30 spies dead after Iran cracked CIA comms network
This might get a little longwinded. Sorry.<p>The following is from <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.salon.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;09&#x2F;26&#x2F;how_to_explain_the_kgbs_amazing_success_identifying_cia_agents_in_the_field&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.salon.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;09&#x2F;26&#x2F;how_to_explain_the_kgbs_amaz...</a> and describes the way the Russians implemented SELECT * WHERE CIA FROM EMBASSY_EMPLOYEES: &quot;differences in the way agency officers undercover as diplomats were treated from genuine foreign service officers (FSOs). The pay scale at entry was much higher for a CIA officer; after three to four years abroad a genuine FSO could return home, whereas an agency employee could not; real FSOs had to be recruited between the ages of 21 and 31, whereas this did not apply to an agency officer; only real FSOs had to attend the Institute of Foreign Service for three months before entering the service; naturalized Americans could not become FSOs for at least nine years but they could become agency employees; when agency officers returned home, they did not normally appear in State Department listings; should they appear they were classified as research and planning, research and intelligence, consular or chancery for security affairs; unlike FSOs, agency officers could change their place of work for no apparent reason; their published biographies contained obvious gaps; agency officers could be relocated within the country to which they were posted, FSOs were not; agency officers usually had more than one working foreign language; their cover was usually as a “political” or “consular” official (often vice-consul); internal embassy reorganizations usually left agency personnel untouched, whether their rank, their office space or their telephones; their offices were located in restricted zones within the embassy; they would appear on the streets during the working day using public telephone boxes; they would arrange meetings for the evening, out of town, usually around 7.30 p.m. or 8.00 p.m.; and whereas FSOs had to observe strict rules about attending dinner, agency officers could come and go as they pleased.&quot; I read the book. When a CIA agent&#x27;s cover was blown, the CIA had a spare care and apartment and the agent&#x27;s replacement needed just that, so they tended to reuse the car and apartment. And wondered why the replacement was then identified so quickly.<p>So. After that long digression, here comes a hypothesis: Organisations that can keep their mistakes secret, can make themselves <i>seem</i> much more capable than other, similarly large organisations.