Overview
- Director John Ratcliffe ordered the action after the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board reviewed hundreds of analyses from the past decade and an internal review led by Deputy Director Michael Ellis concurred.
- Seventeen products were rescinded and two withdrawn for revision, with the agency declining to detail disciplinary measures and noting some authors may no longer be at the CIA.
- The CIA publicly released three example reports covering LGBT activists in the Middle East and North Africa, contraception access during the COVID-19 pandemic, and women’s roles in white REMVE recruitment.
- Agency officials said several assessments inappropriately introduced DEI-related themes and relied on advocacy and media sources in ways that undercut objectivity.
- Reaction in Congress split sharply, as Sen. Mark Warner criticized the move as politicized given the PIAB’s Trump-appointed membership, while Sen. Tom Cotton praised the corrections.