Monday, June 3, 2013

How The CIA Persuades Someone To Be A Traitor

The Spy Who Turned Me -- Wall Street Journal

A Former CIA Case Officer On The Most Effective Levers For Persuading Someone To Become A Traitor. -- Jason Matthews, Wall Street Journal

During my thirty-plus years working abroad for the CIA, the unspoken truth among case officers like me was that you'd have to be nuts, as the citizen of another country, to be a spy for a foreign intelligence service. In recruiting an agent or "asset," we were asking him to ignore the instinct of self-preservation, to break the laws of his own country—to become a traitor. And we were asking him to trust that no leak or mole would ever expose him.

Today, there are still secrets that need stealing, and the consequences of detection remain dangerous. Moscow's recent expulsion of an alleged CIA officer was dramatic, but such moves are among the lesser costs of espionage gone awry.

Read more ....

My Comment: I am surprised that the CIA gave permission to this former CIA case officer to publish this article. It`s short .... but it summarizes how the CIA goes about getting it`s "intelligence assets".

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