Agent Recruitment Cycle

Intelligence agencies all operate about the same in the acquisition of their pool of agents. They use a process known as the Agent Recruitment Cycle. The recruitment cycle includes spotting, assessing, vetting, development and finally recruitment of targets of interest into the pool of agents that provides intelligence and/or operational information. Each of these five elements in the recruitment cycle is important for the Case Officer to master to become a good agent recruiter. Let's face it. All Case Officers are expected to recruit and handle agents. That's why they are hired by the CIA. That's how they justify their promotions.

Now what does each of these elements entail?

Spotting is the art of finding potential agents and gaining access to them for at least some very initial assessment or to determine basic biographic information to enable the CIA to run a name trace. Spotting may be done in many venues such as diplomatic functions, social settings, professional conference or the normal working environment.

Assessing is the process of evaluating the intelligence value of a potential target once he has been spotted. Assessment is the continually ongoing process of studying a target to determine his access to information of interest to the CIA and understanding the motivation and vulnerabilities that can be used to gain and maintain his cooperation. Assessment is an art, not an exact science. Assessment takes some length of time, months or even years, to determine precisely the motivations that drive a person and the vulnerabilities that can be used to control, influence or guide a person to cooperate. The CIA employs many assessment tools to assist the Case Officer to better understand his target. For example, psychological tests may be directly or indirectly administered to a target as an assessment tool. Most often, however, it is the Case Officer’s personal evaluation from recurring contact with the target that provides the most useful assessment.

Vetting is the process of testing and evaluating a target prior to recruitment as an agent. During the vetting process information is obtained that is important to authentication of the target. Vetting includes testing of the target without him realizing he is being tested. Such testing might include testing his honesty, truthfulness, etc. Assessment and vetting go hand-in-hand in the Recruitment Cycle. Authentication is a vital part of the recruitment process as well as post-recruitment administration of the agent. Simply put authentication is the act of investigating a potential or recruited agent to determine whether he is or is not under hostile control of a foreign intelligence or security service directed against the CIA. The authentication process also attempts to determine whether or not the agent is in some way deceiving the CIA in his reporting and operational activities for whatever personal or political reasons. The process also determines the claimed access the agent has to information of intelligence interest to the CIA. Intelligence and operational information provided by agents who have been "authenticated" is given a higher credibility than information from agents who have not yet been authenticated. The several points necessary to the authentication process include proving the agent is who he claims to be, that he has access to the information he reports, that he reports the information accurately and truthfully and that the agent is not under hostile control (i.e. a double agent).

Development is the mating period of the recruitment cycle. During the development stage the target is primed in order to reinforce motivations and vulnerabilities that the Case Officer has determined may be useful to recruitment and handling of the target. We have mentioned motivations and vulnerabilities several times here. Just what are these concepts? As simply as I can put it motivations are psychological and sociological factors of the target responding to a perceived benefit or fulfillment of a need. Motivations can be used to justify his acceptance of recruitment (either witting or unwitting) to cooperate with the CIA as an agent. An agent’s motivation may change over his years of cooperation thus the Case Officer must continually assess him for change.

Vulnerabilities are positive or negative aspects in the agent’s personal character that the Case Officer may use to make him more inclined to accept recruitment and maintain a relationship with the CIA. Vulnerabilities may be used to provide some degree of influence or control over his actions before and after he is recruited as an agent. There are bad character traits perceived as negative such as greed, vanity, ego and jealousy that are useful. Then there are good character traits perceived as positive such as loyalty, friendliness, duty, honor and sense of responsibility that are also useful. Then there are also dysfunctional character traits that can also be used such as obsession and compulsion just to name a few.

Finally we get to recruitment! Recruitment is the process of entering into a special relationship between the CIA and a target where he agrees to become a covert agent and willingly provide intelligence and operational information in return for something connected to his motivation. In other words recruitment is where the Case Officer makes the "Pitch" to become an agent. The asset may be recruited on a witting or an unwitting basis. A witting asset knows he is reporting to either the CIA or some other intelligence agency of the US. An unwitting asset does not know he is reporting to US intelligence and may believe he is working as a consultant to a private company.

We will return to the recruitment cycle in more detail later in the blog and discuss some actual cases that will provide interesting insight on what it feel like to be face to face with a target when the Case Officer makes the recruitment pitch.

Let's address the question of where you look for agents in another section later in the blog.