'A ripe set of targets': Intel experts sound alarm that fired spies could turn on U.S.

Add to concerns about the slash-and-burn efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to purge as many federal workers as possible before the courts can intervene, is the risk that fired employees who have had access to the nation's secrets will be ripe for recruitment.

According to a report from Politico's Amy Mackinnon, current and retired intel officials are waving red flags that the nation's security is at risk with so many losing their jobs in a singular occupation where there are few opportunities after dismissal.

Pointing out that Donald Trump's approval of letting Elon Musk and DOGE staffers have a free hand in firing left and right has had the end effect of putting "hundreds of intelligence and national security officials who had access to reams of classified information" on the street.

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In interviews with ex-U.S. intelligence officials, lawyers specializing in national security matters and counterintelligence experts, Mackinnon wrote there is a foreboding sense of alarm over the newly created national security crisis during Trump's second term.

According to ex-CIA officer James Lawler, who focused on recruitment himself, "What we have done is we have created a ripe set of targets for our adversaries."

Kevin Carroll, a former CIA case officer, agreed and added that how Musk's DOGE employees have conducted themselves has compounded the threat to the U.S.

“You’re absolutely creating a counterintelligence risk,” he said. “Not by letting people go, but the manner in which you’re letting people go.”

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee has also sounded the alarm in a statement explaining, "The chaotic and haphazard way the administration and DOGE are going about firing seasoned intelligence and law enforcement officers across the government – including, for example, officers that specifically work on counter-espionage – severely increases the counterintelligence risk to America.”

The report adds, "The concern extends beyond those working directly in intelligence. Hundreds of officials with access to highly sensitive information have been fired or placed on administrative leave across the federal government. The Pentagon announced Tuesday that it was forging ahead with plans to cut some 50,000 to 60,000 civilian jobs. A slate of top national security officials at the FBI and Department of Justice have also been removed from their posts."

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