CIA operatives work out of U.S. embassies to stay below the radar of foreign intelligence
The CIA goes undercover with their intel
officers stationed overseas, disguised as diplomats working in U.S. embassies.
But shhh...the exact details on their covert operation are top secret!
They often use diplomatic cover, which
means they pose as State Department employees or diplomats. This allows them to
operate in foreign countries under the protection of diplomatic immunity, while
at the same time conducting intelligence operations.
A side note: the CIA also employs
non-official cover (NOC), where CIA operatives operate without any official
U.S. government connection. The NOC has no diplomatic immunity to rely on if he/she
gets caught, so the use of a deep cover is vital...it’s their only protection!
Although the exact figures are unknown, I
would imagine that quite a few CIA officers exist overseas using diplomatic
cover. As of 2021, the U.S. Department of State maintained approximately 190
embassies, consulates, and diplomatic missions abroad. If each of them employs
undercover CIA operatives (which I suspect they do), that would amount to
hundreds, maybe thousands.
Despite their posing as embassy personnel,
some get captured by foreign intelligence. In 2010, a group of CIA officers was
expelled from Russia after being caught using the U.S. Embassy in Moscow as a
base for their operations.
Three years later, in 2013, a CIA
operative working at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba was expelled after being
caught trying to recruit Cuban intelligence agents.
Then, in 2018, Russia once again accused
several U.S. diplomats working at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow of being CIA
spies. They were booted out of the country.
The importance of CIA operatives assuming
a diplomatic cover is shown in cases where officers are caught, and who do not
have such diplomatic protection. For example, in 2013, several were arrested
and sentenced to prison after their cover was blown while operating in Iran.
These are just a few examples, and it's
important to note that the CIA's activities are often shrouded in secrecy, so
it's difficult to know the full extent of its operations or how many of its
officers have been caught. There may be many more...but no one outside the
Agency will ever know.
The two incidences (mentioned above) of Russian
intelligence uncovering the CIA “diplomats” at the U.S. embassy in Moscow makes
one wonder how they found out about them. The exact details of their capture are
kept hush hush by the CIA, and the Kremlin has not released any specifics, either.
It was the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) that uncovered them, probably through their normal, everyday intelligence gathering and surveillance activities. But the FSB may have planted a mole inside the embassy as well. Alternatively, the Russian government may have simply made the allegations as a political maneuver, without any actual evidence of CIA involvement. In any case, the details of the situation remain unclear and how they got caught remains unknown to the lay public.
Little wonder why the CIA’s secret training
school, called “The Farm”, trains operatives in the art of blending in and
avoiding detection. The late CIA Director William Colby called himself “the
gray man,” the sort of man who couldn’t even catch a waiter’s eye in a
restaurant. A CIA gray man is a man or woman operative who can blend into any environment
or situation and move through a crowd overlooked, unnoticed, and forgotten.
Becoming a gray man (or woman) and
maintaining a low profile is what CIA officers working under diplomatic cover do
to avoid drawing attention to themselves and their activities, in order to
maintain their cover and avoid arousing suspicion. I wrote a piece about how a
gray man knows how to hide in plain sight while also not appearing to have
anything to hide.
They also create a detailed cover story to
explain their background and presence in the country, such as a job in the
embassy's economic or cultural section. Whatever job they assume, it allows them
to build relationships with people in their host country. Through such human contacts,
they gather information and enlarge their base of influential foreign
associates.
These CIA officers also use encrypted communication
devices to stay under the radar of foreign intelligence. Secure email, and
other technology is utilized to maintain operational security and to avoid face-to-face
meetings. They install encrypted messaging apps, like Signal or WhatsApp, on
their smartphones and laptops to send and receive secure messages.
They also use virtual private networks
(VPNs) to encrypt their internet communications and conceal their online
activities, or employ PGP encryption to secure their email systems when sending
and receiving confidential messages.
Avoiding direct contact with their targets
reduces the risk of exposure to foreign intelligence. Sometimes, the CIA
operatives will use “intermediaries” or cutouts, who serve as secret messengers
between them and their intelligence targets. They may also use “dead drops”, or
pre-arranged locations where intelligence can be left for pickup, or to
exchange information without the need for direct contact. Check out this
article “CIA
Spy Craft- The Dead Drop”.
These are just a few declassified examples on how CIA operatives use encryption tools and other spy craft methods to stay off the radar screen of foreign intelligence. The Agency is constantly looking for new and improved methods to stay ahead of evolving threats. They want to minimize the risk of exposure to not only themselves, but for their sources as well.
Robert
Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO)
and enjoys writing about the U.S. Intelligence Community. He authors the Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster
series. Check out his latest spy thrillers: MISSION
OF VENGEANCE.
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