Moves at the top at the CIA

The top leadership tier of the CIA is to be exclusively made up of career intelligence officers, with no outsiders brought in to the agency for the first time for many years. Gina Haspel who took over as director of the CIA in May is herself a veteran spy who worked her way up to the top job after joining the intelligence agency in 1985. Now she has moved to make sure that the most senior members of her leadership team are all career officers. The CIA confirmed in a statement that her deputy is Vaughn Bishop who is one of the agency’s most experienced intelligence analysts. He had worked closely with Haspel in the past when she was serving as an undercover spy on foreign assignments. Bishop joined the CIA in 1981. He retired in 2011 but returned to serve as the agency’s ombudsman for “analytic objectivity”, before being offered the deputy job. Andy Makridis has been appointed the new chief operating officer. He is also a CIA veteran of 32 years, underlining Haspel’s wish to have career agency people around her. Haspel took over as director from Mike Pompeo who had never worked for the CIA, although as a former Republican member of the House intelligence committee, he had deep knowledge of the agency’s operations. Pompeo, now secretary of state, brought in a businessman friend, Brian Bulatao, to be the CIA’s chief operating officer. Haspel was, of course, Pompeo’s deputy. Bulatao has now moved to a senior government management position. In recent administrations, CIA directors have often been outsiders. For example, General David Petraeus, former commander in Iraq and Afghanistan, was appointed CIA director by President George W Bush, although it seemed a strange move at the time. And of course he didn't last long after he was forced to resign over his affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell. Leon Panetta, ex-chief of staff to President Clinton and a former director of the office of management and budget. was appointed CIA director by President Obama. John Brennan who took over from Petraeus as CIA director, had worked for the intelligence agency for 25 years, but had left in 2005. He was brought back by Obama after serving as homeland security adviser in the White House. But, for his deputy, Brennan chose David Cohen from the US Treasury. Cohen was an expert in tracing financing networks used by terrorist organisations. But Haspel has gone for veteran CIA people for her top leadership because she obviously feels that insiders are family. Haspel also announced the appointment of Sonya Holt to be the CIA's chief diversity and inclusion officer. She joined the CIA 34 years ago. A CIA source said: "The top three at the CIA have about 100 years of service between them."