(05-27-2024, 12:56 AM)SomeJackleg Wrote: is it just me, or does anyone else think it's a good idea to let a naturalized immigrant that came from a nation who is not shy about the contempt they have for the U.S. join or have any thing to do with intelligence gathering or access to it in any agency or branch of the federal government.
maybe their the decedents three or four generations later could or can if they were born here, but being born there and then moving here , nah.
CIA hires foreign nationals all the time. That's where the bulk of their HUMINT comes from. There's probably more foreigners on the CIA payrolls than there are Americans, just not commonly at the higher levels - those seem to be reserved for treasonous bastards. Well, maybe "treasonous" is too strong of a word. Remember, as a US government agency, CIA does NOT work on behalf of American citizens, they work instead on behalf of the American government, and those two are decidedly different things, often at odds with one another. "They" are not "us", at all.
Think about it - if you want inside intel, or if you want a foreign document or conversation translated, there is no better person to enlist than a native or a native speaker.
But seriously - "CIA Officer Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to commit Espionage"? That headline is hilarious - what the hell do they think the CIA DOES? Espionage, that's what they do! The moment you sign on the dotted line, you are "conspiring to commit espionage"!
I know for a fact that, during Cold War I, CIA agents would meet with KGB agents in places like Germany and have dinner meetings, trading State Secrets in both directions over bowls of borscht and drinking cognac.
It's just the spy way of doing business.
.