WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said she fired more than 100 intelligence officers who had engaged in sexually explicit conversations on the National Security Agency’s (NSA) “Intelink” messaging system. Gabbard called the behavior an “egregious violation of trust” and said the security clearances of the officials involved would be pulled immediately.
During an interview with Fox News, Gabbard said, “There are more than 100 individuals from throughout the intelligence community who contributed to and took part in. what is essentially a gross betrayal of trust. What to talk about, like minimal rules and norms around professionalism.”
The NSA confirmed notice of tweets referring to “inappropriate conversations” by intelligence officers and affirmed that probes into the abuse of government systems are underway.
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The news of the explicit messages was first reported by conservative activist Christopher Rufo. The messages, Rufo reported, came from chatrooms on the Intelink platform that were linked to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
Gabbard highlighted the seriousness of the misconduct, adding that the personnel involved were “brazen in using an NSA platform meant for professional use to engage in this type of really, really horrific behavior.
In an earlier directive on Tuesday, Gabbard directed all the intelligence agencies to provide the identities of the employees by Friday. NSA spokesperson Alexa Henning confirmed that the directive requires the identification and dismissal of employees who took part in the “obscene, pornographic, and sexually explicit” chatrooms with their security clearances being revoked.
The NSA reaffirmed that the activities of this group are not representative of the overall intelligence community and promised that efforts are underway to resolve the abuse of government systems.
