News you may have missed #759 (analysis edition)
July 13, 2012 1 Comment
By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
►►What goes on in the mind of a spy? An interesting article on the psychology of espionage operatives and those who handle them. It includes several insightful observations, including this one: “Just as they face outward physical dangers, agents face many inner psychological adversities. These pressures in the psyche are as taxing as physical hardships. Furthermore, while physical hazards and hardships disappear once the active espionage is over, the psychological toll can linger”. IntelNews has covered psychological and psychiatric issues around espionage before.
►►Researchers propose using decoys to detect leaks. A group or researchers working for the US Pentagon’s research wing have come up with a new plan for busting leakers: spot them by how they search, and then entice the secret-spillers with decoy documents that will give them away. Computer scientists call it it “fog computing”, and it is seen as part of a broader assault on so-called “insider threats”, launched by the Pentagon in 2010, after the WikiLeaks imbroglio. In a related development, the US federal government announced recently that it spent over $11 billion to protect its secrets last year, double the cost of classification a decade ago. The total does not include the costs incurred by the US Intelligence Community, which remains classified.
►►US General says US military spies ‘across Africa’. America’s top commander in Africa, General Carter Ham, has revealed that the US military has conducted spy operations all over the continent as part of the fight against international adversaries from al Qaeda-allied terror groups that target the homeland to suspected war criminals like Joseph Kony. “Do we collect information across Africa? Yes, we do”, the commander of US Africa Command said in a leadership conference at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies. Ham noted that US troops do at times go on “short-term deployments of capabilities” in various African nations, but always with the permission of the host country.
intelNews.org 
Re: “…mind of spy.”
There has been a major increase in psychologists and psychiatrists employed in humint external intelligence and domestic security services since 9/11.
This is for several reasons:
– to treat intelligence employees, including Case Officers who are suffering from the special mental strains of intelligence life,
– to determine motivation and likely reactions of foreigner Agents who supply the intel to Case Officers
– to improve oversight and increase operational and backup security.
Overall the psychologists and psychiatrists provide a more secure outlet so employees don’t need to seek external psychological support services.
As the “Beast” article implies the increase in counter-terrorism activities and increased work tempo since 9/11 are major reasons for increases in psychological strains throughout intelligence networks.
From Open Source Info and insights.