# The CIA buyout offer > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "The CIA buyout offer," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-cia-buyout-offer/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The deferred-resignation offer extended to CIA staff in early 2025 on the same terms given to other federal workers, six to eight months' pay, no requirement to come to work, and then the end of the contract, which John Kiriakou discussed as part of a broader reorientation of the agency towards the Western Hemisphere.* - **When:** Early 2025 - **Terms:** Six to eight months' pay; no requirement to attend work; contract then ends - **Precedent:** The same offer made to other federal workers - **Stated purpose:** Bringing the agency into line with the president's priorities, including drug cartels - **Agency's framing:** An effort to infuse the agency with renewed energy In February 2025 the Trump administration was reported to be preparing to thin the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) workforce on the same terms it had used elsewhere in the federal government. ## The terms The offer was a deferred resignation: take it, and you are paid for six to eight months, you do not have to come to work, and then your contract ends and you go and do something else. A CIA spokesperson described the exercise as an effort to infuse the agency with renewed energy, and the Wall Street Journal reported that the object was to bring the agency into line with the president's priorities, including targeting drug cartels.[1] ## Kiriakou's reading Asked whether he accepted the stated rationale, that the agency was being pointed at the Western Hemisphere rather than at Europe and the Middle East, [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) answered: "yeah, in part."[2] He credits the president with a consistent anti-war disposition "at the core of his ideology," says he welcomes it, and adds that "there's no reason why we should always be at odds with Russia and China." If Marco Rubio is right that the United States must accept the inevitability of a multipolar world, then, in Kiriakou's view, it must.[3] On the cartels specifically his objection is bureaucratic rather than strategic: "why is the CIA at odds with the Drug Enforcement Administration when really at the end of the day drugs crossing the border into the United States is a bad thing and we should all be working together to stop it?"[3] ## The Guantánamo question Asked in the same conversation about reopening [Guantánamo](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/guantanamo-origin), Kiriakou was unequivocal: he is "strongly opposed to doing anything with Guantanamo other than closing it." The alternative he sets out is the constitutional one, charge them with a crime, give them their day in court, let them face a jury, and incarcerate them if guilt is proved. "But putting them in a no man's land in a limbo at Guantanamo isn't going to work for anybody."[4] Asked how the public could know what was being done in its name, he pointed at the structural problem: Guantánamo is effectively off limits to almost all journalists, which leaves only the congressional oversight committees, and those, he says, "really have turned into little more than cheerleaders for the various elements of the deep state."[5] ## See also - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) - [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) - [Guantánamo Bay detention camp](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/guantanamo-origin) - [Congressional intelligence oversight](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/congressional-intelligence-oversight) - [CIA Drug Facilitation](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-drug-facilitation) ## Sources 1. The CIA is FINISHED as we know it Trump is burning it down w (2025-02-06), at 00:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5jv4cA1oD0&t=0s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-02-06-redacted-the-cia-is-finished-as-we-know-it-trump-is-bu/ 2. The CIA is FINISHED as we know it Trump is burning it down w (2025-02-06), at 10:01. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5jv4cA1oD0&t=601s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-02-06-redacted-the-cia-is-finished-as-we-know-it-trump-is-bu/ 3. The CIA is FINISHED as we know it Trump is burning it down w (2025-02-06), at 10:33. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5jv4cA1oD0&t=633s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-02-06-redacted-the-cia-is-finished-as-we-know-it-trump-is-bu/ 4. The CIA is FINISHED as we know it Trump is burning it down w (2025-02-06), at 11:37. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5jv4cA1oD0&t=697s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-02-06-redacted-the-cia-is-finished-as-we-know-it-trump-is-bu/ 5. The CIA is FINISHED as we know it Trump is burning it down w (2025-02-06), at 12:39. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5jv4cA1oD0&t=759s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-02-06-redacted-the-cia-is-finished-as-we-know-it-trump-is-bu/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-cia-buyout-offer/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt