Tension has been increasing for some time between America’s two major intelligence agencies, the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). According to sources, CIA has stopped working on some important intelligence reports including the Iran war. There are differences between the two agencies regarding information sharing and work responsibilities. According to the report of news agency Reuters, this controversy started after Tulsi Gabbard became the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in February 2025.
Sources said that the CIA is no longer regularly involved in many intelligence assessments related to Iran as before. America has been involved in a military conflict involving Iran since February. In such a situation, coordination between the two agencies seems to be decreasing. Sources say that CIA and ODNI are now working almost like separate analysis agencies. Tulsi Gabbard has resigned on May 22, 2026 to take care of her husband suffering from cancer.
CIA had stopped releasing reports
Last year, the tension between the two agencies had increased so much that the CIA had stopped releasing National Intelligence Council (NIC) reports on its internal network for some time. This affected access to these reports. However, an American official said that this problem lasted only for a few hours and was due to a problem related to the technical process.
According to sources, Tulsi Gabbard exercised greater control over the Presidential Daily Brief (PDB), the daily intelligence report given to the President as soon as she assumed office. Earlier, CIA used to play an important role in preparing this report.
Gabbard formed a separate group
After this, Gabbard formed a special group named Directors Initiatives Group. Its purpose was said to be to investigate alleged political bias in intelligence agencies. This group supported former President John F. Also worked on declassifying documents related to Kennedy’s assassination, investigating the security of electoral voting machines and investigating the origin of Covid-19.
However, many former intelligence officers and critics allege that this group was used to take action against political opponents of President Donald Trump. Members of the group believed that the CIA did not fully provide the intelligence and documents necessary for their investigation.
Gabbard took action against CIA officers
In May 2025, Gabbard removed two senior CIA officers leading the NIC. In August 2025, Gabbard revoked the security clearances of 37 on-duty and former officials. During this time, the identity of a secret CIA officer posted abroad also came to light. Gabbard alleged that these people used and leaked intelligence information politically, but no evidence of this was made public.
This controversy came to the fore last month when a CIA officer associated with the Director’s Initiatives Group told a US Senate committee that the CIA had blocked his access to information related to the origin of Covid-19. After this, the Inspector General Office of the Intelligence Community has started investigating the matter. At present it is not clear how big this investigation will be.
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