WASHINGTON — The CIA retracted more than a dozen intelligence assessments authored over the past decade that were infused with DEI, including one that claimed movements pushing traditional motherhood roles were radicalizing white women.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe rescinded 19 intelligence products because each “failed to meet the agency’s standards of objectivity,” according to a senior official, of which 17 were fully retracted and two withdrawn for revisions.
The agency publicly released just three of those assessments that it said were politically influenced and focused on DEI, which were authored during the Biden, Trump and Obama administrations.
One was an Oct. 6, 2021, assessment titled “Women Advancing White Racially and Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremist Radicalization and Recruitment” that waded into “foreign political debates about gender roles rather discussing any actual threats of political violence,” the senior CIA official said.
It had labeled the far-right Canadian YouTuber Lauren Southern as a white racially and ethnically motivated violent extremist and spoke of the dangers such figures pose to societies — in addition to women pursuing traditional roles as mothers.
A July 8, 2020 a CIA report also centered on family planning and the disruptions of condom supply chains worldwide using “unobjective sources of information such as Planned Parenthood,” the official noted.
Another Jan. 14, 2015, document pushed for the CIA to engage with “political debates about LGBT issues” in foreign governments, while citing known activist groups like the Human Rights Campaign, per the official.
The document stated in its opening paragraph: “The tough stance taken against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community by governments in the Middle East and North Africa probably is driven by conservative public opinion and domestic political competition from Islamists, and is hindering US initiatives in support of LGBT rights.”
The President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, an executive office, audited more than 300 analyses in total.
“Under prior administrations,” the senior CIA official said, “there was an inappropriate insertion of DEI issues and other distractions into aspects of CIA’s work which undercut our mission of providing objective intelligence analysis on national security issues.”
“We found that these products — they do not meet the high bar of impartiality or insightfulness that we expect from CIA and were an inappropriate use of CIA time and resources,” the official added.
The audit makes good on Ratcliffe’s promise during his Senate confirmation hearing last year to root out “political or personal biases” to make the spy agency “the ultimate meritocracy.”
“To the brave CIA officers listening around the world, if all of this sounds like what you signed up for, then buckle up and get ready to make a difference,” he had said. “If it doesn’t, then it’s time to find a new line of work.”
That was followed by an effort to shrink the agency’s workforce by 1,200.
Asked by a reporter whether the botched intel assessments led to any demotions or firings, the official noted, “We’ve created mechanisms to address these concerns, and we’ve really made sure that we clarify our expectations for all officers in our director of analysis.”
The official noted, given the 10-year timeline, that it’s possible several authors of the reports have since left the CIA.
