CIA to recall ‘core missions’ staff amid shutdown

CIA director John Brennan (right) leaves the White House in Washington, DC, October 2, 2013, on the second day of the government shutdown. AFP FILE PHOTO

WASHINGTON – The CIA will begin calling for the return of employees central to its core missions on Wednesday amid the ongoing US shutdown, its director said.

Those asked to return will include individuals necessary for “foreign intelligence collection, all-source analysis, covert action, and counterintelligence,” according to a statement released Tuesday by CIA Director John Brennan.

“Keeping our staffing at the dramatically reduced levels of the past week would pose a threat to the safety of human life and the protection of property,” he said.

The number of employees expected to return was not mentioned and managers are still determining who will be recalled under the plan.

Additionally, the guidance does not “guarantee that we will be able to pay our employees during the hiatus,” the statement said.

In a similar move, the Pentagon on Saturday announced it would begin recalling most of its furloughed employees.

The US government shutdown was in its eighth day Tuesday, with hundreds of thousands of workers furloughed, or sent home without pay, after Congress failed to pass a budget for the 2014 fiscal year that began October 1.

The CIA’s move will come as Congress careens towards a deadline to raise the US debt ceiling by October 17.