Cnn
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The CIA sent to the White House an unspecified email listing all the new hires that have been working for two years or less in order to comply An executive decree To reduce the federal workforce, according to three familiar sources with the question – a deeply unorthodox decision which could potentially expose the identity of these officers to the pirates of foreign government.
The list – which includes everything, from new analysts to trainees who are preparing to operate under cover – provides only the first names and the latest initials, officials said. The sources have described this decision as the “less bad option” that career officials have determined to comply with the order of President Donald Trump while trying to protect the identity of the officers.
But some of the employees have “rare” first names, one of the sources noted, which means that if a foreign intelligence service should have access to it, some officials could be easily twinned with data accessible to the public and possibly identified.
Although the new hires have still been deployed under cover abroad, in practice, the CIA can now consider too risky to send them to dangerous publications for fear that they are identified before even starting. In other words, this decision may have ended the career of certain young officers before even starting, according to two sources familiar with the situation.
“We comply with the decrees and provide information requested through the appropriate channels,” said CIA spokesperson in CNN in a statement.
The New York Times reported for the first time E-mail.
The best democrats assaulted this decision on Wednesday, calling for a risk to national security.
“These details are secret for a reason – because the protection of identities of CIA employees is essential to their safety and mission, a mission that helps the Americans in security every day,” said the member of the Intelligence Committee From the room, Jim Himes du Connecticut. “I am also deeply concerned about the context of this request, which seems to be an interest in dismissing provisional employees in mass.”
In another effort to reduce the federal workforce, the CIA earlier this week has become the first major national security agency To offer so -called buyouts to his workforce. The agency said this decision was “part of a holistic strategy aimed at instilling the agency with renewed energy”.