Inside U.S. spy agencies, workers fear a cataclysmic Trump cull
Firings and mass disruptions could harm intelligence collection on foreign threats and future recruiting, current and former officials say.
“… The Pentagon this week is expected to begin firing up to 5,400 probationary employees, as it culls its ranks. The CIA also has started to dismiss some probationary workers, a spokeswoman said. About 80 people have been let go, said one former officer, who like other current and former officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals for speaking out or because they work in sensitive jobs.
“Work is next to impossible right now,” said the analyst, who is still waiting to learn his fate. “Morale is through the floor.”
…Across the vast network of U.S. spy agencies, from the CIA’s human operatives to the National Security Agency’s codebreakers, job cuts and the frequently conflicting instructions to the workforce have deeply unsettled tens of thousands of intelligence personnel who are usually known for their stoicism, disdain for partisan politics and focus on the critical missions at hand. Some former officials say they haven’t seen such turmoil in decades, if ever.
Because their work is shrouded in secrecy, the impact of the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape the U.S. intelligence community has been less obvious than they have elsewhere across the federal government.
And, at least so far, the effects have been less drastic than at other agencies and departments, which have seen large-scale firings or, in the case of the
U.S. Agency for International Development, virtual dismantlement.
But the potential cuts, particularly of young officers, and their impact on recruiting could make it harder for the United States to collect intelligence on threats like China, Russia, Iran and terrorist groups in the future, current and former officials said.
“We’re shooting ourselves in the head, not the foot,” said a former senior intelligence official who mentors young and aspiring intelligence officers. “We’re mortgaging our future.”
… The elimination of DEI programs is particularly painful to some intelligence officials, who see pragmatic virtue in a more diverse workforce. For years, spy chiefs have spoken of a lack of analysts with the necessary language skills and cultural backgrounds to understand foreign societies — and undercover operatives with the physical features to work clandestinely in Africa, Asia or the Middle East.
… The former official said he’s heard from at least a dozen young people who have had their offers of employment rescinded amid the drive to downsize. He knows others who were still in their probationary terms and were let go — among them nuclear engineers and analysts fluent in Chinese.
One young analyst moved to Washington for the job, “got an apartment, bought a car, got insurance, and in one moment, they no longer have an income,” he said. …”
