Host nation lads who struggle with the academics could always default to careers in aviation. What harm could there be ?| Submit your comments on this article |
| Arabia |
| Deep Pockets, Deep Cover: The UAE Is Paying Ex-CIA Officers to Build a Spy Empire in the Gulf |
| 2017-12-26 |
| [FP] Not far from the northeastern Zayed Port in Abu Dhabi, in a typical modern Gulf villa framed on one side by an elegant swimming pool, Westerners are teaching Emiratis the tools of modern spycraft. The day starts with the basics: a 10 a.m. seminar on Sunday morning is titled "What is intelligence?" On Thursday, the recruits learn how to operate in four- to six-man surveillance teams. Over the course of the first week, they embark on scavenger hunts intended to hone their problem-solving skills. The following weeks get more advanced ‐ students are schooled on creating cover identities to use when attending galas with diplomats, they are taught how to groom intelligence assets, and they watch skits about recruiting Libyan sources. The Emirati recruits also train at another site about 30 minutes outside downtown Abu Dhabi called "The Academy" ‐ complete with gun ranges, barracks, and driving courses ‐ reminiscent of the CIA’s "Farm" at Camp Peary, a training facility located in southeastern Virginia. The details of the training are contained in an official course schedule reviewed by Foreign Policy and were described by former U.S. intelligence officials who have been involved in the effort. The facilities and courses are part of the United Arab Emirates’ nascent efforts to create a professional intelligence cadre modeled after the West’s. Former CIA and government officials were drawn to the Gulf nation by the promise of interesting work and, perhaps even more importantly, lucrative careers. "The money was fantastic," one former employee told FP. "It was $1,000 a day ‐ you could live in a villa or in a five-star hotel in Abu Dhabi." The key figure behind this growing intelligence training operation, according to multiple sources, is Larry Sanchez, a former intelligence officer who helped kickstart a controversial partnership between the CIA and the New York Police Department that tried to pre-empt the radicalization of potential terrorists by tracking people ‐ many of them Muslims ‐ in mosques, bookstores, and other places around New York. Sanchez, a veteran of the CIA clandestine services, has been working for the crown prince of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates for the past six years to build large pieces of its intelligence services from the ground up, six sources with knowledge of the matter tell FP. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #5 Any intelligence officers who "retire" and go to work for foreign intelligence should have their pensions cut, at the least. We have to assume they've leaked anything they know to their new masters. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2017-12-26 18:31 |
| #4 The facilities and courses are part of the United Arab Emirates’ nascent efforts to create a professional intelligence cadre modeled after the West’s. How utterly bizarre... People in that area have been spying on each other for millennia and any advice on HUMINT from the CIA? *snicker* |
| Posted by: magpie 2017-12-26 12:39 |
| #3 Offer the recruits a pension. Maybe we can get rid of some more. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2017-12-26 09:26 |
| #2 and they watch skits about recruiting Libyan sources. "Sweet Allah's beard! Anything, but more of these role-playing skits" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2017-12-26 09:09 |
| #1 Host nation lads who struggle with the academics could always default to careers in aviation. What harm could there be ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2017-12-26 08:39 |