John Ratcliffe has been director of the Central Intelligence Agency for less than a week, but already he's buckling down and changing up the way things are done in Langley. On Tuesday, a new memo was released detailing some of the sweeping changes he has in mind.
"There will be changes during my tenure as director," the new leader of America’s top spy agency wrote in an agency-wide workforce message. Ratcliffe is currently reviewing all top staff and planning to put his own fingerprints on the senior level of the agency, Fox News Digital has learned.
"We will collect intelligence in every corner of the globe, no matter how dark or difficult. We will produce insightful, objective, all-source analysis, never allowing political or personal biases to cloud our judgment or infect our products," Ratcliffe went on in his email.
"And we will conduct covert action at the direction of the President, going places no one else can go and doing things no one else can do."
Trump has made ridding the federal government of divisive Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs a top goal of his new administration, and Ratcliffe says he will do his part:
As agents conduct work in what Ratcliffe defined as the "most challenging national security environment in our nation's history," he promised the CIA would be the "ultimate meritocracy."
"Our shared mission will bind us together."
We’re so back pic.twitter.com/LywqQvRzbA
— John Ratcliffe (@JohnRatcliffe) January 24, 2025
He’s already making a difference:
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As we reported, the new CIA director blasted his truth-challenged Obama-era predecessor, John Brennan, but according to a source, he also does not have much regard for the work that former director Gina Haspel did either:
A source familiar with Ratcliffe's thinking said, "This was a message to Agency’s workforce that the John Brennan era, the Gina Haspel era, the eras of promoting leftwing political agendas or subverting the President — those days are over."
Haspel was President Donald Trump's CIA director from 2018 to 2021 – while Ratcliffe was Trump's director of national intelligence. Brennan headed up the agency under former President Barack Obama.
"I’m sure it’ll rub some of the political activists burrowed in there the wrong way, but there are a lot of red-blooded, mission-focused agency officers reading this and cheering him on," the source added.
This is who they're dealing with now:
If you are wondering who John Ratcliffe is, this clip will give you a glimpse.
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) November 12, 2024
This is exactly the man we need as CIA Director.
A must watch! pic.twitter.com/gtNZlUz3vV
Lastly, he said nobody should sign onto the agency with dreams of fame and glory—the job is to keep your name out of the newspapers, not in the headlines:
"Nobody comes to CIA to be somebody. Our successes remain hidden. Even our medals are presented behind closed doors, our sacrifices memorialized by stars on a marble wall. But each one of those stars represents somebody who wanted to do something, regardless of whether history would know their name," Ratcliffe continued.
The publicity-hounding Brennan evidently didn't have the same priorities during his tenure.
With Ratcliffe at the wheel of the CIA and former South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem sworn in as Homeland Security Secretary on Saturday, Trump’s national security team is taking shape. However, Director of National Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard is still awaiting her oft-delayed confirmation hearings, and you can expect the Democrats to pull out all the stops to prevent her from winning. Get some popcorn ready for January 30th, when she is scheduled to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
In the meantime, it’s already a completely different vibe in Washington D.C. as Ratcliffe and Noem have quickly gotten to work and shaken up the status quo. Keep it coming!
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