Spycraft - Melton [211]
In addition to targets who were cold pitched and those who were recruited after development, volunteers constituted a third pool of potential agents. Some of history’s best spies have been volunteers. These individuals, also known as walk-ins, sought out an intelligence service to which they could offer their information or services. Volunteers are treated with caution because many have an exaggerated sense of the value of their information or are seeking an emotional thrill of becoming part of the espionage game.4 More significantly, volunteers could also be dangerous “dangles” or “plants” controlled and directed by a rival intelligence service. If the bait of a dangle is accepted, the hostile service is in a position to run a double-agent operation to either acquire information about the sources, operational methods, targets, and technology of its rival or feed false information to the enemy.
Regardless of how a potential spy came to the attention of the CIA, recruitment occurred only after a favorable judgment was made about an individual’s access, motivation, and ability to lead a clandestine existence. The process of evaluation that precedes the decision of whether or not to attempt to recruit a target is called “assessment.”
Two questions are paramount when assessing a prospective agent. The first is: What access to information of intelligence value does this person have now or will have in the future?
The level and value of an agent’s access are determined through questioning, verification of whatever personal bona fides are presented, and evaluation of the initial information the source provides. An individual’s official position, social or family contacts, career progression, skills, and the quality of information are all used to confirm the potential agent’s level of access. When Aldrich Ames gave the Soviets the names of nearly a dozen active CIA agents in June 1985, his access was confirmed and a willingness to commit espionage demonstrated.5 When the National Security Agency evaluated Victor Sheymov’s initial reporting in 1980 on Soviet communications security, the quality of information immediately established Sheymov’s access to exceptionally valuable intelligence. The Soviet and U.S. response to Ames and Sheymov demonstrated the willingness of intelligence agencies to move quickly to recruit a volunteer without lengthy assessment when access to critically important intelligence was demonstrated.
The second question considered by a recruiter is: Can a prospective agent live the life of a spy and do what is required by the task of espionage? This assessment requires insights to predict, with reasonable accuracy, the future behavior of the target. Like buying an automobile, expectations and desired outcomes at the time of the initial transaction can sometimes trump reality. If either the automobile or the agent turns sour, the frustration and expense of owning a lemon can turn into disaster. Bringing professional skill and the tools of modern psychology to the process of assessing the situational behavior and personality of would-be spies, foreign leaders, and current agents became the core work of the OTS operational psychologists.
From its beginning, OTS employed a staff of professional psychologists to conduct operational assessments of foreign targets. The assessments were based on the best psychological science available and used both commercial and specially designed psychological tests to evaluate a target’s personality,