WASHINGTON (AP) - The CIA's operations in Lebanon have been badly damaged after Hezbollah identified and captured a number of U.S. spies recently, current and former U.S. officials told The Associated Press. The intelligence debacle is particularly troubling because the CIA saw it coming.
Hezbollah's longtime leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, boasted on television in June that he had rooted out at least two CIA spies who had infiltrated the ranks of Hezbollah, which the U.S. considers a terrorist group closely allied with Iran. Though the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon officially denied the accusation, current and former officials concede that it happened and the damage has spread even further.
In recent months, CIA officials have secretly been scrambling to protect their remaining spies - foreign assets or agents working for the agency - before Hezbollah can find them.
To be sure, some deaths are to be expected in shadowy spy wars. It's an extremely risky business and people get killed. But the damage to the agency's spy network in Lebanon has been greater than usual, several former and current U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about security matters.
The Lebanon crisis is the latest mishap involving CIA counterintelligence, the undermining or manipulating of the enemy's ability to gather information. Former CIA officials have said that once-essential skill has been eroded as the agency shifted from outmaneuvering rival spy agencies to fighting terrorists. In the rush for immediate results, former officers say, tradecraft has suffered.
The most recent high-profile example was the suicide bomber who posed as an informant and killed seven CIA employees and wounded six others in Khost, Afghanistan in December 2009.
Last year, then-CIA director Leon Panetta said the agency had to maintain "a greater awareness of counterintelligence." But eight months later, Nasrallah let the world know he had bested the CIA, demonstrating that the agency still struggles with this critical aspect of spying and sending a message to those who would betray Hezbollah.
The CIA was well aware the spies were vulnerable in Lebanon. CIA officials were warned, including the chief of the unit that supervises Hezbollah operations from CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., and the head of counterintelligence. It remains unclear whether anyone has been or will be held accountable in the wake of this counterintelligence disaster or whether the incident will affect the CIA's ability to recruit assets in Lebanon.
In response to AP's questions about what happened in Lebanon, a U.S. official said Hezbollah is recognized as a complicated enemy responsible for killing more Americans than any other terrorist group before September 2001. The agency does not underestimate the organization, the official said.
The CIA's toughest adversaries, like Hezbollah and Iran, have for years been improving their ability to hunt spies, relying on patience and guile to exploit counterintelligence holes.
In 2007, for instance, when Ali-Reza Asgari, a brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran, disappeared in Turkey, it was assumed that he was either killed or defected. In response, the Iranian government began a painstaking review of foreign travel by its citizens, particularly to places like Turkey where Iranians don't need a visa and could meet with foreign intelligence services.
It didn't take long, a Western intelligence official told the AP, before the U.S., Britain and Israel began losing contact with some of their Iranian spies.
The State Department last year described Hezbollah as "the most technically capable terrorist group in the world," and the Defense Department estimates it receives between $100 million and $200 million per year in funding from Iran.
Backed by Iran, Hezbollah has built a professional counterintelligence apparatus that Nasrallah - whom the U.S. government designated an international terrorist a decade ago - proudly describes as the "spy combat unit." U.S. intelligence officials believe the unit, which is considered formidable and ruthless, went operational in about 2004.
Using the latest commercial software, Nasrallah's spy-hunters unit began methodically searching for spies in Hezbollah's midst. To find them, U.S. officials said, Hezbollah examined cellphone data looking for anomalies. The analysis identified cellphones that, for instance, were used rarely or always from specific locations and only for a short period of time. Then it came down to old-fashioned, shoe-leather detective work: Who in that area had information that might be worth selling to the enemy?
The effort took years but eventually Hezbollah, and later the Lebanese government, began making arrests. By one estimate, 100 Israeli assets were apprehended as the news made headlines across the region in 2009. Some of those suspected Israeli spies worked for telecommunications companies and served in the military.
Back at CIA headquarters, the arrests alarmed senior officials. The agency prepared a study on its own vulnerabilities, U.S. officials said, and the results proved to be prescient.
The analysis concluded that the CIA was susceptible to the same analysis that had compromised the Israelis, the officials said.
CIA managers were instructed to be extra careful about handling sources in Lebanon. A U.S. official said recommendations were issued to counter the potential problem.
