U.S. bars ex-spies from becoming 'mercenaries,' following Reuters series
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[March 17, 2022]
By Joel Schectman and Christopher Bing
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new law bans the
United States' former spies from hiring themselves out to foreign
governments right after they stop working for Washington.
The legislation, signed into law by President Joseph Biden on Tuesday as
part of a $1.5 trillion spending bill, prohibits U.S. intelligence
officials with knowledge of spycraft and national security secrets from
selling their services to other countries for 30 months after retiring.
Democratic U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro introduced the legislation
to address issues raised in a 2019 Reuters investigation, a
congressional aide told Reuters. In a yearlong series, Reuters showed
that former National Security Agency hackers helped the United Arab
Emirates spy on journalists, dissidents and other Americans.
“We don't want our best trained intel officers going straight into the
hands of foreign governments for the sake of money," Castro said. "This
discourages intelligence mercenaries and protects our national
interest."
The UAE spying operation, called Project Raven, hacked into Facebook and
Google accounts and thousands of Apple iPhones, targeting activists that
human rights groups say were later arrested and tortured.
While U.S. law has always prohibited intelligence officials from
revealing specific national security secrets, previously no rule
restricted retired intelligence officers from the Central Intelligence
Agency or the NSA from selling their services to foreign governments
after retiring.
On top of the 30-month ban, the new law will require former intelligence
officials to report any foreign government work to the U.S. intelligence
community and Congress for five years after they leave service.
The law applies to the CIA, the NSA and the more than dozen other
American intelligence agencies.
Rhea Siers, a former senior official at the NSA, said the law addresses
a critical gap in current law that has allowed American officials to
commit grave ethical breaches for personal profit.
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The National Security Agency (NSA) headquarters is seen in Fort
Meade, Maryland, U.S. February 14, 2018. REUTERS/Sait Serkan Gurbuz
“Even after government employment,
intelligence officers have a responsibility to uphold the public
trust,” she said. “Personally, I was appalled by what was revealed
about Project Raven, especially the involvement in conducting
surveillance of U.S. citizens.”
The law defined work for foreign governments
broadly. For example, the prohibition includes work for state-backed
companies that are controlled by or receive substantial investments
from foreign governments.
Glenn Gerstell, a former general counsel for the NSA, said that
while he is generally supportive of the restrictions, he believes
this definition is too broad and could end up preventing security
experts from taking up important roles in the private sector.
“My concern is that it could inadvertently have an effect of making
it a little harder for people even to work for companies that we
would be perfectly delighted for them to work for,” Gerstell said.
Over the last decade, governments around the world have created
investment funds that buy stakes in private companies, which could
be included in the restriction depending on how the law is
interpreted as it comes into force in the next six months.
The law allows former spies to apply for an exemption if they can
show the foreign work is critical to U.S. national security.
Washington has at times encouraged U.S. intelligence contractors to
work with allied nations when it was seen as helping America's
spying efforts, experts say.
Gerstell said he hoped the law wouldn’t hinder these kind of
legitimate intelligence contracting arrangements. “We rely on our
allies. There is nothing evil about working for a foreign
government,” he said. “Sometimes it helps us."
(Reporting by Joel Schectman and Christopher Bing; Editing by Kieran
Murray and Jonathan Oatis)
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