Posted on 10/20/2022 9:07:57 AM PDT by elpadre
Reuters recently published a new story about one of the worst US intelligence failures in decades.
From about 2010 to 2013, dozens of CIA informants in China, Iran, and elsewhere were captured and executed, imprisoned, or turned into double-dealing agents. In Iran and China, almost the entire CIA network in two of its highest priority countries has reportedly been exposed.
Some in the US government appear to have tried to place much of the blame on the betrayal of CIA operative Jerry Lee , who was later prosecuted and pleaded guilty to spying for the Chinese government. But Lee’s alleged espionage could not explain the disclosure of all these sources.
In a series of articles published by the New York Times, Foreign Policy and Yahoo! News, another explanation emerged: the striking weakness of source protection within the CIA itself.
There were several omissions in the basics of the trade (which included sending newly recruited to meetings in places known to be closely monitored by foreign intelligence agencies). But most disastrous was the (not so) secret communications system that the CIA used to maintain relationships with these sources. Even if there were no mole, it seems hard to believe that this sloppy system could have eluded the sophisticated counterintelligence capabilities of the Chinese and Iranian governments for a long time.READ ALSO
In essence, the CIA created a system for embedding a messaging feature hidden in the search box of hundreds of cheaply manufactured fake websites. The word “hidden” should be used here in an extended sense – a new Reuters report provided over three hundred sites and showed that even a cursory glance at their publicly available HTML source code revealed labels such as “message”, “create” and “password” . And because the agency purchased domain names in bulk, the websites ......
(Excerpt) Read more at theinteldrop.org ...
There is a difference between CIA Officers (CIA government employees) and CIA Agents (informants recruited by the CIA Officers). If the CIA is losing Agents, the people they recruited overseas are being rolled up by other intelligence services. The CIA does not hire Agents, they hire Officers.
Clown show.
Hi.
Didn’t the Chicoms hack into the U.S. Office of Personnel Management?
Oh that’s right, in 2015. 0bama/Biden
And you wonder why assests are getting terminated?
Bless your little heart.
5.56mm
The CIA is in the bottom 20% so far as our Intelligence agencies are concerned. They need to be purged.
Botched CIA Communications System Helped Blow Cover of Chinese Agents
AUGUST 15, 2018, 5:13 PM
...
When CIA officers begin working with a new source, they often use an interim covert communications system—in case the person turns out to be a double agent.
The communications system used in China during this period was internet-based and accessible from laptop or desktop computers, two of the former officials said.
This interim, or “throwaway,” system, an encrypted digital program, allows for remote communication between an intelligence officer and a source, but it is also separated from the main communications system used with vetted sources, reducing the risk if an asset goes bad.
Although they used some of the same coding, the interim system and the main covert communication platform used in China at this time were supposed to be clearly separated. In theory, if the interim system were discovered or turned over to Chinese intelligence, people using the main system would still be protected—and there would be no way to trace the communication back to the CIA. But the CIA’s interim system contained a technical error: It connected back architecturally to the CIA’s main covert communications platform. When the compromise was suspected, the FBI and NSA both ran “penetration tests” to determine the security of the interim system. They found that cyber experts with access to the interim system could also access the broader covert communications system the agency was using to interact with its vetted sources, according to the former officials.
In the words of one of the former officials, the CIA had “fucked up the firewall” between the two systems.
U.S. intelligence officers were also able to identify digital links between the covert communications system and the U.S. government itself, according to one former official—links the Chinese agencies almost certainly found as well. These digital links would have made it relatively easy for China to deduce that the covert communications system was being used by the CIA. In fact, some of these links pointed back to parts of the CIA’s own website, according to the former official.
The covert communications system used in China was first employed by U.S. security forces in war zones in the Middle East, where the security challenges and tactical objectives are different, the sources said. “It migrated to countries with sophisticated counterintelligence operations, like China,” one of the officials said.
The system was not designed to withstand the scrutiny of a place like China, where the CIA faced a highly sophisticated intelligence service and a completely different online environment.
As part of China’s Great Firewall, internet traffic there is watched closely, and unusual patterns are flagged. Even in 2010, online anonymity of any kind was proving increasingly difficult.
Once Chinese intelligence obtained access to the interim communications system, penetrating the main system would have been relatively straightforward, according to the former intelligence officials. The window between the two systems may have only been open for a few months before the gap was closed, but the Chinese broke in during this period of vulnerability.
Precisely how the system was breached remains unclear. The Ministry of State Security might have run a double agent who was given the communication platform by his CIA handler. Another possibility is that Chinese authorities identified a U.S. agent—perhaps through information provided by Lee—and seized that person’s computer. Alternatively, authorities might have identified the system through a pattern analysis of suspicious online activities.
They’re probably not executed because if they are dead they are useless, but if they are alive they might have potential value as bargaining chips.
Check
But how many of our current agents actually work for us ( e.g. Aldrich Aims, “The Mountain Climber”’s operatives )?
“They work for themselves and their agency, not America. “
This.
Part of a plea deal to get them to tell all, for that they would remain alive.
Not our grandfathers’ OSS.
right - double agents
“”The CIA serves the Deep State, not the US.””
Someone gets it.
I’m of the same mind and in same boat. Served the country and then the government when such service was still noble...when America was still America.
The CIA is the epitome of the deep state. They work for themselves and their agency, not America. They can shovel we are patriots crap until the cows come home, I’m not buying it anymore, their actions say otherwise.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
that’s right, sarge83
they’re running their own game
Didn’t the Chicoms hack into the U.S. Office of Personnel Management?
Oh that’s right, in 2015. 0bama/Biden
And you wonder why assests are getting terminated?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
why would they go to all the trouble to hack into US OPM?
all they had to do was log on the hildabeast’s home server.
she prolly had a meter on it to charge for how many MB of top secret data they were downloading??
she’s moved up her ability to monetize gummit assets.
espionage & arms trade are where the real money is.
much bigger than renting out the Lincoln bedroom or sorting through grocery bags of money orders that were being brought in the front door of the white house
This is scary.
Who is going to spy on our next nationalist President and keep him in line if we don’t have a robust CIA to do the job?
A casual glance at an SF-86 (standard form 86 for a security clearance) and the details contained within is a quick understanding of how compromised each of the individual’s details and life actually are. The form contains the basic questions that would be in someone’s “security questions” for their bank, investment firm and most digital access etc.
If anyone hasn’t read up on this, please do.
Anyone who’s OPM file was compromised is/was at risk from damage.
This breach was huge.
The end of the CIA would do a world of good. But the FBI first
During my career at State, I was constantly accused of being in the CIA by both Americans and Local Nationals.... Of course my favoriate retorte was, I would never work for perople who lie for a living. It made my life hell, but I did what my job required to assist the Liars, but I never once thought any of them were on par with 007. American’s foreign service is full of the smartest kids in the room, but they don’t play well together; conversely, our agency folks for the most part are too diverse and woke. Spys should never run around thinking they are cool. The best and the brightest are ate alive by the racists and back biters.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.