The CIA is “actively recruiting informants in China, North Korea and Iran.” In its earnest appeal to prospective informants, it declares itself “ ‘open for business’ for individuals interested in collaborating….” (News.az, October 3, 2024).
“Our efforts on this front have been successful in Russia, and we want to make sure individuals in other authoritarian regimes know that we’re open for business”….
The CIA noted that people are attempting to reach out to it from around the world, and the agency is providing them with secure instructions on how to do so.
“The security of those willing to reach out to us around the world is of paramount importance to us, and we want them to do so as safely as possible,” it said.
“Authoritarian countries across the world are restricting people’s access to information, as well as their freedom of movement and communication. As a result, individuals in these places often can’t access Western social media, it can be very difficult to speak out, and telling the truth often carries serious consequences. The CIA is therefore posting these instructions to Telegram as well as to Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube,” it added….
“Technology is changing our world and authoritarian countries are working to harness it to control their people—but the CIA has over 75 years of experience in overcoming the odds to pursue our mission, and we are continuing to do so today,” it added.
Telegram, Facebook, Twitter (X), Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube are blocked or otherwise inaccessible in China. But a good VPN can enable users there to access such sites.
Reuters: “A Mandarin-language video posted to YouTube featuring only written instructions advised individuals to contact the CIA via its official website using trusted encrypted Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) or the TOR network.”
I hope that the CIA’s instructions go into sufficient and valid detail about what would constitute a trusted VPN. Not all VPNs are created equal.
The Tor Project blog offers instructions on “How to circumvent the Great Firewall and connect to Tor from China.”
Open for business
The CIA’s statement that it is “open for business” is a little peculiar. Is it an admission that the agency has not hitherto been sufficiently open for business—the necessary business of spying on the enemy and gathering intelligence?
The statement that “the security of respondents is of paramount importance” raises the question whether the CIA can be trusted to establish and maintain secure communications with Chinese informants either before or after they’ve been brought on board.
In a column in these pages, James Roth has noted some of the relevant track record.
In the history of bad ideas, what could be worse than having the CIA’s Chinese agents communicate with their agency handlers on China’s Internet?
Originating in operations in the Middle East, the Internet-based system had been brought to China on the assumption, Business Insider tells us, that “it could not be breached and made the CIA ‘invincible.’ ” And so, starting in 2010, for two years “Chinese officials began accurately identifying spies working for the US.”
To risk your life for an organization this gullible is tragic.
Business Insider reported: “The vulnerability contributed to the deaths of at least 30 spies, the sources said. This internet-based system, imported from operations in the Middle East, was apparently brought to China under the assumption that it could not be breached. But, according to the report, the program actually had telltale links to the CIA that would have allowed China to work out what was going on.”
This is part of the 75 years of experience that the agency is touting. Although one hopes that it is much more careful now, comprehensive confidence in CIA handlers and CIA programmers may not be entirely warranted. Yet we need spies.
Also see:
StopTheChinazis: Working Hard or Hardly Working? America’s Unserious Counter-CCP Espionage
