The head of the Pentagon’s intelligence agency has been fired, a move that the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee on Friday condemned as the latest example of politicizing intelligence under President Donald Trump’s administration.
“The firing of yet another senior national security official underscores the Trump administration’s dangerous habit of treating intelligence as a loyalty test rather than a safeguard for our country,” said US Senator Mark Warner, vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, who led the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), could not immediately be reached for comment. The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment. The dismissal was first reported by the Washington Post.
The move marks the latest instance of the Trump administration penalizing current and former military, intelligence and law enforcement officials whose views have clashed with Trump.
While it was not clear why Kruse was removed, the decision follows a leaked DIA assessment which said US airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22 had set Tehran’s program back only a few months. That contradicted Trump’s claim that the targets were “obliterated.”
The leak, which Reuters also confirmed, infuriated Trump. The White House denounced the top-secret assessment as “flat out wrong,” and Trump lashed out at CNN, the New York Times and other outlets that reported it, calling them “scum” and “FAKE NEWS.”
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