中國網站品牌欄目（頻道）
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"I didn't just want to go back to the agency [as a contractor] as so many people do," said Mel Gamble. The 40-year CIA vet-eran worked for a Herndon-based defense contractor. |
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In the decade since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, private intelligence firms and security consultants have peeled away veterans from the top reaches of the CIA, hiring scores of longtime officers in large part to gain access to the burgeoning world of intelligence contracting. At least 91 of the agency’s upper-level managers have left for the private sector in the past 10 years, according to data compiled by The Washington Post. In many quarters in Washington, government officials decamp for the private sector as a matter of course. Defense consultancies routinely hire generals retiring from the Pentagon; the city’s lobbying firms are stacked with former members of Congress and administration officials. But the wave of departures from the CIA has marked an end to a decades-old culture of discretion and restraint in which retired officers, by and large, did not join contractors that perform intelligence work for the government. It has also raised questions about the impact of the losses incurred by the agency. Veteran officers leave with a wealth of institutional knowledge, extensive personal contacts and an understanding of world affairs afforded only to those working at the nation’s preeminent repository of intelligence. Among the CIA’s losses to the private sector have been top subject-matter experts including Stephen Kappes, who served as the agency’s top spy in Moscow and who helped negotiate Libya’s disarmament in 2003; Henry Crumpton, who was one of the CIA’s first officers in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks; and Cofer Black, the director of the agency’s counterterrorism center on Sept. 11. The exodus into the private sector has been driven by an explosion in intelligence contracting. As part of its Top Secret America investigation, The Post estimated that of 854,000 people with top-secret clearances, 265,000 are contractors. Thirty percent of the workforce in the intelligence agencies is made up of contractors. Those contractors perform a wide range of tasks, among them assessing security risks, analyzing intelligence and providing “risk mitigation” services in foreign countries. Some of the officials quoted for this report spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivities involved in discussing the agency’s inner workings. Few of them cited problems at the agency as their reason for leaving. Rather, they said, the choice was often financially driven. (Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)
(Agencies)
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在2001年9?11恐怖襲擊事件過去的十年間，美國中央情報局（CIA）高層中的一些資深工作人員流失嚴重，頻頻被私人情報公司和安全顧問團體挖走。這些公司還雇用了大批長期在CIA擔任要職的官員，主要是為了進軍發展迅猛的情報外包領域。 根據《華盛頓郵報》的統計，在過去十年間，至少有91位CIA高管離職，跳槽到私營情報公司。 在華盛頓的很多政府機構，公職人員跳槽到私營公司司空見慣。國防咨詢機構會定期招聘退休的五角大樓軍官，華盛頓的游說團體中也遍布前國會和政府機構工作人員。 但CIA近期的離職潮標志著數十年來“謹慎與克制”的文化觀念的終結，在這種觀念下，退休官員一般都不再加入為政府提供情報工作的情報外包公司。 人們也開始擔心CIA人才流失的影響。資深官員離職時，也帶走了豐富的機構知識、廣泛的人脈關系和對國際事務的了解，而這些本應只由美國情報最高機構CIA的工作人員掌握。 CIA流失至私營公司的人才包括多位主題事務高級專家，比如曾出任駐莫斯科首席間諜，并在2003年協助談判利比亞裁軍問題的史蒂芬?卡佩斯、9?11事件后負責阿富汗事務的首席官員之一亨利?克蘭普頓、以及在9?11事件發生時擔任反恐中心負責人的考夫?布萊克。 人才流失是由情報外包業務的大量增長引發。根據一項名為“美國機密”的調查，《華盛頓郵報》估計，在85.4萬擁有絕密文件許可證的情報人員中，有26.5萬人為外包公司工作。在各情報機構中為外包公司工作的人員比例占到了30%。 情報外包工作人員執行多種任務，包括安全風險評估、情報分析工作以及向外國提供“風險緩解”服務。 報道中提到的某些官員匿名接受了采訪，因為在談到CIA的內部工作時涉及敏感信息。 很少有人認為離開CIA是因為工作中遇到困難，他們認為離職主要是為了獲得高薪。 相關閱讀 （中國日報網英語點津 Julie 編輯： 馮明惠） |
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Vocabulary: decamp: to depart quickly, secretly, or unceremoniously（撤離，匆忙而秘密地離開） by and large: 總的來說，大體而言 exodus: a going out; a departure or emigration, usually of a large number of people（外流，大批離去） |
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