Dozens of intelligence officials began receiving notice of their terminations on Thursday under Bill Pulte, the new acting director of national intelligence.

An intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to potential reprisal, told MS NOW that the individuals being removed by the Trump administration are officials “who they believe are deep state.” Intelligence leadership alleges that the fired workers have not provided complete pictures of available intelligence, the official said.

The moves come after Pulte’s elimination last month of six political appointees who served under Tulsi Gabbard, the previous director of national intelligence.

Four former senior intelligence officials told MS NOW that they had never heard of intelligence officials withholding information from officials above them.

“The premise is absurd,” one of the former officials said.

Another of the former officials questioned how Pulte, who has no experience working in intelligence, would be able to make such a determination so quickly.

“I have a real question of how he would know this. This isn’t a guy who is familiar with intelligence,” said the former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing concerns about retaliation. “How is he going to get to the bottom of this and rely on any information with a matter of fidelity? It would be like me taking over a hospital and firing dozens of surgeons in a matter of days.”

Both former officials noted that Pulte’s office itself does not collect intelligence. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence receives it from the CIA, the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and 15 other agencies. He said that CIA Director John Ratcliffe, for example, would know of such a problem.

“If there really was any serious withholding of information, the guy who would know this is Ratcliffe,” said one of the former officials. “He is in the inner circle. He and his analysts would be the first ones to know. If anyone would know about that alleged claim, it would be him.”

A spokesperson for the CIA did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.

A third former senior intelligence official dismissed the idea that intelligence officials would ever engage in such conduct.

“The intelligence community is comprised of committed professionals,” the former official said. “This is a fantasy. It only hurts U.S. national security, and it’s helpful to Russia, China and Iran.”

A fourth former senior intelligence official told MS NOW that the “overwhelming majority of professional intelligence officers are  motivated by a deep and enduring commitment to protect the national security of the United States.”

“They take their oath very, very seriously,” the former official added. “Though individuals undoubtedly hold a wide range of political views, intelligence officers, and indeed most national security professionals, approach their work in a nonpolitical way and deeply resent the idea that doing so somehow confirms the idea there is some kind of a deep state.”

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From MS Now.