But it's unclear what preventive measures were taken by the Hezbollah unit chief or the officer in charge of the Beirut station. Former officials say the Hezbollah unit chief is no stranger to the necessity of counterintelligence and knew the risks. The unit chief has worked overseas in hostile environments like Afghanistan and played an important role in the capture of a top terrorist while stationed in the Persian Gulf region after the attacks of 9/11.
"We've lost a lot of people in Beirut over the years, so everyone should know the drill," said a former Middle East case officer familiar with the situation.
But whatever actions the CIA took, they were not enough. Like the Israelis, bad tradecraft doomed these CIA assets and the agency ultimately failed to protect them, an official said. In some instances, CIA officers fell into predictable patterns when meeting their sources, the official said.
This allowed Hezbollah to identify assets and case officers and unravel at least part of the CIA's spy network in Lebanon. There was also a reluctance to share cases and some files were put in "restricted handling." The designation severely limits the number of people who know the identity of the source but also reduces the number of experts who could spot problems that might lead to their discovery, officials said.
Nasrallah's televised announcement in June was followed by finger-pointing among departments inside the CIA as the spy agency tried figure out what went wrong and contain the damage.
The fate of these CIA assets is unknown. Hezbollah treats spies differently, said Matthew Levitt, a counterterrorism and intelligence expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Studies who's writing a book about the terrorist organization
"It all depends on who these guys were and what they have to say," Levitt said. "Hezbollah has disappeared people before. Others they have kept around."
Who's responsible for the mess in Lebanon? It's not clear. The chief of Hezbollah operations at CIA headquarters continues to run the unit that also focuses on Iranians and Palestinians. The CIA's top counterintelligence officer, who was one of the most senior women in the clandestine service, recently retired after approximately five years in the job. She is credited with some important cases, including the recent arrests of Russian spies who had been living in the U.S. for years.
Officials said the woman was succeeded by a more experienced operations officer. That officer has held important posts in Moscow, Southeast Asia, Europe and the Balkans, important frontlines of the agency's spy wars with foreign intelligence services and terrorist organizations.
17 comments:
I'm just gonna say that I'm fascinated by clandestine operations. But I think that the CIA needs to rethink its priorities. Of course, they are trying to protect the American people. But, if they're trying to get result immediately, things are going to fall through the cracks. Spies will be less careful, resulting in their being outed. So I think that the CIA should slow down and train their people more effectively. As a result, I think that things will go better for American spies. I'm no expert but I think in order for operatives to be successful, they need to be better trained than they are. The American people will be safer if spies aren't caught and they actually get intel.
When I first read this it sounded like a movie. I'm really glad we get to do these posts and learn that situations like this are real and that the United States isn't invincable. It's scary to think this, but there are a lot of organizations out to get us and we need to be careful. Other organiations are smart as well, and if we have holes in our system they can find them. I think what we need to lean from this is that we need do a better job making sure that all of our agents are safe.
It seems like the CIA has been a little sloppy recently.It is unsettling knowing that one of our country's top securtiy forces doesn't appear consistently reliable. CIA needs to get their act together, especially in this time of war.
I think the U.S. should pull out the spies that we have currently in Lebanon, well the ones not arrested, for their safety and up the defense in the U.S.
The field of political battles is very tricky and warrants extreme care and cunning. So the governments trains numerous personnel to effectively combat in this field. The U.S. spies in Lebanon are just this. They obviously knew the risks before doing what they left to do in Lebanon and were most likely assured that the government would do what they could to protect them. It is very unfortunate what has happened to them, but the origin of the mistake is not clear just yet. One would presume that the U.S. would take the utmost care while sending these spies in to enemy territory. Whether or not they did just that, this incident points out a glaring problem in their protocol. This should be effectively managed in a manner that yields the best results and creates the safest path for future spies sent in to other countries.
I can't fully comprehend why they would continue to keep their spies working if they were aware that that the Lebanons were onto them. You would think that they would pull their spies out not abruptly but fast enough to not get caught because it's better to have a spy with a little bit of information then no spy at all.
