Friday 23 December 2011

As-Safir: How Did the Resistance Infiltrate CIA’s Secret Structure?

Lebanese Daily As-Safir

The Lebanese As-Safir newspaper tackled in its editorial on Friday the 23rd of December Hezbollah’s success in infiltrating the American Central Intelligence Agency in Lebanon, explaining the possible ways that the Islamic Resistance accomplished this victory against the firt intelligence apparatus in the world.

The article recalled that during the “cold war” with the Soviet Union, the “intelligence war” used to aggravate international relations, even if only one spy’s name was uncovered. The case is the same between allies such as America and Israel. According to As-Safir, uncovering the Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard caused tensed relations between the two allies, and the United States rejected all the Israeli efforts to close his file or release him.

The Lebanese daily wondered: “If uncovering one intelligence officer is a great loss, then what would the uncovering of a whole station be?”

“The CIA in Lebanon is an active agency for the American intelligence, as its role is not limited to the Lebanese territories, but also includes Syria. On the Lebanese level, its security and intelligence activity is focused on the resistance, especially after July 2006, in attempt to redress the Israeli failure in the 33 days war on one hand, and the collapse of the Israeli security network on the other hand. Therefore, the US apparatus chose some of its elite officers to work in the station in Lebanon, to run a complicated security activity…” As-Safir read.

“It was obvious that the CIA decision to work as an agent for the Israeli intelligence, made the resistance’s security apparatus keep its eyes open on the American spying in Lebanon. As a result, the resistance considered that confronting this spying is as important as confronting the Israeli spying, and the security war became on two fronts at the same time,” it added.

The daily newspaper explained that the CIA officers are selected in two ways:

1- By directly joining the CIA and then progressing after having underwent training and qualifying courses, under strict confidentiality. During the progression phase, an undercover identity is ensured, and the agent is assigned to work in business, communication, research, or any field that would cover its real identity which is an intelligence officer.

2- By choosing a target among qualified people. They are selected from the society, and they have an actual job, such as a doctor, an architect, or a university professor. An investigation around the target, as well as a study about his social, psychological, economic, and political status is made before bringing him to the CIA. Then, he gets trained and qualified, and after completing a certain level, he is assigned for a duty related to his actual job.

The cover used to hide the security identity of the agent is the major element of success or failure. Thus, if this cover collapsed, and the real identity was revealed, the CIA would receive a strike that would hit its work.

Diplomatic work is among the undercover jobs used by the CIA. The agency selects actual employees and sends them to a country like Lebanon to work under their job, but for the intelligence.

Amid all this confidentiality, how was the resistance capable of infiltrating the CIA? As-Safir asked, clarifying:

The details published by the resistance via Al-Manar suggest three possibilities:

1- The resistance was able to infiltrate the CIA, and has waited for the appropriate moment to hit the strike, especially that the Americans took the initiative of breaking the rules in their relation with the resistance and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

2- The resistance succeeded in planting double agents inside the station in Lebanon, and the latter became trusted by the CIA, and were able to receive secrets about the station, including names of its officers, meeting places… as well as information programs.

3- The resistance and its allies inside and outside Lebanon have assigned individuals who are following closely all the CIA officers’ movements. These possibilities could have enabled the resistance to uncover the CIA’s work in Lebanon as well as the American agents present in Awkar. This issue urged the Americans to work day and night in Beirut and Washington to dismantle it.

As-Safir concluded:

The information presented by the resistance, which the American leaks assured its accurateness means that:

First: The Lebanese station’s collapse along with its administration, officers, agents, and programs; thus, its inability to proceed its work with the same tools.

Second: The collapse of the individuals in the station, including the clearance of their jobs.
Third: The collapse of the agents’ network.

Fourth: Uncovering the security program as well as their action plans.

Fifth: Uncovering their methods of work (recruitments, meetings, tactics…)

The moral and material damage that hit CIA’s Lebanese station needs great efforts, as it has lost a station, officers, and agents hard to repair in a short time.

More importantly, the CIA’s reputation was roughly hit… From the resistance’s perspective, this indicates that those who were able to demolish the Israeli deterrence, destroy the “Merkava legend”, overpower the elite units and naval control, and defeat the Mossad, here they are today, adding to their record the ability to confront the CIA which the Mossad resorted to... in a time much shorter than the Israeli expected. 

Source: Newspapers

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