Head of Pentagon's intelligence agency fired
Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Jeffrey Kruse has been fired weeks after his agency gave an initial assessment of strikes on Iran that angered Trump. PHOTO: REUTERS
The head of the Pentagon's intelligence agency has been fired, two US officials told Reuters on Friday, a move the top Democratic lawmaker on the Senate intelligence committee slammed as the latest example of politicizing intelligence by President Donald Trump's administration.
It was not immediately clear why Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, who led the Defense Intelligence Agency, was fired. But he is the latest senior military official to have been removed under US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The official, who confirmed Kruse's removal on condition of anonymity, did not give a reason.
"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, who is the vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The firing was first reported by the Washington Post.
Latest firing
The move is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to penalize current and former military, intelligence and law enforcement officials whose views have been seen as at odds with Trump.
In April, Trump fired General Timothy Haugh as director of the National Security Agency, in a purge that included more than a dozen staff at the White House national security council. Hegseth has also gone after uniformed military officials at the Pentagon.
In February, he fired Air Force General C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was dismissed long with five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership.
The chief of the U.S. Air Force made a surprise announcement on Monday that he planned to retire only half way through his tenure. While it was not clear exactly why Kruse was fired, it comes after a preliminary DIA assessment leaked to the news media that said the June 22 US airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities had set Tehran's program back only a few months, a finding contradicting Trump's claim that the targets were "obliterated".