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(CNN) – On Wednesday, President Donald Trump’s administration removed several high-profile members of the Defense Policy Council. It’s another purge of veteran foreign policy experts and national security figures from established power in the waning days of the Trump era, according to three defense officials.
Members suddenly removed include former secretaries of state Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger, former senior member of the House Intelligence Committee Jane Harman, and former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, two of the officials said. officials.
What is the Defense Policy Board?
The Defense Policy Board is an external advisory group of former high-profile national security officials who “provide the Secretary of Defense and the Assistant Secretary of Defense with independent and informed advice and opinion on defense policy matters in response to specific tasks of the Secretary of Defense, Undersecretary of Defense, ”according to its website.
As part of the long-considered changes, we can confirm that several members of the Department’s Defense Policy Council have been removed. We are very grateful for your dedicated service, commitment and contributions to our national security. Future announcements will soon be made for the new board members, ”the third official said.
The first two officials said the removed members also included former chief of naval operations, retired Admiral Gary Roughead, former Pentagon director of operations Rudy De Leon, and former Deputy National Security Adviser of Bush JD Crouch II.
Foreign Policy was the first to report on impeachments.
Interim Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, who made an unannounced trip to Bahrain and Qatar on Wednesday nearly a week after announcing that US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan would be further reduced, said in a statement Thursday: “They are grateful to the outgoing board members, many of whom have served for decades. “
“As we adapt the department to a major energy competition, I look forward to appointing new board members in the coming days,” Miller said.
Radical changes in the Pentagon
After Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper earlier this month, the Pentagon made sweeping changes to its leadership and removed many of the top officials, replacing them with allegedly loyal figures to the president. The move has fueled alarm among military and civilian officials concerned about what might happen next.
The new appointments include retired General Anthony Tata, now a senior Pentagon official, who once called former President Barack Obama a terrorist leader and suggested that a former CIA director was using a Cicero citation to activate a sleeper agent to kill a Trump. Kash Patel, a former adviser to Republican Devin Nunes of California, is Miller’s chief of staff and leads the Pentagon’s transition efforts with the upcoming Biden-Harris administration.
Ezra Cohen-Watnick will also serve as Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence. Cohen-Watnick gained notoriety in March 2017 for his alleged involvement in providing intelligence material to then House Intelligence Speaker Nunes, who claimed US intelligence officials were improperly monitoring Trump associates. . .
CNN’s Chandelis Duster contributed to this report.
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