Inside the CIA, the White House & the Intelligence Purges | Julia Curlee

October 3, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Julia Curlee spent 25 years in the U.S. intelligence community—first at the Defense Intelligence Agency, then at the CIA, where she rose to become a senior analyst and presidential daily brief briefer to Vice President Mike Pence. She served through the first Trump administration, the Biden administration, and into the second Trump administration, where she was purged after being targeted by activist Laura Loomer. In this conversation, she walks through her career from the ground up: deploying to Iraq in 2005 as a 23-year-old analyst embedded with a hostage rescue task force, becoming the first person to successfully transition while serving at the CIA, briefing the vice president, and watching the National Security Council get hollowed out in real time.

From Hawaii to Baghdad: The Making of an Analyst

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What you'll learn

1 (04:04) **Introduction: Julia Curlee's Career Arc** - Host Jack Murphy introduces Julia Curlee, a former DIA and CIA analyst who became a senior PDB briefer at the White House and was later purged from the second Trump administration.
2 (09:00) **First Tour: Iraq, 2005** - Deployed as a civilian analyst to Baghdad during the peak of the insurgency, working on a hostage rescue task force.
3 (17:01) **Second Tour: Kirkuk and Manhunting** - Transferred to Kirkuk in 2006 to work on high-value targeting, including the hunt for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
4 (21:13) **Politicization at DIA and the CIA Recruit** - A conflict with a four-star general over a briefing on the deteriorating situation in Baghdad leads to a pivotal moment.
5 (31:27) **Joining the CIA and Further Deployments** - Julia transitions to the CIA, undergoes training, and is sent back to Iraq multiple times.
6 (41:07) **The Rise of ISIS and Analytic Failure** - Julia discusses the intelligence community's failure to predict the rapid rise of the Islamic State.
7 (45:05) **Afghanistan: Briefing General Petraeus** - Julia is sent to Kabul in 2011 to serve as the full-time briefer for the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus.

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Show Notes

Julia Curlee looks back on a career that took her from DIA and CIA deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan to briefing senior White House officials and serving on the National Security Council. We also discuss her transition while serving at CIA, briefing Mike Pence, the politicization of intelligence, the purges that pushed her out of government, and the consequences she believes that has had for U.S. national security.
Find Julia here: https://www.lawfaremedia.org/contributors/jcurlee
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00:00 – Start
01:09 – Growing Up in Hawaii & Wanting to Join the CIA
04:45 – 9/11, Iraq & Getting Hired by DIA
07:39 – Embedded With a Hostage Rescue Task Force in Baghdad
10:20 – Kidnapping Networks & Funding the Iraqi Insurgency
13:09 – Kirkuk, Zarqawi & High-Value Targeting
17:30 – When Intelligence Gets Politicized
20:04 – Telling Senior Officers the Iraq War Was Going Badly
21:06 – Getting Recruited Into th