Another Intelligence Leader Hears The Whisper of The Axe

Today, Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, USAF, was fired from his position as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). His offense, apparently, was allowing DIA's Bomb Damage Assessment (BDA) analysts to accurately report preliminary findings that the 22 June 2025 raids against three Iranian nuclear program targets, damaged but did not obliterate the facilities. The assessment was leaked to the public and embarrassed the Trump administration in the midst of high-fiving each other for “obliterating” the targets.

Trump could have done the grown-up thing (including maybe not high-fiving before getting more definitive results) and explained that early—or first-phase—BDA is preliminary and often inaccurate. Instead Trump threw a tantrum and accused analysts who have spent careers doing BDA of not knowing what they were doing.

Lieutenant General Kruse could have overruled his analysts and agreed with Trump that the facilities were obliterated. Instead chose integrity and supported his analysts. His fate was doubtless sealed.

Trump’s decapitation of the Nation’s Intelligence Community is truly dangerous. And, I don't use decapitate or dangerous loosely. Since taking Office in January, Trump fired the Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and Commander of US Cyber Command, General Timothy Haugh, because he was recommended by then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Geberal Mark Milley. This week, Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbad fired NSA’s Chief Data Scientist for supposed involvement in an imaginary coup attempt against Trump during his first term. Gabbard also fired most of the National Intelligence Council, who act as a body of the most senior intelligence analysts and experts in the community.

Over at the FBI, Kash Patel has been on a firing binge. Many of those fired are tainted by their proximity to the Crossfire Hurricane Investigation of the Trump campaign’s outreach to Russia during the 2016 campaign and the later Mueller Investigation. One senior agent and counterintelligence expert was fired simply because he was friends with Peter Strozk, who was briefly assigned to the Mueller team before being relieved over injudicious texts.

At State Department the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) is in line to be gutted. INR has been praised by Intelligence leaders across the community for decades for the quality of their analysis.

The immediate effect of these firings is likely to be that those left standing will think twice before writing a paper or delivering a briefing on something their audience needs to know about but doesn't want to know; or doesn't want it on record they know. There will be other effects in days, months, and years to come. None of them will be good and many will be dangerous. Suffice it to say that degrading or losing intelligence collection and analytic capability, losing lifetimes of expertise and dedication to seeking and speaking truth to power without regard to political party or opinion, will do grievous damage to our national security and the safety of our people.