Dan is a managing editor at Raw Story based in Colorado, producing and editing breaking political news.
Dan previously worked as a news associate at The Associated Press in Philadelphia, and later as local editor, breaking news editor and eventually manager at Patch, overseeing the company’s breaking news and Long Island/Hudson Valley teams.
Dan has covered major breaking stories such as mass shootings and wildfires in California, and overseen teams that covered George Santos and the Gilgo Beach serial killings.
A native of Colorado and the Philadelphia area, Dan graduated with a degree in journalism from Temple University.
A journalist, historian, and author called an eye-popping new report "shocking" that the CIA offered buyouts to its entire workforce Tuesday in hopes of ushering in "renewed energy" under new Director John Ratcliffe.
The agency appears to be the first intelligence agency to tell workers they can take Elon Musk's signature buyouts, in which employees can take eight months of pay and benefits if they quit, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday night.
The report noted that the agency also entered a hiring freeze for people who've been given a conditional offer. Additionally, some will likely have their offers rescinded if they "don't have the right background for the agency's new goals," the report said. Those goals include implementing Trump's tariffs and "undermining China."
Garrett Graff, founding director of the Aspen Institute's cybersecurity and technology program, joined CNN's "The Source" with Kaitlan Collins to discuss the report.
"It is as shocking as any other development that we are living through right now," said Graff.
He slammed the president's administration over one of the few "truths we have" in the Trump era: "the inconsistency of the logical consistency of one announcement to another."
Graff flagged the curious timing of Trump floating taking over Gaza while simultaneously planning to "gut" the agency that would help the U.S. understand the region — and help mitigate risks to the U.S. — on the same day they're looking at "neutering" the FBI's "entire counter-terrorism program."
Graff blasted the Trump administration after it said U.S. intelligence agencies ought to help spy on countries such as Mexico to give Trump leverage in his trade negotiations.
"Quotes like that show how little any of the people involved in this actually understand the mission of any of these federal agencies," he said.
Graff pointed to revelations made in the massive theft of government secrets by Edward Snowden, which showed the U.S. was monitoring Angela Merkel's cell phone.
"That's exactly the type of work the CIA is already doing," he said.
If every CIA worker took the buyout, Graff said that would mean "nothing good" for the U.S.
"Part of the challenge of this is understanding the chaos and the wreckage. I don't think there's any grand plan beyond these buyouts. It's certainly not a cost-cutting measure to throw away decades of experience and millions of dollars in training that we have invested in these workforces," he said.
Graff warned such institutions often have only a few people who understand the intricate ins and outs of the bureaucracy.
"When those people leave, the whole thing seizes up," he said.
