11/19/2004 Entry: "Spies, Death, and Undercover Work"
Posted by Maynard @ 05:00 PM MST

Spies, Death, and Undercover Work

Fedora Tip to Cap'n Ed @ Captain's Quarters for his linking to the USA Toady story on Porter Goss' attempts to reform the CIA. Reading it is like watching an episode of Fear Factor (bold emphasis is mine):

The risky new strategy would be a sharp departure from the CIA's traditional style of human intelligence, in which field officers under flimsy cover as diplomats in U.S. embassies try to recruit foreign spies and gather tips from allied intelligence services. Those methods don't work with terror groups or in countries where the United States has no embassies, such as prewar Iraq or present-day North Korea and Iran.

The new strategy is dangerous - agents could gather much better information but would run a much higher risk of being killed if found out. Goss hinted at this strategy during his confirmation hearing and has told agency officials it is key to his effort to revamp the agency to meet new and unconventional threats.

This analysis is accurate, but it ignores the finer description of espionage - that espionage ALWAYS involves the threat of death. In the Cold War, if you were discovered as a spy you were Personae Non Grataed (PNGed) and thrown out of the country. The one put to death was the one feeding you information. Now, under the Goss plan, its going to be the direct CIA employees under threat of death. The change is significant in that it represents a direct acceptance of the danger by the ones who need the information the most.

We'd better pay them exorbitant amounts, lest they get tempted to betray their employer. Of course, a big deterrent against that is that the Islamofacists would most likely cut their head off, even if they offered to give them any information they wanted.

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