Spyworld - Deep Cover

Unofficial Spies

aka: Deep cover.

Mod note: This thread is about a few subjects in one, even though it highlights some previously covered topics.

Similar to how a police officer might go "deep cover" to make a bust for organized crime, the CIA and Pentagon had a similar program which was using people without diplomatic cover in various nations to bring in intelligence.

Problem was, was that the intelligence wasn't considered worthy so they are scaling back the initiative. The norm of course is to put them in diplomatic positions which allow them to hobnob with the ruling elite, gain intel through sexual favours, blackmail, bribes and all the other juicy good stuff.

You didn't think diplomats were just there being diplomatic did you?

When stationed abroad, the vast majority of CIA case officers pose as American diplomats. This type of cover allows them to mingle with —and attempt to recruit— foreign officials. It also offers them the added benefit of diplomatic immunity, which minimizes the possibility of their long-term imprisonment or even execution in the hands of adversaries

This dates back a long, long time. Heck, even missionaries and religious institutions were the front for subversion for hundreds of years, but I digress, besides the point.

Recently Robert Levinson grabbed headlines **, an American "Businessman" who went missing in Iran.

Levinson flew to an Iranian resort, Kish Island, in March 2007 to investigate corruption in the country, with hopes of also gleaning information about Tehran’s suspect nuclear program, the reports said.


But he vanished, and US officials have publicly said that he was a private citizen traveling on private business.

In violation of CIA rules, a team of analysts had hired Levinson — a seasoned FBI agent with expert knowledge about Russian criminal circles — to gather intelligence, the AP and the Post wrote.

Some are really upset about the press the case got, because they claim it puts Levinson in danger when it's not known whether he is alive or dead, yet, I highly doubt at this point Iran really cares, because if they scooped him up, they probably were on to him. Especially given his past with the feds. (Although that is a presumption on my part whether they had access to that information.)

- They do get cover identities and backstories, but with internet the way it is today it's a wonder if anyone can truly be 'erased' -

About 3 billion was spent on the "NOC" program, backing this unofficial spies in various parts of the world.

The reason is that members of non-state groups like al-Qaeda cannot be recruited on the diplomatic circuit. To penetrate these groups, CIA case officers must hit the streets of cities like Sana’a, Peshawar, Basra or Mogadishu.

These case officers, who operate without diplomatic immunity, are known at the CIA as non-official-cover, or NOCs. They typically pose as business executives, students, academics, journalists, or non-profit agency workers, among other covers.

The idea is that working outside of American embassies and consulates, they can be more successful in recruiting members of non-state terrorist entities. In the past decade, the CIA has spent over $3 billion on its NOC program, and has increased the number of active NOCs from several dozen to several hundred.

**

What I find interesting is the claim of no relevant information coming to light. Unusable intelligence. When you consider how effective the diplomats are doing the same job. It's kind of like when police spend a huge budget to nail that one guy, when they have a few dozen people about the same level working for them as informants and are also involved in the same kind of behaviour.

LA Times did an article:

CIA's anti-terrorism effort called 'colossal flop'
CIA officers given 'non-official cover,' often posing as business executives, tried to collect intelligence on terrorists. The NOC program reportedly has had few successes.
www.latimes.com...

They claim language barriers being a major issue, among other things, yet with 5000 or so undercover spies, they couldn't find any good meat.

The entire clandestine service is believed to total about 5,000 people.
But because of inexperience, bureaucratic hurdles, lack of language skills and other problems, only a few of the deep-cover officers recruited useful intelligence sources, several former officers said.

Which gets me to thinking... Hmm.

It seems like the only time good intelligence is being gathered is when it's either force-fed information from the other side, or its bunk information that's being fed from a "friendly" on the other side, and then of course you have all those little "operations" where the government is arming people with fake weapons and encouraging them to attack someone or something and just as they are about to "SURPRISE! haha, just kidding, we're going to arrest you now…"

Food for thought.

As Putin put it a week or so ago, spying is one of the oldest games in the book.

I'd say the deep cover, real nitty-gritty kind of spying, is 99 percent bullsh*t with 1 percent of positive return. And from where I sit, I'd say there's more disinformation and misinformation out there in todays society than ever before.

It's understandable why the NSA done what the Snowden leaks say, however once that's been stopped, regulated or whatever happens with it, then where back to traditional old spying again.

The best spies the CIA produces are members of the Special Activities Division, and they are not operating under Official Cover. These are NOC's, or agents who have absolutely zero diplomatic immunity. If caught, they can rightly be executed, and they have been many times in the past. Although there is sort of a gentlemen's agreement between many countries, in which they secretly exchange NOC's who are caught spying.

The worst that can happen to an operative with Official Cover is that they are declared persona non grata, meaning basically they are not allowed in the country anymore, and they are forced to leave. But not all OC operatives have diplomatic positions. Many work for large businesses and humanitarian groups, or even the church as well, although technically they are not supposed to do that. But it still occurs today. Whether NOC's or OC agents are more effective is something that is up for debate, but the NOC's definitely have more means at their disposal. I think the members of the SAD are the highest trained operatives in the world, from ANY country.

You think Navy Seals are tough, SAD operatives are recruited from groups like the Seals. So think of a group so elite that many Seals cannot even get in. The training for these operatives is so broad it is astounding. They train for all sorts of combat, with all different types of weaponry, but on top of that, they learn things that no military group would ever need to learn. Heck, we don't even really know the extent of their training, except that it takes quite a long time.

So while many people think of uber-spying CIA agents, the truth is that the majority of employees of the CIA are desk jockeys, so to speak. They analyze intelligence and crunch data. People are thinking of the Special Operations Group, of which SAD is under, as these are the elite operatives. The elitest of the elite, if you will.