WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired a general whose agency’s initial intelligence assessment of damage to Iranian nuclear sites from U.S. strikes angered President Donald Trump, according to two people familiar with the decision and a White House official.
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Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse will no longer serve as head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
The firing is the latest upheaval in military leadership and in the country’s intelligence agencies, coming a few months after details of the preliminary assessment leaked to the media. It found that Iran’s nuclear program has been set back only a few months by the U.S. strikes, contradicting assertions from Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a news conference following the June strikes, Hegseth lambasted the press for what he claimed was an anti-military bias but did not offer any direct evidence of the destruction of Iranian nuclear production facilities.
Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced that the Air Force’s top uniformed officer, Gen. David Allvin, planned to retire two years early. And the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — which is responsible for coordinating the work of 18 intelligence agencies, including DIA — announced that it would slash its staff and budget.
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