Leaked CIA document sent to several addresses: the CIA is getting rusty

Leaked CIA document sent to several addresses: the CIA is getting rusty

The document suggests that the U.S. counterintelligence service underestimated its rivals, while the management of the agency is worried that more attention must be paid to the protection of agents, Radio Free Europe (RFE) reported today, citing other world media.

A large number of foreign CIA intelligence agents were killed, captured or turned to rival agencies, according to an atypical and strictly confidential document sent to every bureau around the world, according to the Times.

Counterintelligence officials warned last week that dozens of spies had been compromised or executed in recent years, which, according to sources, represents a sharp rise in such incidents.

The leaked document included a number of agents killed by foreign agencies - a confidential detail that, the Times points out, is not usually shared in such widespread correspondence. The goal was to encourage bureaus to improve security protocols, former officials say.

Poor intelligence skills, overconfidence in sources, underestimation of foreign agencies and too rapid recruitment of informants were highlighted as some of the reasons for failed missions - a problem described in the letter as putting the mission above security issues.

While technological advances such as biometric scans, hacking, and artificial intelligence have been successfully implemented by other CIA spy surveillance agencies, the U.S. has kept the focus on agents by building a network of trusted informants that, the Times adds, should be the world's best in collecting and analysis of the collected data.

Affirming that recruiting spies in other countries is a high-risk business, a leaked CIA letter has raised issues plaguing the agency in recent years, especially as rival intelligence services from countries such as Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan have caught CIA informants, and in some cases, turned them into double agents, writes the New York Times.

The warning, according to those who read it, was primarily aimed at "front-line" officials - people who were directly involved in recruiting new candidates and checking sources, urging officials to focus not only on recruitment but also on security issues.

A letter sent in the last week of September suggests that the agency underestimated its opponents with the belief that its agents and spy skills are better than other intelligence services. However, adds the New York Times, the results of the study showed that the countries targeted by the USA are also skilled in hunting informants, while the skills of the agency have rusted after decades of focusing on terrorist threats and relying on risky communication systems.

Sometimes, the New York paper points out, informants who discover rival intelligence services are not arrested, but are hired as double agents who submit disinformation to the CIA, former officials said, adding that Pakistanis were especially effective in that. The CIA's letter to its stations and bureaus around the world reflects the agency's general concern that its operatives should pay more attention to protecting their agents, while recognizing that they must aggressively recruit spies and informants to carry out their intelligence-gathering mission.

The CIA has suffered catastrophic intrusions into its spy networks in recent years, where, according to the Washington newspaper, the agents were probably discovered due to the violation of the secret communication system of the agency through which it communicated with the agents in the field.

The paper states that the CIA started hunting moles in 2011, after an informant in China reported that the authorities there discovered everyone who was helping the American government, and that they then forced the agents to work for them. By referring to previous mistakes, the letter was probably supposed to warn current officials not to repeat mistakes from the past.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, people familiar with the recently published letter say that it was not prompted by any new intrusion within the spy network, but that the driving force was Pakistan's success in identifying a large number of those working for the CIA.

At the same time, the Washington paper adds, the CIA is under renewed pressure to recruit and maintain effective spy networks in Pakistan, following the US withdrawal from neighboring Afghanistan and the Taliban's occupation of the country. Former officials say maintaining a network of reliable human resources will be key to President Joe Biden's administration's plans to monitor terrorist threats without a military presence on the ground, former officials said.