CIA retracts 19 intelligence reports over bias concerns

Washington: The CIA has formally withdrawn or ordered revisions to 19 intelligence products after an internal and independent review found they did not meet the agency’s analytic standards and “failed to be independent of political consideration”, the agency has said.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe, in an official release, said the products, produced over the past decade, “fall short of the high standards of impartiality that CIA must uphold and do not reflect the expertise for which our analysts are renowned”.

The unusual move includes the retraction of 17 reports and the recall of two others for substantial revision, according to The Washington Post. The reports will be deleted from CIA databases and will no longer be available to US policymakers.

The products were identified by the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB), which reviewed hundreds of CIA analytic reports from the past decade. An internal review led by Deputy Director Michael Ellis concurred with the findings.

Director Ratcliffe released redacted versions of three reports cited as examples. They include “Women Advancing White Racially and Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremist Radicalization and Recruitment”, published October 6, 2021; “Middle East-North Africa: LGBT Activists Under Pressure”, published January 14, 2015; and “Worldwide: Pandemic-Related Contraceptive Shortfalls Threaten Economic Development,” published on July 8, 2020.

“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 stated.

“There is absolutely no room for bias in our work, and when we identify instances where analytic rigour has been compromised, we have a responsibility to correct the record,” he added.

A senior CIA official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said: “There’s absolutely no room for bias of any kind in CIA’s work. So when we find that our tradecraft did not reach that high bar of impartiality, we must correct the record.”

According to The Washington Post, the partially released reports examined the role of women in violent white nationalist groups overseas, the challenges facing LGBT activists in parts of the Islamic world, and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on access to contraception and family planning in developing countries.

The senior official described one 2021 assessment as “a prime example of how CIA analysts should not be spending their time”, arguing that it weighed in on foreign political debates “rather than discussing any actual threats of political violence” and “implies a danger to these societies from traditional motherhood-focused roles”.

The official also said two reports relied on open-source information from advocacy groups, including the Human Rights Campaign, the Washington Blade newspaper and Planned Parenthood.

The CIA said the actions “underscore our commitment to transparency, accountability, and objective intelligence analysis”.

The recall follows months of scrutiny by senior intelligence officials over how earlier assessments were prepared. The PIAB review was chaired by former Congressman Devin Nunes.

The CIA produces thousands of intelligence products annually.

IANS