Image
John
Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, during his swearing-in ceremony last
month. Mr. Ratcliffe has begun an effort to push long-tenured agency
officers to retire early.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
The
C.I.A. sent the White House an unclassified email listing all employees
hired by the spy agency over the last two years to comply with an
executive order to shrink the federal work force, in a move that former
officials say risked the list leaking to adversaries.
The
list included first names and the first initial of the last name of the
new hires, who are still on probation — and thus easy to dismiss. It
included a large crop of young analysts and operatives who were hired
specifically to focus on China, and whose identities are usually closely
guarded because Chinese hackers are constantly seeking to identify
them.
The agency normally would prefer not to put these names in an unclassified system. Some former officials said they worried that the list could be passed on to a team of newly hired young software experts working with Elon Musk and his government efficiency team. If that happened, the names of the employees might be more easily targeted by China, Russia or other foreign intelligence services.
One former agency officer called the reporting of the names in an unclassified email a “counterintelligence disaster.”
Current
officials confirmed that the C.I.A. had sent the names of employees to
the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, complying with an
executive order signed by President Trump. But the officials downplayed
security concerns. By sending just the first names and initials of the
probationary employees, one U.S. official said, they hoped the
information would be protected.
But
former officials scoffed at the explanation, saying that the names and
initials could be combined with other information — from driver’s
license and car registration systems, social media accounts and publicly
available data from universities that the agency uses as recruiting
grounds — to piece together a more complete list.
The
number of officers involved remains classified, but it could be
significant. In 2024, the C.I.A. had its best recruiting drive since the
aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. C.I.A. officers, because of their
intense training, have a long probationary period, up to four years.
However, the White House required only the names of people who had
served two years or fewer.
Under
William J. Burns, the former C.I.A. director, the agency put a new
emphasis on trying to recruit a diverse group of officers, arguing that
overseas spying operations required people with an array of language
skills and cultural knowledge. He focused particularly on expanding the
agency’s coverage of China, creating a China center at the headquarters
that included analysts, operatives and others. When Mr. Burns arrived at
the agency in 2021, about 9 percent of the agency’s budget was devoted
to China-related analysis and espionage; today it is closer to 20
percent.
So
any large-scale culling of more recent hires could have a disparate
impact on Mandarin speakers and technology experts, along with the
agency’s minority work force. But current officials said the C.I.A.’s
new director, John Ratcliffe, was prioritizing China and did not want to
see any mass exodus of people with expertise in that area.
The Trump administration has made quick work of diversity programs, ordering them shut down and scrubbed from websites.
The
White House review of probationary hires comes as Mr. Ratcliffe has
begun an effort to push long-tenured agency officers to retire early.
Mr. Ratcliffe, officials said, hopes to clear a path to leadership jobs
for midcareer officers.
The
C.I.A. is offering its employees what it is calling “deferred
resignation,” an option to quit but continue to be paid through
September, as part of the efforts led by Mr. Musk to shrink the size of
the federal work force, officials said.
National-security-related agencies had originally been exempted, at least partially, from the governmentwide “fork in the road” offer to
leave their jobs that was extended last week. But Mr. Ratcliffe pushed
to have a version of the offer extended to his work force.
Under
the C.I.A.’s program, the agency will retain some say over the timing
of when anyone leaves to ensure that critical areas have enough
officers.
Otherwise,
however, the offer is structured in much the same way as what Mr.
Musk’s team pushed out across the federal government.
In
an email sent on Tuesday, agency officers were extended an offer to
leave the agency effective Sept. 30 but continue to be paid. An aide to
Mr. Ratcliffe said it was “effectively giving them a buyout and a runway
to the private sector.”
The offer was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.
The
aide to Mr. Ratcliffe, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under
agency protocol, said the effort was meant to encourage some of the
large group of officers who joined after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks
to retire early.
“These
moves are part of a holistic strategy to infuse the agency with renewed
energy, provide opportunities for rising leaders to emerge and better
position the C.I.A. to deliver on its mission,” according to a statement
released by a C.I.A. spokeswoman.
The
spokeswoman said the offer would ensure that the agency’s work force
was responsive to the Trump administration’s “national security
priorities.”