InShort: Tulsi plans to cut intelligence staff by half

BBC :

US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has announced plans to cut the agency’s staff by almost 50pc as she reorganises the office.
Announcing the cuts, Gabbard said the agency had become “bloated and inefficient” over the last two decades.

Its annual budget will also be reduced by $700m, she said. She said the “serious changes” would consolidate teams across the agency and ensure it was fulfilling its mission to “provide objective, unbiased, timely intelligence”.

The announcement came hours after Gabbard said the Trump administration would revoke the security clearances for 37 current and former US officials.

Among other changes announced by Gabbard, the restructuring eliminates the Foreign Malign Influence Center, which monitors foreign efforts to influence the US public. A fact sheet said that function was already performed by other US intelligence units.

The fact sheet said Gabbard was also getting rid of units that track weapons of mass destruction and cyber threats, saying that work, too, was performed by another intelligence unit. Also going is a group that produced long-range forecasts of global trends.