New York Times: Several CIA spies have been killed or arrested recently.
An American newspaper reported last week that the CIA had warned that a large number of CIA informants had been arrested or killed.
The New York Times reported last week that senior US intelligence officials had warned all CIA offices around the world that a worrying number of informants had been arrested or killed.
Informed sources told the newspaper that the confidential message stated that the CIA Counterintelligence Center had investigated dozens of cases in recent years in which informants had been killed, arrested or exposed.
The New York Times reported that while the message was brief, it referred to a certain number of CIA agents who had been killed by rival intelligence agencies. Counterintelligence officials often do not mention such details in their messages.
This incident illustrates the challenges that CIA faces in recruiting spies around the world. According to the New York Times, in recent years, the intelligence services of countries hostile to the United States, such as Russia, China, and Iran, have identified CIA spies and in some cases turned them into bilateral spies.
In the document, the CIA, while noting that hiring a spy is a risky business, lists the factors that have damaged the CIA’s credibility in recent years. Poor espionage methods, over-reliance on resources, underestimation of foreign spy agencies, and the rapid recruitment of informants without sufficient attention to counter-intelligence risks are some of the problems mentioned.
The fact that a large number of CIA informants have been exposed in recent years also indicates the increasing skill of other countries in using innovative tools, including biometric scans, face recognition tools, artificial intelligence and hacking equipment to monitor CIA agents.
In an interview with the New York Times, former intelligence officials have argued that the loss of informants is not a new problem. However, the New York Times’ content of the new document shows that it is more urgent than the general public believes.
The New York Times reported last month that the CIA operation to establish a network of informants in the Middle East had failed as a result of “highly effective counterintelligence operations” by intelligence agencies.
