New York [US], March 8: The Central Intelligence Agency fired a slew of recent hires this week.
Three people familiar with the matter said, cuts that current and former U.S. intelligence officers warned would risk damaging U.S. national security.
The firings under U.S. President Donald Trump's new CIA director, John Ratcliffe, come as Trump presides over massive federal workforce reductions overseen by billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The recent CIA hires, known as probationary employees, worked across a number of different portfolios and were fired because of performance issues, a person familiar with the matter said.
"At CIA, we are reviewing personnel within their first two years of service at the Agency," a CIA spokesperson said in a statement. "For some personnel, that process will result in termination. Our officers face unique pressures from working in situations that are fast-paced and high-stakes. It's not for everyone."
In some other agencies, however, federal workers who were fired for alleged poor performance as part of Trump's remaking of the federal government received excellent performance reviews before they were terminated, according to interviews and documents seen by Reuters.
It is unclear how many probationary employees - those hired in the last four years - have been dismissed. Those who were terminated had only been working for the agency for two years or less, the sources said.
The firings were first reported by the New York Times.
A person familiar with the matter said members of the House and Senate intelligence committees were not informed - as is customary - that the dismissals had begun. Members would be seeking more information from the agency in the coming days, the person said on condition of anonymity.
The firings of CIA probationary employees started earlier this week after a federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia ruled on a lawsuit, opens new tab involving officers who had been temporarily assigned to diversity initiatives in the Biden administration. The ruling allowed the CIA to fire employees at will.
Any large-scale firing of CIA officers, even probationary, could impact the agency's intelligence collection and analysis efforts.
A U.S. intelligence official, who requested anonymity to discuss the issue, said the firings, if continued, would take years to recover from because of the time and effort needed to vet, recruit and train new CIA officers.
"We need a constant flow of officers in the training pipeline to fulfill our mission," the official said. "A gap like this would cause irreparable damage to our ability to conduct our essential national security missions for years to come."
Daniel Hoffman, a former senior CIA clandestine services officer, said he was aware of the firings but did not know the details.
He expressed deep concern at the impact of the dismissals, saying they could damage U.S. national security by eliminating a generation of intelligence officers that has taken years to recruit and train.
Staff cuts under the former Clinton administration "decimated the intelligence community . and then we had the 9/11 attacks, and we were caught flat-footed," he said. "So, what are the savings here and what are the risks we are running by lopping off the next generation of hires?"
Last month the CIA, at the direction of the White House, reviewed its ranks and sent an email back to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) with a list of probationary employees. The list included first initials and last names.
That unclassified email alarmed lawmakers on Capitol Hill and others inside the agency who worried that the identities of those employees would be leaked or obtained by foreign adversaries, risking their safety.
OPM was breached in 2015 by a Chinese hacking group that stole sensitive information on millions of current and former U.S. government employees, according to people familiar with the matter. China denied any suggestion it was involved.
The U.S. intelligence official said that the list was "certain" to lead to the compromising of CIA staffers' classified identities "even though they sent it with first name, last initial only."
"The Chinese will figure out how to fill in the names. Then use the info to compromise our operations and probably share it with their allies," the official warned.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Corporation
