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How Russia creates its American spies
The Russia story keeps getting worse for Trump
FBI documents detail how the Russians try to recruit spies
Story highlights
- Carter Page has acknowledged to CNN that he is the individual the documents refer to as a target of recruitment
- A foreign spy will use the information gathered about a target's background, appealing to individual passions, offering favors or money or resorting to blackmail to get cooperation
Washington (CNN)It is a scene ripped from Hollywood spy thrillers: Russian agents living and working among everyday, American citizens as cover for their true mission of stealing state secrets.
In
the real world, it is highly unlikely that your neighbor, coworker or
mailman is actually a clandestine Russian operative working under a
false identity. But that certainly does not mean the art of espionage
has gone out of style in the world of international intelligence
gathering, particularly between the United States and its former Cold
War foe.
Amid
all of the accusations and speculation pouring out of the
investigations of Russian meddling in the 2016 US election, the notion
that foreign spies are using old-school tactics and personally
recruiting agents to divulge sensitive information is actually widely
accepted among intelligence officials.
There
is no doubt that the rise of information warfare and cyberespionage has
changed the spy game in the years since the Cold War. But the playbook
on how to target, recruit and manipulate sources has generally stayed
the same.
Spy recruitment strategy
These "Spy 101" type tactics are spelled out nearly step-by-step in the FBI court filings from a 2015 case
that names a person identified only as "Male 1." While the government
has never revealed his identity, Carter Page has acknowledged to CNN
that he is the individual the documents refer to as a target of
recruitment by three Russian intelligence agents, news first reported by BuzzFeed on April 3.
The FBI has never accused Page, who would later become a Trump campaign adviser, of having been successfully turned as a spy. He has repeatedly denied any allegations of wrongdoing and said he wasn't aware he had been approached by Russian spies.
"Consistent
with the politically motivated unmasking standards seen in the Obama
Administration which have recently been exposed, my personal identity
and earlier assistance of federal authorities in the 2015 case of U.S.A.
v. BURYAKOV, SPORYSHEV and PODOBNYY was framed in an easily
identifiable way that amplified the reputational damage against me,"
Page said in a statement to CNN.
He has also called a FISA warrant on his communications reported by The Washington Post "unjustified," and rejected suggestions that he may have been acting as a foreign agent.
But
what the FBI documents outline is the strategy behind how Russian
agents marked him as a target. The techniques used in the attempt to
recruit Page are similar to those employed by Cold War-era KGB
operatives, a former counterintelligence official told CNN.
Step 1: Building a relationship
The
beginning stages of the recruitment process are built on the same
principles as positive human interactions like friendship or dating.
The
first step of the process involves determining whether an individual
qualifies as a likely target based on his or her personality, occupation
or connections and then initiating a relationship, according to the
former counterintelligence official.
In
the case of Page, Russian agents allegedly opened a line of
communication over email after meeting him at an energy symposium in
2013, according to FBI documents.
The
interactions that followed were textbook recruitment tactics, according
to the former official, who said a foreign spy will attempt to develop a
casual relationship with targets, learning about their background and
probing to determine whether or not they would be willing to share any
type of information, even if it can be accessed publicly.
In
the world of espionage, spies will look to identify any vulnerabilities
that they can use to apply pressure or entice an individual into doing
what they ask -- such as threatening to expose a secret or offering them
payment.
In the 2015 case, the
court filings outline a discussion about a Russian spy setting up a
face-to-face meetings on occasion with Page and highlight his frequent
travels to Moscow for business as an area of interest.
"He
writes to me in Russian so he can practice the language. He flies to
Moscow more than I do," the two Russian agents said about Page,
according to the FBI documents citing phone surveillance. "It's obvious
he wants to make a lot of money."
Step 2: Suitable target?
Ultimately,
the Russian agents determined that the combination of Page's
professional ambition, connections to Russia and general enthusiasm for
communicating indicated he was a suitable target to pursue as an
intelligence source, according to the FBI's assessment in the filings.
The discussion then shifted to methods of enticing Page into sharing information with them, according to the documents.
While
the sharing of publicly accessible documents is legal, the willingness
of a target to share signals a willingness to cooperate and an openness
to proceeding with the relationship, the former official told CNN.
"You
promise a favor for a favor," the transcript of a conversation obtained
by FBI surveillance between the two Russian agents reads. "You get the
documents from him, and tell him to go f*** himself."
According
to FBI testimony, investigators concluded that this conversation
reflected a "recruitment method, which includes cheating, promising
favors, and then discarding the intelligence source once the relevant
information is obtained by the SVR," the Russian Federation's foreign
intelligence service.
Outcome
According
to the former intelligence official, a successful recruitment of an
intelligence source hinges on the final step of the process involving
the spy's decision to co-opt the target by finally making the pitch for
him or her to share sensitive information.
At
this point in the process, a foreign spy will use the information
gathered about a target's background, either appealing to individual
passions, offering favors or money, or resorting to blackmail to get
cooperation, according to the former official.
In
the 2015 case involving Page, the FBI said that his interactions with
the individuals under investigation did not progress to the point where
the bureau felt he had successfully been recruited as a spy or intelligence source.
The
three defendants in the case were charged with participating in a
conspiracy to act as a foreign agent in the US without informing the
Attorney General.
Two of the men
left the country before the court proceedings and both had diplomatic
immunity because of their jobs for the Russian government. The third
individual was arrested by US officials and sent back to Moscow earlier this month after pleading guilty to his crimes in 2015.
Page,
who has consistently said that he did not know the Russians were spies,
maintained in statements to CNN that he only "shared basic immaterial
information and publicly available research documents," providing
"nothing more than a few samples from the far more detailed lectures" he
was preparing for his students.
"We'll see what comes out in this FISA transcript," Page told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Thursday.
UPDATE:
This story has been updated to note that BuzzFeed was first to confirm
with Page that he is "Male 1" in the 2015 court filings.
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