WASHINGTON — The CIA has withdrawn more than a dozen intelligence reports from the past ten years that were influenced by Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) themes. These reports, including one that suggested traditional motherhood roles were radicalizing white women, have been rescinded.
According to a senior CIA official, Director John Ratcliffe has retracted 19 intelligence documents because they did not meet the agency’s standards for objectivity. Out of these, 17 reports were fully retracted, while two are undergoing revisions.
The agency has disclosed only three of these politically influenced assessments, which focus on DEI and were created during the Biden, Trump, and Obama administrations.
One noteworthy report, issued on October 6, 2021, was titled “Women Advancing White Racially and Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremist Radicalization and Recruitment.” This assessment delved into foreign political debates about gender roles rather than addressing actual threats of political violence, according to the senior official.
The report identified far-right Canadian YouTuber Lauren Southern as a white racially and ethnically motivated violent extremist and highlighted the perceived dangers such figures pose to society, along with concerns about women embracing traditional motherhood roles.
Another report, dated July 8, 2020, focused on family planning, examining the global disruptions in condom supply chains. The senior official mentioned that this report relied on “unobjective sources of information,” such as Planned Parenthood.
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.
