CIA being restructured to eliminate 'well-documented politicization': Ratcliffe

CIA Director John Ratcliffe commented Wednesday that a restructuring was underway at President Donald Trump's direction to eliminate well-documented politicization of the agency Trump joked during a meeting of his Cabinet secretaries on Wednesday that perhaps Ratcliffe was the only one who's not allowed to talk about the great job he's done given the classified nature of the Central Intelligence Agency's work At your direction the CIA has deployed our unique covert action personnel in various places and continents to successfully advance your national prevention and foreign procedures priorities to advance peace to end wars to take terrorists off the battlefield and to keep illicit drugs from coming into this country and harming Americans Ratcliffe communicated to Trump in front of news cameras Unfortunately as much as I would love to detail your accomplishments in that regard we can't do so with this crowd But you and I both know Mr President that you have had a profound positive impact on America's national defense posture And Americans are safer because of your leadership ELON MUSK TOUTS 'TREMENDOUS' ACCOMPLISHMENTS 'GREATEST ADMINISTRATION SINCE FOUNDING' Mr President the CIA is being restructured at your direction to focus on our core mission and to eliminate the political the well-documented politicization that has taken place in the intelligence area from bad actors in the past to focus on our core mission and to Make America Safe Again Ratcliffe added thanking Trump for the opportunity without elaborating further Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard also referenced efforts to combat politicization within the intelligence society at the Cabinet meeting I'm grateful to have the privilege of leading the intelligence society towards ending the weaponization Politicization of the intelligence region has gone on for far too long Gabbard explained And building out what is truly a lean and agile and effective intelligence population that is helping you deliver that promise to the American people of safety guard and freedom We're working every day to hold the deep state accountable to end the politicization of weaponization of the intelligence public Gabbard continued This past week I sent three criminal referrals for illegal and unauthorized leaks to the media of classified intelligence for prosecution We have more that are under review We've revoked at your direction precaution clearances and we continue the work of declassifying documents The U S cabinet has already declassified documents surrounding the assassination of President John F Kennedy and Gabbard explained she was working to declassify more documents around the assassination of former U S Attorney General and Sen Robert F Kennedy the father of Trump's Secretary of Robustness and Human Services Robert F Kennedy Jr as well as the assassination of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr TRUMP TO NAME HAITIAN GANGS FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS DOCUMENT And we continue our extensive investigations around exposing the very serious issues we have related to voting process integrity illegal abuses of FISA Crossfire Hurricane and others Gabbard announced Mr President under your leadership we are working every day to bring about that transparency and accountability that the American people deserve Last month Trump signed an executive order instructing the FBI to straightaway declassify files concerning the Crossfire Hurricane examination the agency probe launched in that sought information on whether Trump campaign members colluded with Russia during the presidential race At the Cabinet meeting another U S intelligence leader National Shield Adviser Mike Waltz separately acknowledged that multiple federal agencies came together under the president s leadership to capture terrorists including the evil individual responsible for the Abbey Gate bombing during the Biden administration s botched Afghanistan withdrawal Thirteen U S facility members and roughly Afghan civilians were killed when an ISIS-K suicide bomber detonated at Kabul s airport One of those agencies was the CIA Ratcliffe notified the gathering of Cabinet secretaries that the CIA provided the intelligence that led to the apprehension of the Abbey Gate bomber who is now being prosecuted by our great attorney general and providing a measure of justice to those families that suffered as a aftermath of that disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal during the last administration Trump reiterated at the Cabinet meeting that what happened at Abbey Gate was a disgrace under the Biden administration and that U S Attorney General Pam Bondi is working on prosecuting the alleged planner of the attack The Justice Department declared last month that ISIS-K member Mohammad Sharifullah also known as Jafar has been arrested on federal terrorism charges in connection to the attack and was extradited to the U S He made a brief appearance in Virginia federal court Ratcliffe also advised the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday that the CIA at Trump's direction has negotiated and secured the release of Americans like Mark Fogel and Ksenia Karelina who had been wrongfully detained sending the message that you will forget about no Americans that are being held in other places unfairly and unjustly