Some of the military forces were set up on the basis of clandestine officers' organisations in the cities.

Out went many of the overt foreign-service observers and with them many of the covers being used for clandestine officers.

Mr. Wilson said on Wednesday, "Her career as a clandestine officer is over."

At the time, Mr. Vreeland was a clandestine officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, according to published accounts confirmed this week by Government officials.

Thus, after spending millions of dollars training people to be clandestine officers, taxpayers are having to pay them twice as much to return as rent-a-spies.

Lindsay Moran (born 18 December 1969) is a former clandestine officer for the Central Intelligence Agency.

Through his years as a clandestine officer, he gained a very thorough knowledge of the Middle East, Arab world and former Republics of the Soviet Union.

The agency's clandestine officers called the list "the family jewels," or "the skeletons."

The officials also pointed to a lack of nimbleness within what is still a highly bureaucratic organization, whose clandestine officers remain primarily white men posted in embassies overseas.

General Hayden's background is in satellite intelligence, not human spying, and the officials said it would make sense to install a former clandestine officer as his deputy.