The most dangerous profession by far, how can you know who is telling the truth and how will you know? I think we derive our "spy" fanaticism from the Cold War, and indeed, it would seem that we are still having the same old problems we had then. Being a spy is a risky profession and in no way should you believe that you will live to see old age; spies aren't likely in any scenario to be long lived and i don't think we should as a nation disclose anything about it to the public, sure it might seem to be an abridgment of people's rights, but is it not a breach of our own national security? I believe so, I am not supposed we are getting caught, because some of our relief money goes to the tyrants we are fighting and its not smart by any means. All this, i take from this article in a grand perspective.
Since 9/11, The CIA's focus has shifted from Intelligence-gathering tradecraft to counter-terrorism. That means a switch from traditional cloak-and-dagger spying techniques to offensive tactical operations, like predator drone strikes. This shift has caused a decline in the old world spying ways. The unit-chief of Beirut Station did not react to claims that assets had been taken. This reflects the lack of tradecraft. If the agency wants to continue to stay competitive with other agencies like Hezbollah, they will have to maintain the old ways and merge them with the new ways.
The CIA should be some of the smartest people in the world. They should know not to make anything a habit. The capture of those spies could have been avoided entirely if only they were more cautious and aware of who they were dealing with. My grandfather was in the CIA and he doesn't talk about anything he did before he retired, that is how it's supposed to be, secretive.
If the CIA knows that their spies are in danger and need more training, then they should take them out of Hezbollah until they are sure they won't be found and can better hide. Otherwise, it's just making us look stupid and getting people killed.
I feel that the fact that Lebanon celebrates the capture of US spies shows how rare and unusual this all is. They need to realize that the US is trying to help Lebanon rid itself of this form of tyranny and chaos. I know that most of the time, the US seems to always be butting into others countries' business. But in this case, without the help of the US and the CIA, Lebanon and many other countries will continue to live in turmoil and corruption.
When the CIA was informed that the Hezbollah unit was onto them, they should taken seriously measures to keep their spies out of harms way. Instead, they decided to see how it'd all play out. Now, several members may just lose their lives over something that could have been prevented or handled better. Also, the CIA needs to change the way it organizes the work of its spies! A bit of negligence on the organization's part has lead to something as catastrophic as this which, once again, could have been prevented.
I'm shocked at this terrible news. Its almost as if the CIA treated their employees with a sense of disregard, especially considering the danger that the agents were in during the events leading up to June. This tragedy shows how important it is to keep several steps ahead of the enemy in counterintelligence. The CIA needs less talk and more action to protect the lives of operatives in the field and American citizens.
It is always interesting to hear about spies that aren't romanticized like Bond or Bourne. This is a less remembered position in war and shows that there is always more to the front than the media can present. The only reason articles like this are out on the web is due to freedom of the press (sort of). I'll bet that this article was published after being fed limited information from an analyst to make sure no amount of Nation security was being breached or that CIA operatives in the field wouldn't be placed in danger. The event probably happen a while ago and the press wasn't alerted until a much later date.
It is interesting that Hezbollah was able to pick out enemy spies by cellphone habits, you would think the CIA had more secure methods of communications by now. Cellphones are very traceable and easily tap-able but the behavior of agents should have been addressed more carefully in training; they can, after all, afford the research and training. The CIA needs to take a step back and fix its major faults before another international blunder occurs.
If the CIA officials knew that Nasrallah had supposedly rooted out their spies, why didn't they do anything to prevent this? I think action could have been taken to protect the U.S spies. Good to know they'll be more considerate & protective of the other underecover guys over there.
The CIA isn't doing enough to protect it's agents, because they new that the Hezbollah was "the most technically capable terrorist group in the world" and had a unit designated to hunting spies but they still sent spies in there. Nasrallah also commented on T.V. that he had found 2 spies but the CIA didn't pull any of the other spies out of the Hezbollah.
The damage in the spy network needs to be dealt with almost instantaneously, as the capturing of these spies can cause all spy networks to unravel and cause a domino effect in which they are all slowly exposed to Hezbollah. This crisis highlights the weaknesses of CIA, and the scary truth of it all: Hezbollah and Iran seems to be improving in hunting down spies faster than the CIA is bettering at ways to prevent such things from happening. What's worse, the CIA predicted this would happen, but couldn't take enough action towards it, because of weaknesses that attacks the vital parts of the organization when something goes wrong. As difficult as it may be, they need to fix these weaknesses, and fast, as Hezbollah show increasing strength in this type of warfare, one that might become superior to CIA's should CIA not take fast enough actions.
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