&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "50 per cent US intelligence jobs on the line? Tulsi Gabbard plans to cut 'bloated and inefficient' staff")
The Trump administration is planning a major overhaul in the workforce of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). In an announcement made on Wednesday (Aug 20) there are plans to cut the agency's staff by almost 50%. The Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said the agency in the last two decades has become "bloated and inefficient" and that the move will help save taxpayers more than $700 million annually.
While making the announcement, Gabbard said "ODNI has become bloated and inefficient, and the intelligence community is rife with abuse of power, unauthorized leaks of classified intelligence, and politicized weaponization of intelligence."
Further, she said, "ODNI and the IC must make serious changes to fulfill its responsibility to the American people and the U.S. Constitution by focusing on our core mission: find the truth and provide objective, unbiased, timely intelligence to the President and policymakers. Ending the weaponization of intelligence and holding bad actors accountable are essential to begin to earn the American people’s trust which has long been eroded."
The restructuring eliminates the Foreign Malign Influence Center, responsible for monitoring foreign efforts to influence the American public and the units that track weapons of mass destruction and cyber threats, among others.
Also in the list that will face the axe is a group that produced long-range forecasts of global trends.
How and when was ODNI formed
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ODNI was first created after the 9/11 terror attacks with the aim of highlighting systemic failures across the intelligence community and ensuring the intelligence provided to the president and policymakers was "timely, accurate, and apolitical."
Around 1,800 employees were working at ODNI when Tulsi Gabbar took over as Director in the Trump administration. The workforce is already down by 25%, reported BBC.
Motive of ODNI 2.0
ODNI 2.0 aim will be to focus on exposing politicisation and weaponisation of intelligence, holding bad actors accountable. It will also focus on saving money of US citizens by reducing the work force. The core mission of the organisation would be to maintain "the safety, security, and freedom of the American people."
