"On Tuesday, Tulsi Gabbard announced she was stripping the clearance of 37 current and former spooks, in a thinly veiled political purge. NYT provides background on some of the people Tulsi purged, including Vinh Nguyen, who was purged because he allegedly pressured Tulsi's so-called whistleblower to affirm conclusions in the 2017 ICA, but who had remained in active service as a crucial contributor to NSA's quantum computing efforts until this purge."
"Add these 37 people to the long list of those who been purged in service of Trump's invented grievance about the 2016 election: Fire many of FBI's top Russian experts at the FBI. Retaliate against experts. Expose recent CIA recruits. Appointment of Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, and John Ratcliffe as top spies, all of them Useful Idioms for Russia. Fire more of FBI's top Russian experts at FBI."
"Elimination or down-grading of programs used to reign in Russia, including FARA, FCPA, Foreign Influence Task Force, and KleptoCapture. Assign an incompetent idiot, Steve Witkoff, to carry out negotiations with Russia. Refocus of organizations fighting hacking and foreign election interference. Fire two top officials on the National Intelligence Council. Fire six professionals at National Security Counsel, followed by Alex Wong and eventually Mike Waltz - a number of whom were more hawkish on Russia."
House Judiciary Committee made two sets of documents available. Tulsi Gabbard stripped security clearances from 37 current and former intelligence personnel. The purge included Vinh Nguyen, a contributor to NSA quantum computing work, allegedly removed over pressure related to a 2017 ICA whistleblower. The removals add to a pattern of dismissing FBI and intelligence experts on Russia, exposing recent CIA recruits, and installing political appointees such as Kash Patel and John Ratcliffe. Programs and teams addressing Russian influence and cyber threats have been diminished or refocused, and several senior intelligence officials have been fired or reassigned.
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