The Pentagon has stripped former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s name from an auditorium at the Defense Intelligence Agency’s headquarters, replacing it with that of a Revolutionary War officer credited with founding American military intelligence, the Daily Caller reported.
The War Department renamed the space, previously known as the Clapper Leadership Hall, the Thomas Knowlton Leadership Hall, after the Continental Army officer often called the father of American military intelligence. The auditorium sits at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C.
“The Thomas Knowlton Leadership Hall at Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) headquarters honors a true American warrior whose legacy is inseparable from the birth of our nation’s intelligence profession,” Acting Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez told The Hill. “Knowlton was selected by General George Washington in 1776 to form Knowlton’s Rangers, which was America’s first organized military intelligence unit tasked with reconnaissance and gathering critical intelligence behind enemy lines,” he continued. “We are excited to have his name as a permanent fixture at the DIA.”
The change is the latest in a series of moves by the Trump administration to remove the names and images of officials it views as having failed or worked against the country’s intelligence and defense institutions, and it comes amid renewed scrutiny of Clapper’s own record atop the intelligence community. Last year, Trump ordered the removal of retired Gen. Mark Milley’s portrait from the Pentagon after Milley, the former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, became one of the president’s most vocal critics from within the military establishment.
Read more Fauci Diary Entry Reveals He Suffered Common COVID Vax Injury Five Months After Getting Jab
Clapper has spent years attacking Trump’s handling of defense, national security and foreign policy, a pattern that has fueled criticism from the president’s allies that Clapper politicized an office meant to remain above partisan combat. Clapper also faced accusations that he misled Congress about the National Security Agency’s surveillance of Americans, testimony he has continued to insist was not a lie, though the episode has dogged his reputation among conservatives who view it as emblematic of the erosion of trust in the intelligence community during his tenure.
Clapper announced his resignation as DNI in 2016 shortly after Trump’s election victory, timing his allies say reflected personal antipathy toward the incoming administration rather than the normal transition of power. The resignation did not formally take effect until Jan. 20, 2017, the day the Obama administration left office.
The renaming ensures Knowlton, whose Rangers conducted reconnaissance behind British lines during the Revolutionary War, will now serve as the namesake greeting DIA personnel and visitors, replacing a figure whose legacy has become a point of contention rather than pride within the intelligence community he once led.
Read more Trump Orders Warnings Signs Be Posted at Smithsonian Museum
