CIA Retracts and Revises 19 Intelligence Assessments Found to Be Politically Biased

The CIA announced Friday that Director John Ratcliffe has ordered the retraction or “substantive revision” of 19 intelligence assessments from the past decade after they were deemed politically biased. The agency released three redacted reports as examples of assessments that failed to meet its standards of impartiality.

“The intelligence products we released to the American people today — produced before my tenure as DCIA — fall short of the high standards of impartiality that CIA must uphold and do not reflect the expertise for which our analysts are renowned,” Ratcliffe said in a statement.

The three declassified reports, published between 2015 and 2021, covered white women’s extremist radicalization, attacks on LGBT activists in the Middle East and Africa, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on birth control access in developing countries.

According to the CIA, the problematic assessments were identified during an independent review by the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, which examined hundreds of reports from the last decade. The agency said the reports “did not meet CIA and IC analytic tradecraft standards and failed to be independent of political consideration.”

An internal review led by Deputy Director Michael Ellis subsequently confirmed these findings, determining that the reports failed to meet “the high standards the American people expect from CIA’s elite analytic workforce.”

The first declassified report, “Women Advancing White Racially and Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremist Radicalization and Recruitment,” was published in October 2021 during the Biden administration. It focused on women in overseas groups “that incite, facilitate or conduct violence because they believe that their perception of an idealized, white European ethnic identity is under attack from people who embody and support multiculturalism and globalization.”

The second report, “Middle East-North Africa: LGBT Activists Under Pressure,” was released near the end of the Obama administration. It claimed that “The tough stance taken against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community by governments in the Middle East probably is driven by conservative public opinion and domestic political competition from Islamists, and is hindering US initiatives in support of LGBT rights.”

The third declassified report, “Worldwide: Pandemic-Related Contraceptive Shortfalls Threaten Economic Development,” was published in July 2020 during President Donald Trump’s administration. It stated, “The COVID-19 pandemic is limiting contraceptive access in the developing world and will probably undermine efforts to address population pressures there that are hindering economic development.”

This unprecedented move to publicly disclose and disavow previous intelligence assessments has raised questions within the intelligence community. A senior administration official, speaking anonymously to The New York Times, indicated that most of the remaining flagged assessments dealt with diversity, equity, and inclusion topics.

Former intelligence officials have questioned both the decision to declassify these specific documents and the assertion that they were analytically flawed. Some believe the reports simply reflected the policy priorities of previous administrations rather than demonstrating political bias in intelligence analysis.

The CIA’s action comes amid ongoing scrutiny of potential political influence in intelligence work. In his statement, Ratcliffe emphasized the agency’s commitment to objectivity: “There is absolutely no room for bias in our work and when we identify instances where analytic rigor has been compromised, we have a responsibility to correct the record.”

Ratcliffe added that recent CIA operations, including “Operation ABSOLUTE RESOLVE” and “Operation MIDNIGHT HAMMER,” exemplify the agency’s “dedication to analytic excellence” and its renewed commitment to “transparency, accountability, and objective intelligence analysis.”

The public disclosure of these assessments marks a rare instance of the CIA openly acknowledging and correcting what it views as failures in its analytical process, particularly regarding politically sensitive topics that have been divisive in American public discourse over the past decade.