iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The President has no idea how to end this war. And it could get worse: what will he do once the midterms are behind him and gas prices no longer cost him votes? My former CIA and NSC colleagues Cole Bucy and Nate Swanson lay out the trap in Foreign Policy:

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Did Washington walk into Beijing’s trap? Did we get anything besides the pandas? Xi Jinping got a pageant fit for an emperor on his first state visit in 11 years. He went home with a trade truce extension, new AI and military crisis channels, and a clear read on how little Washington had prepared.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Truth first. Then reconciliation. We can rebuild institutions, but only if we face what happened. Daniel Kimmage ran State’s office fighting Russian, Chinese, and Iranian disinformation. The administration shut it down, claiming it censored Americans. Dozens lost careers on baseless charges.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

A 5,000-year-old civilization isn’t impressed by your ballroom. @frankfigliuzzi.bsky.social kept asking: Where are the experts? What’s the strategy? We marked the scorecard: Xi summit: Anything besides two pandas? Iran war: What's the way out? CIA exodus: What does losing our best officers cost?

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

At the U.N., the President thundered: a deal with Iran, or would he “annihilate” them and “drive them into hell”? The Iranian delegation yawned. The world stopped listening to our words. They watch a President negotiate with himself while his relatives and real estate developers hunt for an exit.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

“Trump started this war … and we are paying the price.” That’s the diagnosis of Gulf official, and as the war drags on the bill keeps rising. Today in Foreign Policy, my friend Shawn Howard breaks down the region’s response to Washington’s failure to end the war or provide security.

foreignpolicy.com

Gulf States Are Hedging and Suffering

Neither appealing to Washington nor diversifying security partners nor back-channeling with Tehran is insulating the region from the consequences of war.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Have I mentioned my essay in The Atlantic? I have? Every day? My therapist says stop. My publicist says keep going. My publicist is winning. This week on Rational Security -- “The Right Kind of American” (aka the Shameless Self-Promotion Edition).

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Can Washington get its experts back? Hope is not a strategy. The officers pushed out of CIA, FBI, and across national security have built new lives. A security clearance was never meant to be a loyalty test, or a tool to punish dissent. Many won’t return without a real path back.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

What would a President’s Daily Brief on the U.S. say today? I used to write that PDB about Iran, Russia, and Hungary. The pattern never changes. When the economy collapses or the war goes badly, a flailing regime picks a minority, brands it the enemy within, and rallies the country against it.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Jake Sullivan asked what keeps me up at night. Not any single purge. It's that we're dismantling the apparatus that lets us see clearly — mid-war, and mid-competition with China. China is building capacity. We're purging the officers who spent decades watching them.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Yes, it can happen here. We applied the same tradecraft CIA uses to assess a foreign government. American democracy is deteriorating faster than it was in June — the shift this summer is from punishing individuals to intervening in the machinery of the November midterms.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

CIA turns 79 today. It may not reach 80 with its integrity intact. The word around town is that John Ratcliffe is the adult in the room. No grift, no guru, reads like a serious person. But normal is not an acceptable test for a CIA director.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

ELECTION DAY — NOV. 3, 2026 — 11:40 p.m. The president demands vote counting stop in Michigan. 100,000 mail-in ballots uncounted. DHS says it "cannot verify the accuracy of the results those machines produce." An American election thrown into chaos.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Really great to speak with @msignorile.bsky.social about the damage to the intel community under this administration, but also my hope that we can still recover if we’re given the chance in 2029.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I guess more time for Major Hegseth to work on his form at the Pentagon gym.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

They would have thrown me in jail. If I'd ever represented the U.S. to a foreign power — as Jared Kushner does — while soliciting private investment from those same foreign governments, I'd have lost my clearance and been investigated by the FBI.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The White House has attacked me four times now. Something is missing. They've never used the word—transgender. They said a president can remove any official. That officials must advance the America First agenda. That my tour was ending anyway.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

The administration went to war against the "Deep State" and lost the war with Iran. Pentagon leaders mass-emailed staff for ideas on how to break the stalemate in the Strait of Hormuz. If only they had a Council. To discuss National Security.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Hot take: I spent years writing and briefing the President's Daily Brief. I say this with love in my heart — we should abolish the PDB. Mostly kidding. Maybe. This week's Rational Security: the 5th Anniversary Hot Take Takedown, and Shane Harris, Quinta Jurecic, Ben Wittes, and Scott Anderson.

