Private sector drains FBI talent

Senator: `Critical jobs at a critical time'By Andrew ZajacWashington BureauPublished May 3, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Two more senior FBI officials announced plans to quit in recent days, continuing a hemorrhage of top talent to the private sector that has complicated the bureau's efforts to refashion itself as a counterterrorism agency.On Friday the FBI announced the departure of Gary Bald, head of the bureau's newly formed National Security Branch, who is taking a job with a cruise line.On Tuesday, Bank of America announced it had hired the bureau's No. 3 official, Chris Swecker, the acting executive assistant director.

Swecker's predecessor, Grant Ashley, left the FBI just three months ago for a security post at a casino.Another senior executive, Louis Reigel, who headed the cyber-crime division, retired to join a food service company earlier this year.The turnover is particularly acute among counterterrorism officials, such as Bald, who had been in his job overseeing the FBI's fledgling domestic intelligence operation for only eight months.

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