CIA Hires Lo/Hi-Tech Spies

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

NYT, June 27, 1998:

Getting Back to Basics, C.I.A. Is Hiring More Spies 

Taking steps to reduce dependence on high-tech spying. 

By James Risen

Washington, June 26--The Central Intelligence Agency 
is beginning the largest recruitment drive for new spies 
in its history, in an ambitious effort to rebuild its 
espionage service, which has been severely damaged by 
spy scandals, budget cutbacks and high turnover since 
the end of the cold war, officials said.
 
With Congress already providing increased financing, 
the Directorate of Operations, the C.I.A.'s clandestine 
espionage arm, will hire record numbers of case officers
--spies-- beginning this year as part of a new strategic 
plan to repair the decaying espionage capabilities of 
the United States by 2005, officials said. 

In addition to expanded hiring, the agency also plans to 
reopen several overseas stations that were closed in the 
early 1990's after the demise of the Soviet Union led 
Congress and the White House to reduce the C.I.A.'s 
budget sharply. 

The recruitment plan is a sign that the C.I.A. recognizes 
that it has become far too dependent on so-called technical 
intelligence, or eavesdropping devices and spy satellites. 
Now, the agency wants to get back to espionage basics, by 
increasing its ability to place a spy behind enemy lines 
or inside the offices of a rival government. 

The spread of new technologies like encryption and computer 
networks has eroded the value of spy satellites and listening 
devices and has led the C.I.A. to see the need for an 
expanded cadre of spies. Without having an agent in place, 
the C.I.A. has found it much harder to gain access to secrets 
from rival governments, terrorists and international 
organized crime groups.  ...

The C.I.A. is recruiting case officers, and people to support 
them with technical skills that spies have rarely been asked 
to learn in the past. 

"As we tried to figure out our requirements for the future, 
we realized we needed to have greater technical support for 
agent operations," said one American official. 

At the top of the list of requirements is computer expertise. 
The proliferation of global computer data networks, for example, 
has made it more difficult for the agency to slip into a 
country using false identifications. Only computer experts 
can defeat those local computer systems, and even developing 
countries routinely make sophisticated computer checks on 
passports and visas. ...

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