DUBAI: A senior CIA official posted a pro-Palestine image, showing a man waving a Palestinian flag on Facebook, last month amid tensions within US President Joe Biden’s administration.
The unusual political statement made by the CIA’s associate deputy director for analysis has sparked controversy, with her eventually deleting the post.
A separate Facebook post shows the official with a sticker reading “Free Palestine,” but a person familiar with the matter told the Financial Times that the photo was posted several years ago.
“The officer is a career analyst with extensive background in all aspects of the Middle East and this post (of the Palestinian flag) was not intended to express a position on the conflict,” the person said.
Four former intelligence officials said they were surprised that a senior CIA official would express her supposed political views on Facebook.
“The public posting of an obviously controversial political statement by a senior analytic manager in the middle of a crisis shows glaringly poor judgment,” said one former intelligence official.
Some members of the intelligence community were concerned that the post expressed a bias that could undermine the analysis directorate, the official added.
The pro-Palestine images and unrelated posts from the past year and a half have been deleted from the CIA official’s page, according to the Financial Times.
The CIA has since sent out an internal email reminding employees against posting political messages on social media, which aims to serve as “a reminder of existing policy,” a US official told NBC News.
“CIA officers are committed to analytic objectivity, which is at the core of what we do as an agency. CIA officers may have personal views, but this does not lessen their — or CIA’s — commitment to unbiased analysis,” a CIA spokesperson said in a statement.
