CIA Plays Risky What’s My Line Mining Putin’s Next Move

WSJ’s “Why US Spies Can Watch Russian Troops but Not Guess Putin’s Next Move” isn’t planted propaganda but a reality check on CIA’s reality “recruiting spies in authoritarian Russia is difficult & risky.”

First, the difficult part. While Gen. Washington may have been a whiz at using spies to defeat the British, the U.S. didn’t create the CIA until early in the Cold War to spy on the Soviet Union &, the WSJ notes, “after the Soviet collapse” the agency also had to stretch its limited resources to attend to terrorist threats as well as to nuclear-aspiring North Korea & Iran. Add the rise of al Qaeda, ISIS & Taliban working their mayhem throughout the Middle East & you have a perfect storm.

Enter the risky part. While Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea “sent the CIA back to its roots” & more resources were “poured into spying on Russia” thru the Trump Era, Putin has always been expert in ferreting out the few spies that somehow were planted within his orbit & the very accusations of Russia’s meddling in the US’s 2016 election “sent [him] on a hunt for moles.” Those “tit-for-tat” expulsions of diplomats reported in our papers happened for a reason & further “reduced the number of slots intelligence officers can use for cover”. Moreover, the Biden Admin’s publicizing specifics about Russian troop movements, in effect, risks exposing the few active intelligence operatives we have. Concluded veteran CIA officer Douglas London: “Exposing sources who face great personal risk & to whom we are obligated, & revealing capabilities that might be undermined, can thereafter blind the US to future developments.”

Davd Soul