Recently, major U.S. counterintelligence officials were exposed to issuing a memo to all CIA global stations saying that a staggering number of U.S. intelligence agents were being captured and executed. The CIA's Counterintelligence Mission Center has investigated dozens of incidents involving the killing, arrest, or damage to foreign informants over the past few years. It was an unusual move, according to The New York Times, with messages sent via top-secret cables including the specific number of agents killed by other intelligence agencies. U.S. officials also said such details illustrate the importance of the telegram. The New York Times notes that the exact death toll is rarely published because the number is often kept secret from the public and even some CIA employees.
In top-secret memos sent to their spies around the world, the CIA has acknowledged that too many informants have been killed, captured, or plotted against, according to the New York Times. The unusual cable, which was sent to all of the CIA's workstations and bases, said the counterintelligence mission center had analyzed dozens of cases over the past few years. The memo also gave the exact number of informants killed, and these classified information would not normally be shared in such telegrams.
Former U.S. officials also "revealed" claims that China and Iran cracked the agency's classified communications system, or "covcom," and claimed that "informants were executed in these networks, while others had to be resettled." The memo also condemned espionage as poorly skilled, over-trusting of sources, underestimating foreign intelligence agencies, acting too quickly, not paying enough attention to potential risks, and "mission above security."
The New York Times, which reported without evidence, declared that "Russia, China, Iran, and Pakistan have successfully hunted down informants in recent years and, in some cases, turned them into double agents," and that "in Iran and China, some intelligence officials believe that the Americans have provided information to hostile agencies that may help expose informants."
The report also said rival counterintelligence agencies are using biometric scanning, facial recognition, artificial intelligence and hacking tools to track CIA officials to discover their sources.
For the past two decades, the CIA has focused on the threat of terrorism and afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. But as tensions between the United States and China and Russia have risen, old-fashioned intelligence gathering has once again become a core task for the CIA. Monica Elfrid Witt, a former U.S. Air Force sergeant who defected to Iran, was accused in 2019 of providing intelligence to Iran, and Iranians only use her knowledge when they are sure she can be trusted.
In 2020, Iranian forces executed Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd, accused of reporting on Iranian forces' movements in Syria on behalf of the United States and Israel. He is also accused of spying on Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qasim Suleimani, a national hero of Iran who was killed in a drone strike in the United States earlier in 2020.
Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd, a former translator, was found by Iran to have received money from the CIA and the Israeli intelligence agency, the Mossad. Former agent Douglas London said that when there is a dispute with an agent, no one is ultimately held responsible, "Sometimes things are beyond our control, but there are also times when it is careless and negligent, and people in senior positions are never responsible for it." ”
Next, re-strengthening intelligence gathering is a high-level goal of the agency, especially as Congress shifts its focus from the Middle East to closer to Russia and China. With the U.S.-backed Afghan government already collapsing, the agency will also learn more about Pakistan's ties with the Taliban. Officials say the information is a way to push intelligence officials to take counterintelligence more seriously.
The CIA declined to comment on the matter.