabbard are still hard at work to completely reshape the intelligence landscape. She wants to address what she sees as politicization of intelligence operations.
As the director of the National Intelligence Director, he oversees 18 federal intelligence agencies and has vowed in the past to crack down on intelligence leaks. Like many schools of education, Gabbard’s goal is to clear out what she considers to be prejudices and redundancies in the system. Her deputy chief of staff, Alexa Henning, said the NIC officials were let go for “politicizing intelligence.” This claim supports Gabbard’s apparent aim to follow an apolitical path in intelligence analysis.
In addition to these firings, Gabbard has embarked on a broader mission to consolidate key operations within the intelligence community. Today, she’s physically moving those offices out of the CIA. They will shift to structures reserved for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). This consolidation is another step in her first term, continuing efforts to cut red tape and save on operational expenses.
Gabbard has even introduced legislation to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs established during the Trump years. She may have now created a taskforce to find ways to reduce costs. One of their main efforts is to assess the feasibility of declassifying information related to Covid-19 and other related topics.
“Absent evidence to justify the firings, the workforce can only conclude that their jobs are contingent on producing analysis that is aligned with the President’s political agenda, rather than truthful and apolitical,” remarked Representative Himes, voicing concerns about the implications of Gabbard’s actions on the integrity of intelligence work.
Gabbard’s office has reiterated her commitment to collaborating with President Trump in ending what they describe as the “weaponization and politicization of the intelligence community.” Her focus is on bringing credibility back to the system. Critics counter that her narrow approach will sacrifice objectivity in intelligence assessments.
As Gabbard pushes forward with these significant changes, her actions have sparked a debate about the balance between political alignment and impartiality in the intelligence community. The firings of Collins and Langan-Riekhof illustrate the difficult obstetrician officials are up against. Yet, they have to operate in an extremely politicized environment.