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The CIA's business is secrets, but it is recruiting spies in the open

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Julian E. Barnes, The New York Times

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2020/tnyt/06/23/cia.jpg"/><figcaption>CIA Director Gina Haspel leaves a closed briefing with members of the House in Washington on Jan. 8, 2020, about the confrontation with Iran. The CIA made its first television recruiting ad, now airing on streaming services like Hulu, as it tries to build a better, more diverse spy corps. Erin Schaff, The New York Times</figcaption></figure></div>WASHINGTON — The CIA has recruited at Ivy League schools, through Hollywood-produced television programs and even by judging school science fairs.But the current era needs a modern recruiting drive, and on Monday, the CIA unveiled its first television advertisement, which is aimed at streaming platforms like Hulu. The slick, advertising-agency-produced spot has the feel of clips from the television program “Homeland” — with a dollop of patriotism.By some measures, the CIA has little need for recruiting drives. Every year, thousands of applicants compete for hundreds of spots, according to current and former officials. In 2019, the agency had its best recruiting year in a decade. And traditionally it has been easier for the government to recruit during recessions.But Gina Haspel, the CIA director, has made recruitment a priority for her secretive agency, which has to compete against Silicon Valley for the sharpest minds as it increasingly focuses on hacking and other digital spying tools. And the agency still must work at bringing in recruiting classes that reflect the diversity of the United States.The agency has long produced recruitment videos, some of which are posted on its YouTube channel. It has also made radio and online advertisements. The new ad is the first meant for a television audience. The CIA declined to say what agency made it.The agency is not giving up on recruiting seniors on college campuses. But advertising on streaming platforms, the agency hopes, could get the attention of a broader group of potential recruits.“Americans are consuming streaming content now more than ever, and we want to be part of what they’re seeing,” said Nicole de Haay, an agency spokeswoman.The agency has embraced a variety of marketing tools. It unveiled an Instagram feed last year, and it made its website — including recruitment information — available over the privacy-minded Tor network. It sends its scientists to judge local science fairs in the Washington region. And it has long offered an assist to Hollywood productions. (In 2004, Jennifer Garner, then starring as a fictional CIA agent in the television show “Alias,” filmed a recruitment video for the agency.)The new advertisement was written with heavy input by current CIA officers. While it leaves aside the drudgery that is part of any job, former officials said the ad feels accurate in capturing some of the most exciting moments of spy craft.“There is an officer sitting at a desk and they say, ‘I think I found something.’ That gave me goose bumps,” said Lisa Maddox, a former CIA analyst. “Because I had those moments, and almost everyone I know had them. When you feel you found that needle in a haystack, you are so excited. It is a cool moment.”Maddox said that recruiting midcareer employees is also critical for the agency, but those prospects can be hard to reach. The new ad may be a way to interest them in the agency.The stereotype of a CIA officer of a white man recruited from Yale University contains a germ of truth — you can find plenty of Yale graduates among current and former agency personnel — though even as far back as the agency’s founding in 1947, it recruited from 70 colleges and universities. By the 1980s, William Casey, then the CIA director, made a priority of improving relations with the nation’s colleges as the agency began a push to diversify its ranks.“The general supply always exceeds the demand,” said Nicholas Dujmovic, a former CIA historian who is now a professor at the Catholic University of America in Washington. “But there are skills they are always looking for, so getting those specific individuals may be tough.”The new advertisement, which uses actors, not CIA officers, puts a clear emphasis on diversity. It portrays a Black senior official addressing a class of new recruits and an African American case officer doing a secret brush pass to hand off a thumb drive. Officers of East Asian and South Asian descent are also featured, as well as white employees.A 2015 report commissioned by the CIA suggested that over the previous two decades, the agency had become less diverse, with fewer senior Black officers in the agency.That report helped prompt John O. Brennan, then the CIA director, to intensify the agency’s recruitment efforts at historically black colleges and universities.“As an African American CIA officer, I can say in those years we were doing a lot of great work to reach out to various communities,” said Preston Golson, a former CIA officer. “But to build a pipeline, it takes time. You don’t see the results until a few years down the road.”Golson himself was recruited in a traditional way, interviewed as a Harvard undergraduate and offered an internship in the summer of 2001.

WASHINGTON — The CIA has recruited at Ivy League schools, through Hollywood-produced television programs and even by judging school science fairs.

WASHINGTON — The CIA has recruited at Ivy League schools, through Hollywood-produced television programs and even by judging school science fairs.

The CIA's business is secrets, but it is recruiting spies in the open

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The CIA's business is secrets, but it is recruiting spies in the open

Julian E. Barnes,

The New York Times

Published June 23, 2020 09:54 PM PHT

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United States

CIA

national security

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