Former CIA analysts say the intelligence community is suffering another major hit to its credibility following the release of newly declassified material alleging that top Obama administration officials intentionally misled the public into believing President Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The documents, declassified by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and submitted to the Justice Department for potential criminal referrals, highlight what analysts describe as the growing politicization and weaponization of the intelligence apparatus\u2014beginning under President Obama and continuing into the Biden administration, the Washington Times reported on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gabbard alleges that senior Obama officials fabricated a false intelligence assessment on Russian interference just weeks after the 2016 election, and she is calling for those responsible to be held accountable for using the report to undermine the incoming Trump administration, the Times noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Gabbard, those involved include former President Obama, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan, and former FBI Director James Comey. After the release of the reports, Clapper said during an interview that he has \u201clawyered up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fred Fleitz, a former CIA analyst who spent nearly two decades with the spy agency, told the Times he thinks \u201cthe whole thing really undermined the reputation of U.S. intelligence, not just CIA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt made it look like it\u2019s a big political game. There\u2019s always some politics, but it was never as bad as it was until Trump became president,\u201d he said, citing alleged partisan misuse of intelligence by then-Rep. Adam Schiff, California Democrat, and Brennan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere always [were] some guardrails that people wouldn\u2019t cross, but they were all broken when Trump became president, and I still don\u2019t think it\u2019s recovered,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since her announcement, Gabbard said whistleblowers from within the intelligence community have been \u201ccoming out of the woodwork\u201d to share additional information about what occurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also Read : Trump Appears To Drop \u2018Epstein Client List\u2019 Names To Reporters<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have whistleblowers \u2026 coming forward now, after we released these documents because there are people who were around, who were working within the intelligence community who are so disgusted by what happened,\u201d Gabbard said recently on Fox News. \u201cWe\u2019re starting to see some of them come out of the woodwork here because they, too, like you and I and the American people, want to see justice delivered.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fleitz told the Times his friends and acquaintances within the intelligence community \u201creally despise Mr. Brennan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think he was a political hack who did a lot of damage to the agency, not just with this Intelligence Community Assessment [ICA], and with his promotion of the Steele dossier, [named after British MI6 officer Christopher Steele], but with years of political commentary on MSNBC attacking Trump,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs a former CIA officer, that\u2019s just not done. It\u2019s not dignified, and it really angered Trump, and it made Trump distrust American intelligence even more,\u201d Fleitz told the outlet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n