Clash erupts after Trump orders CIA and FBI chiefs to hand over 'spy list' of every US agent amid safety fears
The CIA and FBI have expressed concerns about how a 'master list' of every spy in the country would be secured and maintained
Tensions have erupted in the CIA and FBI after Donald Trump demanded that intelligence agencies compile a master list of every spy and potential recruit in the US, driven by fears that it might compromise their own agents.
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The move to compile a master list was pushed by the Office of the New Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), previously led by Tulsi Gabbard and, more recently, by Bill Pulte.
ODNI was formed following 9/11 to improve communication amongst intelligence agencies.
Trump believes a master list will help the state better track foreign intelligence threats and avoid conflicts when several agencies are working on the same targets, the New York Times reported.
The efforts to secure the list have been broadly unsuccessful, as intelligence leaders have declined to share their master lists amid concerns about how such a database would be secured and managed.
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The FBI maintained that a list of spies would include those which the bureau wants to investigate and potentially arrest later on.
The CIA argued that the list would involve significant numbers of potential individuals that the agency wants to recruit as assets.
For several intelligence officials, putting identifying details on sensitive cases could catastrophically compromise long-running investigations in just a single leak.
The identities of these particular targets are highly confidential national security secrets, protected from most working even within the agencies.
The relationship between ODNI and the FBI and CIA has become increasingly strained following the appointment of new director Bill Pulte – who has no prior national security experience.
Pulte has fiercely advocated for President Trump’s agenda, cutting the agency’s workforce and investigating election fraud allegations in 2020.
Backlash against Pulte’s appointment has led to increasing concern about how ODNI would manage the organisation’s most sensitive secrets.