youtube.com

Rational Security: The “Fifth Anniversary Hot Take Takedown” Edition

YouTube video by Lawfare

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

After 9/11 I spent 15 years in Iraq, Afghanistan, and everywhere else a CIA officer serves. People are alive today, including me, because of the authorities we built to fight a terrorist enemy. I justified most of it because I believed the mission was righteous.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

WASHINGTON — SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 A crisp breeze rippled the flags. My watch read 9:38 AM. I remember exactly because the distant rumble clashed with that perfect blue sky. Minutes later I fled my office as the Towers fell and the Pentagon burned.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I loved CIA. I love it still. Which is why I will be blunt: the director is corrupting it. John Sipher and I spent decades inside — he running operations, I writing analysis and briefing presidents, including this one. We took the same oath John Ratcliffe did, and he is failing it.

open.substack.com

The CIA Director Is a Failure

John Ratcliffe has mired the agency in politics—and possible illegality.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

They are hunting our own soldiers, and calling it readiness. The Pentagon is combing medical records for evidence of trans troops — treatment dates, counseling sessions, prescriptions. Hundreds identified. F-35 avionics technicians, surgeons, network operators, young cadets.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Vice President's Residence, 2017. I stood in his driveway. I must be insane, I thought, seeing that unmistakable white hair. Mike Pence. Yes, that Mike Pence. He treated me with respect. He needed the best intelligence support possible. And this was my country too.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

They replaced an imagined conspiracy with a real one. The people who spent years alleging a Deep State plot to censor Americans are now the state — messaging us on our own dime, and never found the evidence they went looking for. Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic is really worth your time:

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

My friend @breefram.bsky.social, on a volunteer trip to Ukraine, always leading from the front, inspiring others to do what’s right.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Two crusty CIA officers, now middle-aged, somehow fighting the same battles over Iran that we fought over Iraq 20 years ago. Shawn Howard and I grew up together at CIA, trained to deliver hard truths to people who often preferred a different answer.

substack.com

The AVDD Podcast with Julia Curlee

Watch now | Former CIA Senior Analyst and Public Service Fellow at Lawfare

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

CIA — January 2007. I swore an oath to the Constitution, not to stand by while a president fed American power into a woodchipper. Two decades later, the White House claimed I was fired because officials are "entrusted with advancing the America First agenda." That's not the job of a CIA officer.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Autonomous killer robots, Iran sanctions, and a Deep State Gay Karaoke Resignation party. I join the Lawfare crew @benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org, @scottanderson.bsky.social , and @alexzerden.bsky.social to discuss the latest developments from Ukraine, Iran, and the trade war with Canada.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Silence is rational. Michael Feinberg spent nearly 20 years working against Chinese intelligence services, targeted for guilt by association. I resigned after 20 years at CIA, targeted for who I am.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

The math doesn’t lie. Everyone knows, and no one is speaking. They’re afraid. They should be. Since January 2025 thousands have been fired. Hundreds from ODNI. 160 NSC detailees the first week. A hundred over a group chat. USAID shredded — 10,000 to a handful turning off the lights.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

White House Situation Room — November 2024. Ominous music. Bearded men in dresses. “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.” I was a twenty-year CIA officer, a White House official, and now the enemy within.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Strike, pause, shuttle, repeat. And as the midterms approach, the price rises — and one side is running out of patience, the other is not. Since July the Iran war has looked like a truce failing. It's the deal being priced.

lawfaremedia.org

Fighting While Talking: The Iran War Enters Its Bargaining Phase

In war, the guns do not fall silent so the diplomats can speak. The guns often speak for them.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Vice President Pence’s remarks this morning were gracious, and I’m grateful for them. As I said to Dana Bash last week: he needed the best intelligence support I could provide him, and I appreciated his dedication to using the intel community the way it was designed.

x.com

State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) on X

Former Vice President Mike Pence says he's "heartened" to hear that former CIA Officer Julia Curlee - a trans woman who served as his daily briefer during the first Trump term - said that he treated h...

