CIA Director John Ratcliffe on Friday rescinded or revised 19 intelligence reports dating back to the Obama administration after determining they were politically biased or failed to meet established analytic standards.
A senior CIA official told Just The News the reports were first flagged during a review by the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, then examined by career agency officials before being retracted, recalled, or revised.
Seventeen of the 19 analytical products have been permanently deleted and are no longer available for use by intelligence agencies. Two reports were recalled, revised, and later re-released.
The official, who briefed reporters on a call, said the decision was not tied to President Trump’s political agenda but instead stemmed from the reports’ failure to comply with long-standing analytic standards outlined in Intelligence Community Directive 203.
The CIA released three retracted reports focused on political diversity that cited liberal outlets and think tanks, calling them “some of the most egregious” and saying they were chosen because they required minimal redactions. The other 16 were withdrawn for the same reasons, the official said.
One of the released reports originated from the agency’s Counterterrorism Mission Center. The other two were produced by the CIA’s World Intelligence Review, described as a daily publication and the flagship product of the agency’s Directorate of Analysis.
