Dying Art Of Espionage

Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, who did not deliver any truly damaging intelligence on Al Qaeda, was a Jordanian of Palestinian descent, trained as a physician in Turkey, and double agent who killed seven Americans in a suicide attack inside the CIA base Camp Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan. 

Balawi attracted the attention of Jordanian intelligence via radical comments on his blog.   Being under pressure from the United States to infiltrate al-Qadea, the Jordanians decided to house Balawi in one of their interrogation cells until they could turn him, force him to renounce his radical beliefs, and agree to become a mole. 

Robert Baer gives a chilling history of the CIA leading up to the Khost, Afghanistan tragedy that killed CIA agents, in his article "A Dagger to the CIA".

Operatives vs Analysts.

On December 30, in one of the deadliest attacks in CIA history, an Al Qaeda double agent schemed his way onto a U.S. base in Afghanistan and blew himself into the next life, taking seven Americans with him. How could this have happened? Agency veteran Robert Baer explains, offering chilling new details about the attack and a plea to save the dying art of espionage

[snip]

Operatives were obsessed with the craft of espionage. They knew how to steal secrets, break into banks, and overthrow governments. They prided themselves on learning languages: Russian, of course, but also Arabic, Persian, Chinese, even obscure tongues like Afrikaans and Pashto. A four-month paramilitary course was mandatory until the early '70s. Operatives learned to fieldstrip a Kalashnikov blindfolded, prime explosives, and jump out of an airplane. After training an operative, the CIA sent him overseas for four or five years to work under a seasoned agent, a mentor. The mentor looked over the rookie's shoulder to see how he intended to meet his informant, to check the questions he was going to ask, and even to go over the route he intended to take to avoid a tail. It took years to acquire these skills and decades to perfect them.

The CIA's other breed of agent—a much lesser animal in the eyes of the operatives—was the analyst. Analysts spend their careers at headquarters writing reports. Many have Ph.D.'s, and they're smart in a bookish way. You'd find their desks stacked with The Economist, Pravda, Le Monde. They always seemed to be shabbily dressed. When they did get out of Washington, it was to attend an academic conference.

The one thing all analysts shared was a disdain for the operatives and their cloakand-dagger pretensions. As far as they were concerned, the operatives' "tradecraft" was a lot of hocus-pocus. Operatives were cowboys—and of questionable utility.

Analysts were convinced that most good information was right out in the open. All you needed was a good brain to make sense of it. And what you didn't know from open sources, you could learn from intercepts and satellites.

It's impossible to pinpoint exactly when the operatives' sun started to set, but many CIA insiders would point to John Deutch, the former MIT provost and Bill Clinton's second CIA director. From the moment Deutch set foot in Langley, he made it plain that he hated the operatives, their swagger and arrogance. [snip]

Deutch's first shot at the operatives was his appointment of Dave Cohen as deputy director of operations, the CIA's most senior operative. Cohen was an analyst who had never served overseas or run a foreign informant. Deutch's message couldn't be any clearer: Anyone can do an operative's work.

The first thing Cohen did was order a "scrub" of every informant with dirty hands. Drug dealers, dictators' minions, arms dealers, terrorists—Cohen ordered the operatives to sever ties with all of them. The only problem was, these were the people who mix well with our enemies—rogue regimes like Iran and North Korea and terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Al Qaeda. Deutch and Cohen didn't care; they had a mandate to clean up the CIA, and that's what they were going to do.  [big snip]

Go read the entire article, share it with friends.   Hat tip to friend and fellow fighter in this war, Martel Sobieskey.

Comments

[Ron Russell]

The CIA has always been a target since the days of Senator Frank Church and they always tie their hands with rules that don't work in the real world of cloak and dagger---this was case is a good example of that foolishness.

[R.J. Godlewski]

Ron's right. Most people don't know that our present troubles with Islamic fundamentalism -- i.e., the Iranian Revolution -- began a scant few months after Carter gutted the Agency of 4,000 "old school" officers.

Makes one wonder what's in store for us now that Obama is gutting our national security and reputation, doesn't it?

[David (DW)]

Of course 'gutting' is a hunter's term for removing the unessential and fouling organs of its host. At that point it is too late. In 2010 it's time to hunt down the cancers in DC and remove them from their God-ordained host, so that the American Eagle flies again proudly.

[Mystical Time Traveler]

In the 70's analysts like myself worked hand in hand with field agents.

We knew the information gleamed in the field was invaluable. It either confirmed that our analysis was correct or not. It would be used to saved lives.

Europe, Canada, and the US gave up most of their field agents (Good-bye James Bond). See where this has gotten them. Israel has not, and their intelligence is still well run.

[Ralph E.]

Snake Hunter sez,

Debbie - Great stuff; our CIA people are there on the ground; these are among our true patriots. It takes guts!

Progressivism & 'something for nothing' is falling flat; people are more aware.

It's a short seven months to the mid-term elections, and we'll boot these Chicago rascals out on their rear-ends. Basta!

reb
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[PALADIN]

This article shows how pathetic the situation really is. Inteligence is a business where you have to get your hands dirty sometimes and it seems the C.I.A. these days is full of weenies who are afraid of doing such. Not to mention the king weenie in the white house.Damn thse are trying times since that crow,(i.e. shitbird)got elected. The fight against the muslimes has to be more covert, and yes more dirty. Maybe with a new congress things will change....let's hope so. One thing for sure...Jimmy Carter now goes to second place , as the worst president ever.

[MK]

A lot has been done to undermine the security of the western world by many for different reasons and sometimes without even knowing it.

Now we are reaping the bitter fruits.