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Reposted by juliacurlee.bsky.social

Bree Fram @breefram.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I'm incredibly proud of @juliacurlee.bsky.social Not just for the powerful week of storytelling she just did to show there is no such thing as the wrong kind of American, but also for a lifetime of service to the ideals we believe in. Glad I saw her last night at her (forced) retirement party.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

CIA's marble wall still reads: AND YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE. After two years of fear — for my family, my calling, my country — I finally told my story this week. I feel free.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

BERLIN, 1945. An OSS officer named Carmel Offie ran daring operations pulling German scientists out of the Soviet zone. He was among the first recruited into the new CIA. Then he was fired — for being gay. Sound familiar? www.lawfaremedia.org/article/a-hi...

lawfaremedia.org

A History of LGBT Officers & the Central Intelligence Agency

The CIA spent seven decades moving from purging LGBT officers to embracing them—until the second Trump administration began undoing that work.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Last night the White House attacked me, suggesting I was removed because officials are "entrusted with advancing the America First agenda." Intelligence officers should never advance a president's political agenda. Thanks to MS-Now's Peter Alexander for having me on: www.ms.now/news/julia-c...

ms.now

Ousted transgender CIA officer warns of ‘palpable fear’ at security agencies

Julia Curlee, who served four administrations, said the Trump administration has abandoned the principle that “a person should be able to rise as far as their talents can take them.”

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Yesterday I told you my story. Today, my interview with Adam Harris at The Atlantic — how it felt. Thank you to everyone who wrote yesterday, the officers still serving who can't say anything aloud, the parents of trans kids, who only want them to have a future. I read every note.

theatlantic.com

The Trump Administration Wanted Her Expertise, Just Not Her

An interview with the transgender CIA analyst fired from Trump’s White House

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

The White House fired me for being transgender. In 2013 I became the first CIA officer to successfully transition. I worked for Mike Pence for a year. Then I volunteered to serve the second Trump White House.

theatlantic.com

The Wrong Kind of American

The Trump White House needed me—until the fact that I am trans became public.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Mary Geddry has written the best version of an argument I’ve been circling for months — that the attack on our institutions and the purge of the experts running them are the same assault. Tomorrow I'll tell my story, from Iraq to the White House, and what it cost me.

marygeddry.com

Tendon, Not Fat

What a stranded carrier, a lettuce outbreak, a burning robot, and a broken CIA have in common, and why you only find out what you cut once something breaks.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

American power rests on a machine for seeing clearly and an interagency process to force planning and air uncomfortable truths before a decision is made. The Iran war is the clearest consequence. I broke it down with Dominik Presl on Decoding Geopolitics: youtu.be/BOZVUj71TMs?...

youtu.be

Ex-CIA Analyst: America Is Choosing to Self-Destruct. And It Will Only Get Worse

YouTube video by Decoding Geopolitics Podcast with Dominik Presl

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Decline is a choice. China is fielding electromagnetic launch on its newest carriers. Trump ordered the Navy to rip it out of ours and go back to steam. Navy and industry objected, but the President overruled them. This is the cost of the assault on expertise.

apnews.com

Trump orders the Navy to return to an older system of launching jets off aircraft carriers

President Donald Trump is ordering the U.S. Navy to remove the advanced system used to launch fighter jets from its newest type of aircraft carriers and return to using older steam catapults that he h...

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Had the pleasure of joining my friend @breefram.bsky.social on the Steady State podcast. We dive deep into the breakdown of the National Security Council's coordination function, the weaponization of the DNI. When dissent is punished the result is catastrophic decision-making on the global stage.

youtu.be

The Intelligence You Don't See: A Career Analyst Warns about Systemic Weaponization

YouTube video by The Steady State

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Dear CIA Public Affairs — Punishing critics by stripping clearances and livelihoods is what autocrats do. It doesn’t make the assessments wrong. Mine is public, PRB cleared, and footnoted: www.lawfaremedia.org/article/what... Glad to speak to @amymackinnon.bsky.social at the FT.

as.ft.com

Donald Trump is dismantling US guardrails, warn former security officials

Ex-CIA staffers step up efforts to publicise their deepening alarm about the state of American democracy

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