The Intelligence You Don’t See: A Career Analyst Warns about Systemic Weaponization of the Intelligence Community

A former CIA analyst and NSC director on the weaponization of the DNI, the decapitation of the NSC, and why dissent is no longer tolerated.

Host Bree Fram, a retired Space Force colonel, sits down with Julia Curlee, a former CIA analyst with 25 years of experience who served as an National Security Council (NSC) director in the Biden and second Trump White Houses and as a presidential daily intelligence briefer to Vice President Pence.

Curlee explains how intelligence was designed to work — raw reports transformed into context-rich analysis to help policymakers make informed decisions — and how that system has been systematically dismantled. She describes the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) as a “loaded gun waiting on the table” that has been weaponized under Tulsi Gabbard and Bill Pulte, and warns that the NSC’s coordination function has been “decapitated,” leading to catastrophic planning failures in the run-up to the Iran war.

She reveals how the head of the National Intelligence CounciL (NIC) was fired for delivering an assessment that didn’t align with Stephen Miller’s desired narrative, and how this has taught analysts that “any form of dissent” will be held against them. She closes with a sobering assessment: the Iran war is a strategic blunder that rivals Iraq, the U.S. has no good way out, and it will take decades to rebuild the trust that has been destroyed with allies and partners.

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Guest info: Julia Curlee is a former CIA analyst with 25 years of experience in national security. She served as an NSC Director in the Biden and second Trump White Houses and as a presidential daily intelligence briefer to the Vice President. She completed multiple tours in the Middle East and South Asia and served in the CIA’s China Mission Center. She holds master’s degrees from the National War College and American University and is currently a public service fellow at Lawfare.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.