CIA expands online recruitment, seeks informants in China, Iran and North Korea

2024-10-02 21:27:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The CIA on Wednesday launched a new effort to recruit informants in China, Iran and North Korea, following what it described as successful efforts to recruit Russian nationals.

America's top spy agency posted instructions on how to safely contact her in Mandarin, Farsi and Korean on her social media accounts on X, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, LinkedIn and the Dark Web, it said. a CIA spokesman said in a statement.

"Our efforts on this front have been successful in Russia, and we want to make sure that individuals in other authoritarian regimes know that we are open to work," the spokesman said, adding that with this step the CIA was adapting to an increase in state repression and surveillance globally.

In a Mandarin dialect video posted on YouTube, which contains only written instructions, the agency advised individuals to contact it through its official website using secure virtual networks.

"Your safety and well-being is our priority," the video said.

The video said the agency makes no guarantees that it will respond and that the response may take time.

Liu Pengyu, a Chinese embassy spokesman, accused the US of conducting an "organized and systematic" disinformation campaign against China. He added that "any attempt to drive a wedge between the Chinese people and the Chinese Communist Party will fail."

The Russian embassy and Iran's UN mission did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The CIA's thirst for intelligence has grown as China expands cooperation with Russia and Iran and flexes its military muscle in the region.

Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are known within the US intelligence community as "hard targets" - countries whose governments are difficult to penetrate.

The United States is also grappling with Iran's conflict with Israel, Tehran's nuclear program, the latter's growing ties to Russia, and Iran's support for militant groups that share the same goals.

North Korea's nuclear weapons program is another target of US intelligence, including the supply of weapons to Moscow from Pyongyang for the war in Ukraine, according to US officials. But Moscow and Pyongyang have rejected such a thing.

The CIA began recruiting Russians in 2022 by posting Russian-language texts on its social media accounts showing how to contact the agency securely, followed by a video released in 2023./ VOA