Spy v Spy: Top Secret CIA Cable Admits "Dozens" Of Agents Abroad Are Being Captured, Killed

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https://www-nytimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/us/politics/cia-informants-killed-captured.amp.html
https://twitter.com/RupertStone83/status/1445414560056463361



It was revealed this week in a bombshell New York Times report that
the CIA has raised the alarm with all its overseas stations and
officers that an unusually high number of US informants are being
captured and executed abroad. There are "dozens" of such instances,
according to an agency memo.

The report is an incredibly rare instance of the media getting hold of
a fresh, very recent highly classified memo that's also sure to be
embarrassing for the agency. "The message, in an unusual top-secret
cable, said that the CIA’s counterintelligence mission center had
looked at dozens of cases in the last several years involving foreign
informants who had been killed, arrested or most likely compromised,"
the NYT writes.

"Although brief, the cable laid out the specific number of agents
executed by rival intelligence agencies — a closely held detail that
counterintelligence officials typically do not share in such cables."
Image: AFP/Getty

The cable warned its officers across the globe against put "mission
over security" - which it strongly suggested was a key cause that's
leading to poor tradecraft, putting agents at risk. "Agents" in this
context means foreign and local assets recruited by the CIA to spy in
their home countries, a dangerous endeavor which puts all the risk on
the foreign person (and their family) who feeds sensitive information
to their CIA handler.

The cable also cited the growing capabilities and awareness on the
part of foreign and rival agencies of US intelligence's methods.
According to the NY Times synopsis of what's in the top secret memo:

    The cable highlighted the struggle the spy agency is having as it
works to recruit spies around the world in difficult operating
environments. In recent years, adversarial intelligence services in
countries such as Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan have been hunting
down the CIA’s sources and in some cases turning them into double
agents.

Especially the growing biometric technology deployed by China is seen
as a serious problem for maintaining local assets' cover.

The report continues by spelling out, "The large number of compromised
informants in recent years also demonstrated the growing prowess of
other countries in employing innovations like biometric scans, facial
recognition, artificial intelligence and hacking tools to track the
movements of CIA officers in order to discover their sources."

    Pakistani intelligence very effective at hunting down CIA sources
and flipping them into double agents, according to this must-read NYT
reporting on a secret agency cable.

    https://t.co/X0zYIsVw7Z
    — Rupert Stone (@RupertStone83) October 5, 2021

Though this wasn't addressed in the cable, there's also the
possibility of leaks and the question of double-agents gaining
compromising material, further exposing other assets.

The NY Times report further quotes former CIA operatives who described
a somewhat flawed internal system and bureaucracy that's set up to
reward ambition but not recognize when officers prudently exercise
restraint. Promotions are often handed out to operatives who recruit
the most agents abroad.

One former CIA operative, Douglas London, told The Times, "No one at
the end of the day is being held responsible when things go south with
an agent." But of course in general it remains that few if anyone are
ever held accountable for failures when it comes to Washington's
massive national security state bureaucracy.