Anonymous asked about CIA use of contractors in agent operations.

Q. What has been your experience with contractors? Does the Company ever recruit networks of agents recruited by primary third parties or contractors?

A. I have had no experience working with contractors and in my day contractors were a rarity. Remember, for most of my career I was an undeclared singleton NOC and did not work with anyone but other CIA personnel. Today contractors are more prevalently used by the Company from what I have heard through the grapevine; however, I have not heard of agent networks being recruited by contractors and turned over to the CIA. The Company has a deep suspicion of contractors and when working with them observes a strict need-to-know policy.

Now, if you include in primary third parties the many foreign intelligence services with which the CIA has an advisory liaison relationship, then Yes, the CIA does accept agents and networks or agents recruited by them. But here again, a strict vetting and authentication process is supposed to be undertaken. Historically, the track record of such agents is not great. For a period of time as a paramilitary case officer, I worked as an advisor to the Vietnamese Special Branch (the internal security police) and the Military Security Service (the military counterintelligence service). I was not at all impressed with the “agents” they recruited and offered to run jointly with the Company. Many were sheer fabrications just to get funding from the Company. Such fabricated agent operations were pretty easily unveiled during the authentication process if the responsible Case Officer was diligent. Many who were true agents only had access to low-level information of use to CIA analysts, but at the same time some did have actionable information used by the liaison service for arrest of suspected underground agents or for ambush ops. I can recall only three such agents in my stable that I felt provided quality reporting of use to CIA analysts.