The allegations about life inside a branch of the Defense Intelligence Agency are detailed in the statements of some 30 witnesses and complaints to the Inspector General provided to lawmakers. These allegations, which were shared with the House and Senate intelligence committees, and a workplace climate survey describing widespread problems inside the service, were reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.
The statements were collected by a recently retired pilot and combat veteran who describes himself as a whistleblower in the DIA’s Defense Attache system, which liaises with foreign forces overseas. A whistleblower within the intelligence community is someone who reports that they are doing wrong to an authorized recipient, such as Congress or the Inspector General, and must be protected from retaliation for coming forward with such complaints.
“The toxic culture within the DIA is a threat to national security,” said Ryan Swayze, who retired as an Air Force lieutenant colonel earlier this month. Lt. Col. Swayzee said the agency’s actions were “depriving and depriving our intelligence personnel of their franchise while obstructing.” and abusive operations.”
Lt Col Swayzee said he became a target of retaliation after raising concerns about the workplace through the chain of command. He filed a complaint with the DIA inspector general and, after those investigations stalled, collected the statements of witnesses himself and handed them over to lawmakers last summer.
The DIA has been the target of past allegations by inspector general staff who said the office’s leadership was scuttling reports about problems within the agency and obstruction of investigation into complaints. A defense official said a council of inspectors general reviewed those complaints and closed the case without citing the role or performance issues of the DIA inspector general.
The DIA said in a statement that it has “zero tolerance” for violations of professional standards. It did not respond to detailed questions about the allegations leveled by Lt Col Swayzee and others.
“The Office of the Inspector General of the DIA maintains a long-established record of providing independent and effective oversight and exercising rigorous investigative practices on federal government programs and operations in support of the Defense Intelligence Agency,” the agency said.
Lt Col Svezi’s statements to Congress include allegations that an aide in the Defense Attaché office in Rome was secretly passing negative information about coworkers’ performance to superiors. The practice turned managers in Western Europe against their subordinates, creating a hostile office environment and hindering their efforts to gather intelligence, as evidenced by Lt. Col. Swayze and others, whose statements sent Congress to Congress. were assigned.
The Defense Attached Service has a presence in about 140 countries and is headed by the DIA, the intelligence wing of the Pentagon. Its personnel are known as secret intelligence collectors, meaning they operate in the open and not under cover. They oversee military exercises and track arms sales as well as military facilities. Defense attaché positions have traditionally been viewed as prestigious assignments representing the Pentagon overseas.
In their statements, witnesses said toxic workplace conditions hindered their efforts to fulfill their duties.
“As a defense attaché at a US embassy in a foreign country, I should not spend a substantial portion of my time looking over my shoulder for someone nefarious from the DIA,” a Navy official said in a statement submitted to Congress. Written in the statement of the witness. “There are many other alien threats for me to worry about.”
He also wrote that a manager urged him to stay away from colleagues who were considered troublemakers and, if necessary, report back.
In the statement of another witness, a different Navy officer said a personal medical condition was disclosed and used against him.
“There is no doubt about the impact on national security,” the official wrote to Congress last June. “Members of the attache service may not perform their duties for fear of arbitrarily recalled, ridiculed for effort, or poor performance appraisal.”
That officer said in an interview that he was pulled from his European attaché assignment early on and experienced retaliation for advancing a culture that prevents initiative. For example, he was discouraged from writing too many intelligence reports.
“There was friction between my enthusiasm and some others’ understanding of their roles and responsibilities,” the former officer said.
He said he had filed an Inspector General complaint two years ago. This month, the DIA inspector general informed him that it had concluded that there was insufficient evidence that he was the victim of retaliation, according to a copy of the letter reviewed by the journal.
The September 2020 Defense Attached Service Workforce Survey and reviewed by the Journal found that nearly half of 79 respondents said they had witnessed hostile behavior, including threats, harassment and bullying, in the workplace. Some 30% of respondents said they have directly experienced racial, gender or other forms of discrimination.
The DIA did not respond to questions about the survey.
“The Defense Intelligence Agency is a professional foreign-intelligence organization with a highly trained workforce, including dedicated men and women from the Armed Forces. The agency has zero tolerance for intentional violations of professional standards,” the agency said in a statement. “We will respond as appropriate to any credible allegations of misconduct, abuse, or activities that conflict with our core values.”
According to a copy of the email shared with lawmakers, Defense Attaché Service director Michael Bochna emailed his staff in November 2020 after the survey was completed, promising to address concerns.
“Another one of the big messages that came from the survey that we have seen manifesting itself: employees are tired, overworked and underrepresented,” he wrote, promising that leadership was taking notice. He also said the results “offer an opportunity to inform leadership on many ways to engage, improve and reposition the workforce going forward.”
Mr Bochna declined to comment.
Committee officials said House and Senate intelligence committees are aware of concerns about working conditions in the attached service and are investigating them. In its version of the annual intelligence authorization bill, the House committee directed the DIA to provide summaries of future workforce climate surveys as well as data about the number of employees seeking help in a perceived hostile work environment.
The allegations mentioned in the statements of Congress witnesses ranged from retaliation to sexual harassment.
A US Army lieutenant colonel wrote in a witness statement to lawmakers in 2016 about his experience at the United Military Attaché School, which trains attachés. After criticizing certain aspects of the curriculum, faculty members falsely accused his wife of operating a political blog. He said, in a bid to make them ineligible for service abroad.
“I was targeted for comments made in an anonymous survey,” he wrote in the statement. “These allegations were clearly false (my wife ran a non-partisan, non-profit organization chartered to help vulnerable women).”
One of the witnesses’ statements was provided anonymously to lawmakers through Lt. Col. Swayzee, alleging that faculty at the school turned a blind eye to harassment, including an instructor who killed a woman in the US Air Force. The army pilot was stabbed to the chest. Lt Col Swayzee also described an end-of-course video that included a photo montage of covertly taken photographs of students during training, showing them in various stages of clothing and the 1991 dance hit ” I’m Too Sexy”.
Lt Col Swayzee said he was the victim of two reprisals after expressing concerns about the workplace while serving as an assistant defense attache at the US embassy in Rome. These included receiving a poor performance review and being dropped from consideration for an assignment in Germany.
He filed a complaint with the DIA Inspector in August 2020 detailing eight cases of waste, retaliation and other misuse of authority. After hearing nothing for a year, he approached the DIA director and lawmakers on the House and Senate intelligence committees.
Toxicity in the workplace is “a cancer that directly threatens mission and national security,” he wrote in an email in July 2021 to Army Lieutenant General Scott Barrier, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
General Barrier did not respond to an email or a Journal request for comment.
The Inspector General closed the investigation into Lt Col Swayzee’s complaints in November 2021 after 444 days, concluding that his allegations were baseless. In his response, the Inspector General said that negative performance reviews or canceled assignments do not constitute clear evidence of retaliation.
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