WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary Pat Hegseth on Friday removed Lieutenant General Jeffrey Cruz, head of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), and two other senior military officers from their positions in a major move at the Pentagon.
According to news agency, this is the latest action by the Trump administration to dismiss senior officials in the Pentagon. According to the report, it is not yet clear why General Jeffrey Cruz was fired.
A US official said on condition of anonymity that in addition to Jeffrey Cruz, the chief of the US Naval Reserve and the commander of Naval Special Warfare Command have also been ordered to be fired.US Senator Mark Warner strongly criticized the move, saying that the dismissal of another senior national security official demonstrates the dangerous approach of the Trump administration in which intelligence is being used as a measure of loyalty rather than the security of the country.
The move appears to be part of the Trump administration’s policy of punishing current and former military, intelligence and law enforcement officials whose views or reports are deemed to conflict with his own.
Earlier this year, Trump fired National Security Agency (NSA) Director General Timothy Hough, part of a series of dozens of dismissals from the White House National Security Council. US Defence Secretary Pat Hegseth has previously targeted US military officers at the Pentagon.
In February, he fired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force General C.Q. Brown, along with five other admirals and generals, in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. In addition, this week, the US Air Force chief announced his sudden retirement mid-term.
While it is unclear why General Jeffrey Cruz was removed, the decision came after an initial report from the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) was leaked to the media, which stated that the US airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear sites on June 22 had only delayed Tehran’s program by a few months, contradicting President Trump’s claim that the targets had been completely destroyed.
The leak of the report angered President Trump. The White House called the classified report “absolutely false,” while Trump lashed out at CNN, the New York Times and other media outlets, calling them “scumbags” and “fake news.
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