Kevin Whitelaw: Why the CIA uses so many contractors
News that the CIA worked with a private contractor on a secret assassination program is the latest evidence of how much the agency has outsourced a range of its activities, including covert missions.
According to The New York Times, the CIA in 2004 worked briefly with Blackwater, the controversial private security firm, on a program designed to target and kill al-Qaida operatives.
The program was scrapped before any missions were launched. But it reflects a practice that became widespread under the Bush administration of using large numbers of outside contractors for activities ranging from specialized translation work to conducting interrogations of terrorism suspects. Soon after taking office, CIA Director Leon Panetta imposed new restrictions on work by contractors, banning them from conducting interrogations.
Still, by 2008, contractors made up 27 percent of the personnel in a U.S. intelligence community numbering well over 100,000 workers. This heavy reliance on the private sector has prompted criticism of the high financial cost as well as the potential lack of accountability of private firms.
A Sudden Need to Staff Up
The roots of the contracting explosion lie in the end of the Cold War, when the intelligence community downsized dramatically, shedding a quarter of its workforce as the apparent threat level diminished. At that point, it was very rare for contractors to be performing spying operations or analyzing intelligence.
But after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when there was a sudden drive to staff up, officials turned to people they knew and could hire quickly as contractors.
Early on, the aim was usually to hire experienced operatives, often retired CIA personnel, with specialized skill sets, such as language expertise."It doesn't necessarily make sense to bring people in for permanent career positions where their skills may be needed for a very specific period of time at a certain level," said Michael Chertoff, a Bush-era homeland security chief.
The CIA also began its own hiring binge, bringing in a new generation of young, less experienced officers.
"More than half of the agency workforce has been hired since 9/11," former CIA Director Michael Hayden said during a panel discussion Thursday on the topic of intelligence privatization."It might suggest why we have a pretty open mind about hiring retirees as contractors to come back and try to level that imbalance."...
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According to The New York Times, the CIA in 2004 worked briefly with Blackwater, the controversial private security firm, on a program designed to target and kill al-Qaida operatives.
The program was scrapped before any missions were launched. But it reflects a practice that became widespread under the Bush administration of using large numbers of outside contractors for activities ranging from specialized translation work to conducting interrogations of terrorism suspects. Soon after taking office, CIA Director Leon Panetta imposed new restrictions on work by contractors, banning them from conducting interrogations.
Still, by 2008, contractors made up 27 percent of the personnel in a U.S. intelligence community numbering well over 100,000 workers. This heavy reliance on the private sector has prompted criticism of the high financial cost as well as the potential lack of accountability of private firms.
A Sudden Need to Staff Up
The roots of the contracting explosion lie in the end of the Cold War, when the intelligence community downsized dramatically, shedding a quarter of its workforce as the apparent threat level diminished. At that point, it was very rare for contractors to be performing spying operations or analyzing intelligence.
But after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when there was a sudden drive to staff up, officials turned to people they knew and could hire quickly as contractors.
Early on, the aim was usually to hire experienced operatives, often retired CIA personnel, with specialized skill sets, such as language expertise."It doesn't necessarily make sense to bring people in for permanent career positions where their skills may be needed for a very specific period of time at a certain level," said Michael Chertoff, a Bush-era homeland security chief.
The CIA also began its own hiring binge, bringing in a new generation of young, less experienced officers.
"More than half of the agency workforce has been hired since 9/11," former CIA Director Michael Hayden said during a panel discussion Thursday on the topic of intelligence privatization."It might suggest why we have a pretty open mind about hiring retirees as contractors to come back and try to level that imbalance."...