Conflict arises between leading US intelligence agencies - Reuters
Kyiv • UNN
The CIA has ceased participation in reports on Iran due to a conflict with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The dispute arose over access to data regarding Tulsi Gabbard's group.
The CIA has stopped contributing to some intelligence reports, including those concerning the war with Iran prepared by the office of the nation's top intelligence official, amid escalating disputes over intelligence sharing and areas of responsibility, Reuters reports, citing people familiar with the matter, according to UNN.
Details
The infighting between the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has been ongoing for over a year, disrupting cooperation on national security analysis that presidents have long relied on to navigate complex foreign challenges, a U.S. official and three people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
At the heart of the disagreement is a clash over a task force created in April 2025 by Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, sources said.
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The CIA, led by Director John Ratcliffe, argues that Gabbard's Director's Initiatives Group (DIG) acted recklessly, bypassing traditional intelligence sharing and declassification protocols, two sources said. ODNI officials say the CIA has consistently blocked the group's access to intelligence data.
The breakdown in cooperation between intelligence agencies comes at a dangerous time for the Trump administration, as the U.S. is embroiled in the Iranian conflict and faces national security challenges ranging from China's military expansion to Russia's war against Ukraine, the publication notes.
It also suggests that the post-September 11, 2001 reforms, which created the position of Director of National Intelligence to coordinate the 18 U.S. intelligence agencies, have not ended the dysfunction, the publication writes.
"ODNI is supposed to be the oil in the system that keeps the blood flowing through the arteries of the intelligence community, that removes blockages," said Beth Sanner, a former deputy director of national intelligence during President Donald Trump's first term. "When you don't do that, you create a potential threat that agencies will start to turn inward, and that leads to intelligence failures."
In addition to assessments conducted by the ODNI, the CIA has other avenues to ensure its intelligence, particularly regarding Iran, reaches the president and other policymakers. Intelligence information is a significant part of the President's Daily Brief, a highly classified daily compendium of intelligence reports prepared for the U.S. President.
Gabbard announced last week that she would step down as Trump's top spy on June 30, citing her husband's illness. Trump said Tuesday he is appointing Federal Housing Finance Agency head Bill Pult to serve as acting Director of National Intelligence.
"The President and policymakers continue to receive the best intelligence and analysis" from the intelligence agencies, said Olivia Coleman, an ODNI spokesperson, adding that the ODNI and the agencies it oversees "communicate and collaborate daily with CIA colleagues across the full spectrum of intelligence products and operations."
The DIG "operated within the ODNI's oversight authorities and in support of the President's executive orders," Coleman said.
In February, Reuters reported that Gabbard had scaled back the group's activities and moved the personnel involved to other parts of her agency amid congressional scrutiny of its activities.
"Under Director Ratcliffe, the CIA moved quickly to President Trump's priorities, becoming a more aggressive agency that took smart risks to outmaneuver our adversaries and give the United States a decisive advantage," said CIA Director of Public Affairs Liz Lyons.
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said Trump's "peace through strength foreign policy" is a proven approach that keeps America safe and deters global threats, and that media efforts to sow internal division will fail.
"President Trump has full confidence in his entire exceptional national security team," Ingle said.
The CIA's decision to significantly reduce its contribution to assessments conducted by Gabbard's office is one of the most serious consequences of the mutual distrust between the agencies, the publication writes.
The CIA has been a major contributor to reports prepared by the National Intelligence Council (NIC), the U.S. intelligence community's primary analytical body. The reports carry weight, especially during wartime.
Two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said assessments on Iran, where the U.S. military has been fighting since February, are among those in which the agency no longer regularly participates.
The CIA and ODNI are now operating largely as two separate analytical operations, sources said.
At one point last year, the CIA, in response to friction between the two agencies, stopped publishing NIC reports through an internal intelligence community distribution service it controls, briefly limiting the availability of analytical materials, sources said.
A U.S. official said the reports were delayed for only "a few hours" due to "processing issues."
Interagency friction began shortly after Gabbard took office in February 2025, four sources said.
Among her first actions was establishing tighter control over the preparation of the President's Daily Brief, sources said. The CIA has long played a leading role in compiling the briefing.
According to sources, the relationship deteriorated further with the creation of the DIG to "root out" alleged politicization of the intelligence community.
The group also worked on declassifying documents related to the assassination of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy, as well as investigating the security of voting machines in elections and the origins of COVID-19.
Critics, including some former intelligence officials, argue the group was created as a tool for retaliation against Trump's perceived political enemies.
Task force members repeatedly pushed for the CIA to share intelligence and materials needed to complete ODNI-assigned investigations but felt they were not provided with enough, according to two people familiar with the matter.