ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Espionage, Intelligence, and Security Volume ...

Counter-IntelligenceCounter-intelligence agents are sworn in before a joint congressional committee holding open hearings on events surrounding the September 11, 2001 terroristattacks. Behind the screen at lower left, used to protect their identities, are CIA and FBI agents. ©REUTERS NEWMEDIA INC./CORBIS.(CIA), although a number of intelligence and law enforcementagencies are concerned with counter-intelligence tosome degree.Not only has the United States faced spying by Sovietand Eastern Bloc, Chinese, and Cuban operatives, but alsoby semi-friendly nations such as France or Indonesia, andby outright allies such as South Korea and Israel. Accordingto testimony given before the House Permanent SelectCommittee in 2000 by Paul Redmond, former CIA associatedeputy director of operations for counter-intelligence,some 41 countries were at that time attempting to spy onthe United States. Given the size of the threat posed byforeign intelligence—which seeks to gain information onthe technology and activities of the U.S. government, itsagencies, and the military—federal authorities have soughtto keep in place an effective counter-intelligence network.This involves not only operators, or front-line personnelinvolved in direct contact with foreign intelligence agents,but also analysts, whose job it is to study wiretap transcripts,surveillance reports, and other materials on theactivities of foreign agents.While the CIA holds the principal role in counterintelligenceamong U.S. agencies, even the Federal Bureauof Investigation (FBI), whose primary responsibility islaw enforcement, has a counter-intelligence role. Sometimesthis can be inadvertent; FBI agents, rather than theircounterparts in the CIA, apprehended Soviet operativeJohn Walker in 1985. Actual FBI counter-intelligence isEncyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Securityconcerned with investigating terrorist threats and otherattempts to disrupt infrastructure or operations in theUnited States. (Ironically, an FBI counter-intelligence agent,Robert Hanssen, was exposed in 2001 as a spy of longstanding for the Soviets and later Russia.)Counter-intelligence may involve the employment ofdouble agents, the planting of false information, or otherefforts to undermine the intelligence-gathering activitiesof foreign nations. The agency conducting counter-intelligencemay, when it has detected and identified foreignintelligence operatives, elect to keep those persons inplace and not expose or arrest them—at least not for atime—in order to cause further detriment to the opposingintelligence agency by passing disinformation to theoperative. This is a particularly likely option if the foreignagency represents a hostile power, rather than afriendly nation.❚ FURTHER READING:Davis, James Kirkpatrick. Spying on America: The FBI’sDomestic Counter-intelligence Program. New York:Praeger, 1992.Godson, Roy. Dirty Tricks or Trump Cards: U.S. CovertAction and Counter-intelligence. Washington, D.C.:Brassey’s, 1995.Olson, James M. “The Ten Commandments of Counterintelligence.”Studies in Intelligence no. 11 (fall-winter2001).275