American spies outed, CIA suffers in Lebanon

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WASHINGTON (AP) - The CIA's operations in Lebanon have been badly damaged after Hezbollah identified and captured a number of U.S. spies recently, current and former U.S. officials told The Associated Press. The intelligence debacle is particularly troubling because the CIA saw it coming.

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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20111121/D9R53CD80.html

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"Espionage is a risky business," a U.S. official briefed on the developments told ABC News, confirming the loss of the unspecified number of spies over the last six months. "Many risks lead to wins, but some result in occasional setbacks," the official said.

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http://gma.yahoo.com/exclusive-cia-s...233819159.html

Abu Muqawama on poor tradecraft.

http://www.cnas.org/blogs/abumuqawam...ry-munson.html

No such thing as an American "spy," IMO, as we are incapable of growing them. These spies were not Americans. They were local paid for informants and are typically looked down upon by their American handlers (CIA case officers). There will be no accountability. A shame.

The articles are correct. We did not really retool after the comfiness of the cocktail party type spying of the Cold War.

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Originally Posted by Misifus

No such thing as an American "spy," IMO, as we are incapable of growing them. These spies were not Americans. They were local paid for informants and are typically looked down upon by their American handlers (CIA case officers).

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Do you really think they are “looked down upon”? I would suspect a much more complicated relationship something like that between a detective and a CI would often develop.

The CIA has lost most of it's network of spies and paid informants in Lebanon, after it appears it was discovered by Hezbollah counter-intelligence possibly aided by Iranian sources back over the summer. The Agency now fears that the network members are dead/or are going to be executed. In what is proving a disastrous setback for CIA operations in the country.

Information is still slowly developing on this though,

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireS...0#.Tsqxs_LeIrV

Iran 'arrests 12 CIA spies' accused of targeting nuclear programme.
See:
http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...1&postcount=15

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BEIRUT: Hezbollah MP Nawwaf Musawi Monday said there were open meetings taking place by U.S. intelligence agents in the Metn area, and urged the government to deal with U.S. intelligence the same way they deal with Israel.

“There are currently open meetings held by American intelligence agents in Lebanon in restaurants and nightclubs in Dbayeh and Jounieh,” Musawi told LBCI in a live interview.

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Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Pol...#ixzz1gOHrbfkj
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

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The Shia Islamist group Hezbollah has exposed purported CIA officers working undercover in Lebanon.

Hezbollah broadcast what it said were the names of the American spies on a Lebanese television station, al-Manar, on Friday night.

Video animations were used to show alleged meetings between CIA officers and informers at Starbucks and Pizza Hut.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16153756

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Hezbollah broadcast what it said were the names of the American spies on a Lebanese television station, al-Manar, on Friday night.

Video animations were used to show alleged meetings between CIA officers and informers at Starbucks and Pizza Hut.

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Making multiple contacts with sources at a restaurant sounds like something that would happen on an episode of Star Trek: TNG. So either Hezbollah is shooting the world a line of s*#t here or the Agency isn’t teaching young OOs enough tradecraft to keep themselves or their country safe.

Bob Baer quoted in The Daily Star(Lebanon):

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“The problem is that they have spent the past 10 years living in pods in Iraq and Afghanistan where they’re up against an enemy not nearly as sophisticated as Hezbollah,” he said. “Hunting bin Laden from a drone in the tribal areas [of Pakistan] is not classical espionage and you pay the price for it ... The CIA has been turned into an arm of the Pentagon.”

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