We don’t need to guess where this top CIA official’s loyalties lie, because she’s telling us herself by posting a pro-Palestinian image to Facebook just two weeks after the horrific Hamas terror attacks of Oct. 7 and while the U.S. president was in Israel for meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to the Financial Times, the unnamed associate deputy director changed her profile picture on October 21 to this photo of a man waving a Palestinian flag:
FT did not name the analyst because "the intelligence agency expressed concern about her safety." They did, however, opine that social media posts like this from intelligence analysts are not the usual practice:
Posting an overtly political image on a public platform is a very unusual move for a senior intelligence official. It comes as tensions rise inside the administration about whether President Joe Biden should put more pressure on Israel to bring an end to the fighting in the Gaza Strip.
In a separate Facebook post, the senior intelligence official also published a selfie with a sticker saying “Free Palestine” superimposed on the photograph. One person familiar with the image said it was posted to Facebook years ago and long before the current conflict.
The flag image was reportedly taken in 2015 and has been used in news stories and opinion pieces criticizing Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank.
The apparently pro-Hamas CIA official was certainly no low-level functionary—she has previously helped produce the President’s Daily Brief, the highly classified intelligence briefing given to the president almost every morning, and is "one of three people, including the deputy CIA director, responsible for approving all analyses disseminated inside the agency."
One former agent did not approve of the posts:
"The public posting of an obviously controversial political statement by a senior analytic manager in the middle of a crisis shows glaringly poor judgment,” said one former intelligence official, who added that some intelligence community members were concerned that the post expressed a bias that could undermine the analysis directorate.
"Some intelligence community members were concerned that the post expressed a bias that could undermine the analysis directorate." You think?
Said another anonymous official:
“Given the role [CIA] director [William] Burns is playing in the ongoing crisis in Israel, social media activity along these lines by a senior US intelligence officer reflects exceptionally and surprisingly bad judgment,” said a third former intelligence official.
The CIA naturally tried to downplay the situation, saying in a statement:
CIA officers are committed to analytic objectivity, which is at the core of what we do as an agency. CIA officers may have personal views, but this does not lessen their — or CIA’s — commitment to unbiased analysis.
Personal views are one thing, but when a CIA officer undermines the president of the United States while he is overseas, it's reprehensible. It's also in extremely poor taste to post something like that even as the world was coming to terms with the systematic rape, wanton murder, and savagery of Hamas on that day. Unfortunately, we've seen a lot of responses like that lately, but it's extremely concerning when it's emanating from a top intelligence official who is supposedly helping to implement the administration's policies.
I have no love for this president, but still, if you don't like working for him and you don't like his positions—resign. And don't let the door hit you on the way out.
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