JNS
The names include several involved in Israel affairs, including those with ties to Students for Justice in Palestine and the Anti-Defamation League.
Tulsi Gabbard, U.S. director of national intelligence, announced the revocation of security clearances on Tuesday of 37 current and former intelligence officials, “who have abused the public trust by politicizing and manipulating intelligence, leaking classified intelligence without authorization and/or committing intentional egregious violations of tradecraft standards.”
“Being entrusted with a security clearance is a privilege, not a right,” Gabbard wrote. Members of the intelligence community who “put their own interests ahead of the interests of the American people have broken the sacred trust they promised to uphold.”
The list includes several individuals with ties to Israel affairs, including Maher Bitar, a former White House coordinator for intelligence and defense policy at the U.S. National Security Council under the Biden administration.
Bitar was a leader of Students for Justice in Palestine and worked for UNRWA, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, which Israel has said is deeply infiltrated by Hamas.
Bitar is currently chief counsel and national security adviser to Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a staunch opponent of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Andrew Miller, former deputy assistant secretary of state for Israeli-Palestinian affairs for the U.S. State Department, also had his security clearance stripped. He previously served as a senior policy advisor to Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under the Biden administration, covering the Middle East and North Africa, counterterrorism, political-military affairs and intelligence. He was also director for Egypt and Israel military issues on the National Security Council during the Obama administration.
Since his departure from the State Department, Miller has become a vocal critic of U.S.-Israel policy. He’s currently a senior fellow in the National Security and International Policy department at the Center for American Progress.
Yaël Eisenstat, who also appears on Gabbard’s blacklist, served as vice president for the Anti-Defamation League, where she focused on combating online extremism at the ADL Center for Technology & Society. She left that job reportedly due to frustrations over the organization’s positions after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
She served as national security advisor to then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and headed Facebook’s elections integrity operations for political advertising. Eisenstat is currently director of policy and impact at Cybersecurity for Democracy.
The revocations include access to classified systems, facilities, materials and information, in addition to the termination of any current government contracts.
No specific reason was given for any individual’s appearance on the list.
