Psychiatric evacuation
======================

Psychiatric evacuation, psychovac in agency usage, is the removal of a CIA officer from a posting because he has broken down under the conditions of the job. Kiriakou uses it as evidence against the idea that the CIA is a machine staffed by exceptional people: the workforce is "all humans", and a proportion of them have problems.

What it looks like in practice

Preparing for an operation in Islamabad, Kiriakou asked where one of the officers who regularly helped on counterterrorism raids had gone. The answer was that he had been psychovac'd, "he went nuts. We had to put him on a plane, send him home", and the immediate operational consequence was that the team was a man down. His comment is that people do not realise the pressure that comes with the job.

The status that follows is not a discharge. In another account, asked to take a weekend meeting in Beirut, Kiriakou suggested sending the officer who actually covered Lebanon and was told he had been psychovac'd and was not allowed to travel: he would sit at a desk for another six months and be evaluated by the agency's psychiatrists, and then, if he was no longer nuts, might be allowed back.

See also

- CIA psychological evaluations
- Beirut
- Pakistan Station (2002)
- Moral Injury
