Case officers are the high-flying adrenaline junkies of the Secret Services. They’re trained to dazzle you with wit, console you with empathy, and share your quirky hobbies. There’s even a term for their fine art of manipulation: You Me, Same Same. So don’t be surprised if your new BFF sidles up and politely asks you to break the law. They’ve been grooming you for months...
Running Agents
So you think you’ve got what it takes to be a master of the shadows? These 10 case officers share their hair-raising stories from Shawnee Delaney’s Middle East baptism of fire to Douglas Laux who abandoned his medical degree to hunt down arms dealers supplying explosives to the Taliban. Along the way, you’ll also meet Valerie Plame whose cover was blown by a shocking source.
Case officers like to zero in on vulnerabilities when recruiting potential spies. What characteristics can they exploit? What desires or needs can they fulfill? Savvy operatives used MICE, a handy acronym indicating four of the best levers to pull: Money, Ideology, Compromise, and Ego. Supply-and-demand economics, it seems, applies even to spies.
What if you lost your memory? What if a spy didn’t know they were a spy? Years ago, the top agents of Citadel, Mason Kane (Richard Madden) and Nadia Sinh (Priyanka Chopra Jonas), had their minds wiped. But, they’re called back to action as sinister forces emerge from the past. With the help of spymaster Bernard Orlick (Stanley Tucci), these former lovers must remember the past to save the future.
While the CIA has been America’s premier collector of human intelligence for generations, what happens in wartime when dodging in and out of hostile countries isn’t so easy? The CIA revealed its new digital strategy last week, a plan to woo Russian spies through social media, online video, and even Tolstoy quotes but can virtual recruiting really replace case officers or is it all a shot in the dark?
Having come of age in the CIA culture where recruiting a KGB agent was nearly impossible, H.K. Roy thought he’d hit the jackpot. A contact introduced Roy to a Russian who promised to share his secrets in exchange for hard currency. But was he a dangle? A threat? Or the opportunity of a lifetime? Roy recalled the old saying: “A wolf changes his fur but not his temperament.” The night air crackled with danger.
Recruiting spies is an art that, if done properly, the ‘asset’ might not even notice. CIA officer Ryan Hillsberg believes they may even enjoy it. As a seasoned case officer, Ryan knows the nuances of SADRAT - Spotting, Assessing, Developing, Recruiting, Agent Handling & Termination. He walks us through the recruitment cycle and shares his insights into one memorable case that saw him diving for a big fish.
Doug Patteson was an expert at hiring foreign spies but as a wet-behind-the-ears case officer in Southeast Asia, he had a lot to learn - including the ‘T’ of SADRAT, how to fire assets who were no longer useful. Terminating a loyal agent who’d risked his life for the US put Doug in an awkward position, forcing him to find a middle-ground between his personal code and the duty he owed his country.
