CIA Uneasy: Dozens Of Informants Are Missing, Their Spies Are Wanted By Russia, China To Iran

Memorial Wall in the lobby of CIA Headquarters, Langley, Virginia, USA. (Wikimedia Commons/CIA photo)

JAKARTA - The United States (US) has lost dozens of informants worldwide over the past few years, a report said Tuesday.

The US intelligence agency, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sent a classified message to a global network of stations and bases saying informants recruited from other countries to spy for the US had been arrested, killed or compromised, The New York Times said, citing people. who knows the problem.

"The cable highlights the struggles spy agencies go through as they work to recruit spies around the world in a difficult operating environment," The New York Times said.

The CIA message also reportedly said intelligence agencies in countries including China, Iran, Pakistan and Russia had been hunting down US spies, targeting turning them into double agents.

Acknowledging that recruiting spies was a high risk, the telegram raised issues that had plagued the agency in recent years, including poor trade, over-trusting sources, underestimating foreign intelligence agencies, and moving too quickly to recruit informants while not paying enough attention. a potential counter-intelligence risk, the so-called cable puts 'mission above security.'

The large number of compromised informants in recent years also demonstrates the growing prowess of other countries at using innovations, such as biometric scanning, facial recognition, artificial intelligence, and hacking tools to track CIA movements to find their source.

While the CIA has many ways of gathering intelligence for its analysts to guide policymakers, the worldwide network of trusted human informants remains at the heart of its efforts, the kind of intelligence that should be among the best in the world at gathering and analyzing.

Recruiting new informants, former officials say, is how CIA case officers, frontline spies, get promotions. Case officers are usually not promoted to good counterintelligence operations, such as finding out if an informant actually works for another country.

CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, USA. (Wikimedia Commons/Library of Congress Carol M. Highsmith)

The agency has devoted much of its attention over the past two decades to terrorist threats and conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, but increasing intelligence gathering on adversary forces, both large and small, is again at the heart of the CIA's agenda, especially as policymakers demand more. insight into China and Russia.

The loss of informants, said former officials, is not a new problem. But the telegram shows the issue is more pressing than the public understands.

The warning, according to those who have read it, is addressed primarily to front-line agency officers, the people most directly involved in recruiting and sourcing vetting. The cable reminded the CIA to focus not only on recruiting sources, but also on security issues including vetting informants and avoiding hostile intelligence agencies.

Among the reasons for the cable, according to people familiar with the document, was to encourage CIA case officers to think about steps they could take themselves to do a better job of managing informants.

The former official said there should be more focus on security and counterintelligence, among senior leaders and frontline personnel, especially when it comes to recruiting informants, whom the CIA calls agents.

“Ultimately no one is in charge when things go wrong with agents,” said Douglas London, a former operations agent. been responsible," he continued.

Asked about the memo, a CIA spokesman declined to comment.