(Reuters) -The head of the Pentagon’s intelligence agency has been fired, a move the top Democratic lawmaker on the Senate intelligence committee on Friday slammed 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 U.S. Senator Mark Warner, who is the vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, who led the Defense Intelligence Agency, could not immediately be reached for comment. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The firing was first reported by the Washington Post.
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 at odds with Trump.
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 U.S. 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.”
The leaking of the assessment, which Reuters also reported, enraged Trump. The White House denounced the top-secret assessment as “flat out wrong,” and Trump attacked CNN, the New York Times and other outlets that obtained the report, calling them “scum” and “FAKE NEWS.”
(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
