US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has removed Lt Gen Jeffery Kruse as head of the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), just weeks after a White House rebuke over a review assessing the impact of American strikes on Iran. The move comes days after President Donald Trump accused the DIA’s report of being “flat out wrong”.
The assessment, released in June, found that attacks on Iran had only set back its nuclear programme by months. The White House declared the agency’s assessment “wrong” and Trump said the nuclear sites were “completely destroyed”. Hegseth later claimed the report was based on “low intelligence”.
Kruse is the third senior military commander to be removed from his position since Hegseth took office, following General C Q Brown in February. Other officials have also been ousted, including the chief of US Naval reserves and the commander of Naval Special Warfare Command.
Senator Mark Warner has warned that Kruse’s removal suggests Trump views intelligence as a “loyalty test” rather than a safeguard for the country. The move is seen as part of a broader pattern of removing officials whose analysis differs from the president’s views.
In recent months, Trump has fired several high-ranking officials, including Commissioner of Labor Statistics Erika McEntarfer and General Timothy Haugh, director of the National Security Agency.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2dj217z2w6o