Derek Harvey, a top Middle East adviser to President Donald Trump, has been fired from his position at the National Security Council, effective today. Harvey, a longtime intelligence professional with vast experience in the Middle East, was a key player in the Trump administration’s Iran policy review and its policy development in Syria, Iraq and other regional hotspots.
The dismissal of this leading policy adviser to the president comes amid intensifying speculation about a coming broad White House shakeup and open rhetorical warfare among the president and several top advisers. Two sources tell TWS that Harvey’s departure is not a direct result of the internecine staff fighting, but he was viewed by some top Trump aides as too close to Steve Bannon.
Harvey holds hawkish views on the threat from Iran and global jihadism, but he does not share Bannon’s non-interventionist views. Harvey was a strong, behind-the-scenes advocate of Trump’s decision to strike Syria in response to Bashar al Assad’s use of chemical weapons and he was driving a more aggressive approach to Iran than that of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis. Sources tell TWS that Mattis, in particular, had disagreements with Harvey and that he raised the issue with National Security Adviser HR McMaster. McMaster met with Harvey this morning to deliver the news.
“General McMaster greatly appreciates Derek Harvey’s service to his country as a career Army officer, where he served his country bravely in the field and played a crucial role in the successful surge in Iraq, and also for his service on Capitol Hill and in the Trump administration,” says NSC spokesman Michael Anton. “The administration is working with Colonel Harvey to identify positions in which his background and expertise can be best utilized.”
Harvey has experience as an intelligence officer, as an analyst at military commands, American embassies, and in the Defense Intelligence Agency. He’s viewed as an out-of-the-box thinker who has shown a keen knack for identifying threats before they’ve matured.
Here’s how Bob Woodward described Harvey in his 2008 book The War Within:
Harvey is credited with seeing the insurgency in Iraq as a growing threat and working with General David Petraeus to execute the surge. “Harvey is hands down the very best intelligence analyst that the United States government has on Iraq,” said former Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Jack Keane, who was a leading candidate to serve as Trump’s first defense secretary, in 2008. “He has been right from late ’03 all the way . . . up to the present. Not everybody has listened to Harvey, but Gen. Petraeus has, and so he’s making a difference.”
Harvey is open to remaining in government and is being considered for both policy and intelligence positions.
