Overview

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse on August 23 with “loss of confidence” as the stated rationale.
• Two additional senior military officers were also removed from their posts, with no detailed justification released.
• A DIA assessment had judged June U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites as causing only a months-long delay, diverging from the president’s assertions of complete destruction.
• Hegseth previously criticized what he called poor-quality intelligence and confirmed an FBI investigation into the leak of the DIA report.
• The Washington Post first reported Kruse’s removal before the story was picked up by the BBC, as some lawmakers warned of pressures on independent intelligence analysis.