All CIA employees were sent letters asking them to resign.

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has sent letters to its employees offering monetary compensation for their willingness to resign due to staff reductions, according toem Air force with links to numerous media sources.

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The CIA is suspending hiring of new employees, particularly those who have already been offered positions. Candidates will now have to undergo the necessary background checks.

Some of these proposals are likely to be cancelled if the candidates' backgrounds do not match US President Donald Trump's new goals.

A CIA spokeswoman said the decision was "part of a holistic strategy to inject new energy into the agency."

On the subject: The CIA has created digital copies of world leaders and communicates with them

Many aspects of the CIA's activities are shrouded in secrecy. The agency does not disclose its budget or the number of its employees.

"Counterintelligence disaster"

As part of a cutback campaign, the CIA sent the White House an unencrypted email listing every employee the agency had hired in the past two years.

Such employees are still on probation, so it is easier to fire them. The probationary period for CIA agents and analysts is four years. However, the White House requested only the names of employees who have served for about two years.

The list includes the first names and initials of the last names of the employees, many of whom are young analysts and operatives specializing in China. The identities of most of them have been kept strictly confidential until now, as Chinese hackers on behalf of the government are actively trying to identify them.

Sending the list of people via email over an unsecured channel risks leaking the names, former CIA employees and officials said.

Some former officials worry that the list could be passed on to a team of recently hired young programmers working with Elon Musk. If that happens, the names of CIA employees would become easier prey for China, Russia and other countries' intelligence services.

One former CIA officer called the incident a "counterintelligence disaster."

According to experts, a first name and the first letter of a last name are enough to get more complete information about a person. This is easy to do if you combine the available data with other information - from driver's licenses, car numbers, social media accounts and publicly available data from universities, where the intelligence agency usually looks for promising graduates.

China is a priority

In 2024, the CIA conducted its best recruiting campaign since the September 11, 2001, attacks. Under former CIA Director William Burns, the agency recruited a wide range of people with the diverse skills, languages, and cultural backgrounds that the previous leadership believed were needed for missions overseas.

The intelligence agency paid special attention to expanding the department dealing with China.

When Burns took over the CIA in 2021, the agency spent 9% of its budget on China projects, compared to about 20% now.

The reduction in personnel could significantly affect the effectiveness of the intelligence agency in this area. However, its new head, John Ratcliffe, appointed by Donald Trump, says that he also considers the Chinese area a priority and does not want to lose employees with specialized skills.

Ideas of the 47th President

During his election campaign, Trump promised to improve the efficiency of the American government.

Employees at many federal agencies were offered voluntary resignation in late January on the condition that they would be paid until September 30.

The proposal has not generated much interest, according to career coaches who spoke to more than 100 officials. Employees have until February 6 to make a decision.

Federal employees in national security positions did not receive such an offer.

However, the New York Times writes that the terms of dismissal offered by the CIA are generally similar to those in unclassified agencies. The most notable exception is that the agency will be able to influence the timing of the departure of a particular employee.

It is not yet known whether employees of other US intelligence agencies, of which there are more than a dozen, will receive similar offers.

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CIA Director John Ratcliffe personally made the decision to include the agency in the voluntary separation program.

While the offer was sent to all CIA employees, it is unclear whether it applies to all positions. One CNN source suggested that agents with highly specialized knowledge would likely not be allowed to voluntarily resign.

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