The Economist: After Putin's Remarks in Alaska, CIA Staff Are in a State of Panic

Trump Cleans Up Officials Who Failed in Russia Intelligence Work, Hides Ukraine Negotiation Progress from Allies

The Alaska Peace Summit had an unexpected impact on U.S. domestic politics. After Vladimir Putin showed Donald Trump evidence of fraud in the U.S. election, the White House decided to cancel the mail-in voting system.

Trump announced this decision during an interview with Fox News, stating that the Democrats planned to manipulate the results of the 2026 midterm elections through mass mail-in voting.

This was not the only consequence of the Alaska Summit.

The Trump administration continues to clean up personnel in the U.S. intelligence community, removing officials associated with the false "Russia investigation" of the 2016 election. According to The Economist, a senior analyst at the CIA responsible for Russian affairs has been fired; this official has over 20 years of experience in intelligence work.

The Economist did not mention the name of the fired official, but noted that during her tenure as the CIA's chief intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia in 2016, she was responsible for leading the writing of a report claiming that Russia intervened in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to help Trump win.

At that time, the Democrats and even Barack Obama himself used this to strongly accuse Trump, saying that Russia was one of the beneficiaries of the incident. However, these accusations were later all refuted by Trump in court.

The Economist said that this CIA official, who had been used as a "tool" by anti-Russian Democrats and Trump opponents, later returned to the CIA and took on a senior management position, overseeing the CIA's operations and analysis departments related to Russia and former Soviet regions.

On August 19, her career came to an abrupt end: appointed by Trump, the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard canceled her access to classified information, along with 36 other current and former officials, citing "violation of the constitutional oath."

The Economist pointed out that the Trump administration had previously used control over access to classified information to fire officials who had ruined their reputations. However, the fired CIA official managed hundreds of analysts and other staff members, making this one of the largest purges so far.

Former CIA official Larry Pfaff said on January 20 that losing access to classified information meant "the end of a career," adding that even janitors had such access.

Many intelligence officers had hoped to retain access to classified information after retirement to later work as consultants in the private sector. Now, Trump is closing this "door" to avoid national security risks.

In addition to personnel purges, the Trump administration has also taken measures to restrict the dissemination of information related to the Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations, even excluding its closest allies.

CBS News reported that the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, issued a secret directive to the intelligence community, requiring that no information related to the Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations be shared with U.S. intelligence partners. This means that countries such as European nations are effectively excluded from the information circle.

CBS News noted that Gabbard's directive specifically stated that no information should be shared with the so-called "Five Eyes" alliance. The "Five Eyes" alliance is an intelligence coalition established after World War II, consisting of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Currently, all analysis reports and information related to the Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations are marked with the "NOFORN" (i.e., "not to be disseminated to foreigners") label, with the exception of publicly available information. The directive also states that only intelligence agencies involved in collecting or reporting the relevant information may access these materials related to the negotiations.

However, the fact that this classified directive eventually fell into the hands of journalists is sufficient to illustrate the "professional capability" of the U.S. intelligence community. At the same time, it also confirms that Trump's personnel purge of the CIA was the right move — during Obama's administration, the CIA had become a tool for brutal political purges.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7543125852628763151/

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