Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard totally blindsided the Central Intelligence Agency when she released a list of 37 officials with revoked security clearances who were deemed ethically suspect. Taking time out from being blindsided by world events, the source of the CIA’s shock and surprise here was the inclusion of an undercover CIA officer on the list. According to a somewhat overwrought report in the Wall Street Journal, “Gabbard didn’t know the CIA officer had been working undercover, according to a person familiar with the fallout from the list’s release. Three other people with knowledge of the situation said that Gabbard’s office didn’t meaningfully consult with the CIA before releasing the list.”
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The Washington Post took a different tack on the story.
In the days leading up to President Donald Trump’s Aug. 15 Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, one of the CIA’s senior-most Russia experts worked grueling hours, helping Trump and his team prepare for high-stakes diplomacy over Ukraine and making sure they were adequately briefed, according to a former agency colleague.
Four days later, the CIA officer — whom The Washington Post is not naming for her protection — was at work at the spy agency’s Langley headquarters when she was abruptly ordered to report to the security office. She was informed that her clearance to look at classified material was being stripped. In a span of minutes, her 29-year career in public service was essentially over.
The officer had been expecting an imminent move to Europe to take up a prestigious assignment approved by CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
I’d just point out that in “not naming for her protection,” the Washington Post provided enough details that the same people who found Shia LaBeouf’s anti-Trump flag could have produced the alleged agent’s name; Shia LaBeouf’s Trump Protest Gets Pwned By 4chan – RedState.
If you’re old enough to have memories of the George W. Bush administration, the whole tale smells suspiciously like the Valerie Plame affair, where the CIA used the leak of a “undercover” agent’s status as an excuse to engage in some score-settling with the White House. Eventually, Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Scooter Libby, went to jail for something he was only tangentially involved in.
If the WSJ story were true, then pointing out that a list of 37 people contained an “undercover” officer who was a Russia specialist would, in itself, have been a massive security violation, given the context of the list, which included people who’d contributed to the Russia Hoax. And, of course, the 800-lb gorilla napping in the corner of the room is why a senior CIA officer was allowed to take part in what amounted to a coup attempt against President Trump.
As it turned out, not only did Gabbard not “out” an “undercover” officer, but that same “undercover” officer played up her CIA credentials in numerous venues; see ‘Undercover’ Spy In WSJ Sob Story Is A Public CIA Russia Hoaxer. “The CIA spook in question,” says Matt Kittle, writing in the Federalist, “is a very overt member of the intelligence community. Just Google the name Julia Gurganus.”
The whole article is a must-read as a reminder of the degree to which our mainstream media are the willing stenographers of the Deep State.
For years, Gurganus has flaunted her intelligence community credentials to harvest speaking engagements, public articles, and positions with prestigious organizations.
“Julia Gurganus is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She is on sabbatical from the CIA,” the left-wing Atlantic notes on its webpage.
She previously served as a nonresident scholar with the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, according to the organization, which notes Gurganus’ “decades working in the U.S. intelligence community on issues related to Eurasia.”
Her photo is included in a Women’s Foreign Policy Group report on Gurganus’ presentation at a 2018 “Beyond the Headlines discussion.”
She spoke at AFCEA’s 2025 Spring Intelligence Symposium, a fact once again promoted online. The nonprofit identified her as senior executive manager for Europe and Eurasia Mission Center, Central Intelligence Agency.
She was also identified as a CIA officer and Russia expert in the “intelligence assessment” cooked up by James Clapper, a document that has been in the public domain since 2020.
As the pièce de résistance, the WSJ quotes one of the guys who claimed Hunter Biden’s laptop was a Russian disinformation operation to chastize Gabbard.
“‘A smart [director of national intelligence] would have consulted with CIA’ before identifying the undercover officer,” Pfeiffer told the news outlet. “It could potentially put CIA cover procedures at risk. It could put relations with foreign governments at risk.”
Larry, who boasts about running the Situation Room in the Obama administration, was one of 50-plus deep staters who signed the infamous 2020 letter claiming the Hunter Biden laptop story breaking in the weeks before the election was Russian disinformation. President Donald Trump stripped the former intelligence officials of their security clearances as one of his first acts in January.
Pfeiffer also had his security clearance revoked by President Trump in an Executive Order signed on Inauguration Day; see Holding Former Government Officials Accountable For Election Interference And Improper Disclosure Of Sensitive Governmental Information – The White House.
On its face, there is less to this story than there was with the ridiculous and disgraceful Plame affair. This was simply an attack launched on Gabbard in retaliation for her trying to bring the intelligence community under control.
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