Senior CIA official Amy McFadden changed her Facebook cover photo in mid October to a man waving a Palestinian flag and, in another post, shared a selfie with a superimposed sticker proclaiming, “Free Palestine.”
McFadden holds one of the senior-most positions within the agency and previously oversaw the production of the presidential daily briefing (PDB), a dossier of highly classified intelligence delivered to the commander-in-chief each day. In her current role, McFadden, alongside two associates, reportedly approves all analyses distributed throughout the agency.
The revelation prompted the agency to re-issue guidelines stressing the need for employees to display objectivity. “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,” the agency said in a statement after the Financial Times McFadden’s posts on Tuesday. While the Times opted not to name McFadden publicly, the Washington Free Beacon revealed her identity shortly after.
McFadden’s social-media activity was seen as deeply compromising to several anonymous intelligence officials who spoke with the Times. “The public posting of an obviously controversial political statement by a senior analytic manager in the middle of a crisis shows glaringly poor judgment,” one told the paper. “Given the role director Burns is playing in the ongoing crisis in Israel, social media activity along these lines by a senior US intelligence officer reflects exceptionally and surprisingly bad judgment,” another said, referring to the CIA director William Burns, currently in Qatar assisting the ongoing hostage negotiation talks.
Another official, with knowledge of the ongoing situation, told NBC that McFadden had not suffered any disciplinary measures and that the “post was not intended to express a position on the conflict.”
McFadden’s LinkedIn profile outlines her history as a career bureaucrat, beginning with the CIA in 1999, shortly after leaving graduate school. Over the years, McFadden climbed the ranks of the agency, assuming several leadership roles within, including as “a department chief and then deputy in the Office of North African, Arabian Peninsula, and Regional Analysis, which was subsequently merged into the Near East Mission Center (NEMC).” Her cover photo on the professional-oriented social-media network shows a blurred-out image of a demographic disclaimer featuring boxes of identities such as LatinX, Black, Pacific Islander, and Native American. “I am for equity because equity starts with everyone,” a quote bolded beside the graphic reads.
The revelation is the latest in a string of federal bureaucrats who have been vocally critical of the White House’s support for Israel in recent weeks. In mid November, over 400 staffers and political appointees across dozens of government agencies sent a letter to President Joe Biden demanding an immediate cease-fire.
“We call on President Biden to urgently demand a cease-fire; and to call for de-escalation of the current conflict by securing the immediate release of the Israeli hostages and arbitrarily detained Palestinians; the restoration of water, fuel, electricity and other basic services; and the passage of adequate humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip,” the letter, first obtained by the New York Times, reads.
The message coincided with at least three internal cables sent across the State Department “dissent channel,” an internal forum employees can use to privately voice concerns about American policy. Two were sent during the first week of the war, and the third in November. The most recent was organized by Sylvia Yacoub, an officer with the Bureau of Middle East Affairs, who chided the White House’s “seemingly full endorsement” of Israel’s military response. The letter was signed by 100 State Department and USAID members and Warned Biden that his actions made him “complicit with genocide” in Gaza.
On social-media, Yacoub publicly called out Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris in scorching personal attacks. “You are providing significantly more military assistance to the government that is indiscriminately attacking innocent Gazans….you are complicit in genocide @POTUS,” the officer wrote last Thursday on X. “Embarrassingly out of touch @VP,” Yacoub tweeted tagging Harris after the vice-president met with the British prime minister Rishi Sunak to discuss the conflict.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Yacoub’s portfolio with the State Department includes gender, human rights, as well as “DEI and Racial Equity.” After Axios publicized the posts, Yacoub turned her X account private.
The rift between the White House and the State Department led one official to question the professional conduct of signatories. “In two decades, I’ve never seen State Department management make such a fuss about employees’ purported emotions and feelings, to the extent that dissent is essentially being encouraged,” a source in the Near East Bureau told Axios. “There’s a chasm between the White House/NSC and State on this conflict. I’m not surprised that Yacoub is tweeting the way she is, as shocking as it is.”