White House ordered CIA to send unclassified e-mail list of new hires in last 2 years

WASHINGTON – The White House ordered the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to send an unclassified e-mail listing all employees hired by the spy agency over the last two years to comply with an executive order to shrink the federal workforce, in a move 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 were worried that the list could be passed on to a team working with Mr 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 e-mail a “counter-intelligence disaster”.

Current officials confirmed that the CIA had sent the names to the Office of Personnel Management, complying with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump. But the officials downplayed security concerns. By sending just the first names and initials of the probationary employees, one US 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 to piece together a more complete list.

The White House-ordered review of probationary hires comes as new CIA director John 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 CIA is offering its employees what it calls “deferred resignation”, an option to quit but continue to be paid through September, as part of efforts led by Mr Musk to shrink the size of the federal workforce, 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 workforce. NYTIMES