Intelligence staff to lose jobs for obscene agency chats

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday said she’d sent a memo to U.S. intelligence agencies telling them to fire more than 100 individuals involved in the chats. Her directive followed reports that individuals in the intelligence community used interagency chat messaging platforms to share sexually explicit material. Gabbard’s Deputy Chief of Staff Alexa Henning said on Tuesday that the agencies had until Friday to remove the individuals involved and revoke their security clearances.

What sort of chats are we talking about? The discussions occurred on two interagency chat servers intended to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, according to the reports. Individuals in those two chats discussed sex transition surgeries in vivid detail and talked openly about sexual fantasies. Gabbard later said the intelligence agents’ behavior was unacceptable and would be dealt with.

What does the intelligence community have to say? Investigations into the matter were ongoing, the National Security Agency said Tuesday. The alleged behavior of a small number of individuals did not represent the intelligence community as a whole, the agency said. Gabbard disagreed, saying that horrific discussions took place on intelligence community channels because the agencies have not faced accountability for decades.

Dig deeper: Read Daniel R. Suhr’s column in WORLD Opinions about Trump coming for diversity, equity, and inclusion agendas.