I Spy Some Really Happy Spies

The fallout from the outing of former CIA operative Valerie Plame and the internal teeth-gnashing during the short tenure of embattled spy master Porter Goss haven't had much of an impact on the new kids at Langley. In fact, insiders tell us that job turnover at the nation's top spy agency has settled down. We're told that the rate of retirements, resignations, and firings is at a 15-year low. And in the class of newbies, those with five or fewer years' service and the most likely group to quit early, the resignation rate has dropped sharply from 4.3 percent last year to 2.9 percent this year. Some credit CIA boss Michael Hayden for turning the ship around. Others say it's simply a cool place to work because of the war on terrorism. Just ask the wave of new workers. Nearly half the CIA's staff was hired after 9/11, and in a startling statistic, the agency has boosted its corps of officers that can speak other languages by 50 percent since 2003.