Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?
How could a reporter at New York Times blackmail an FBI or CIA agent?
Easily. And everyone who ever went through counter-espionage training knows it.
What Went Down
This morning, British Prime Minister Theresa May chastised the US government. The UK freely shares anti-terrorism intelligence with the US. The US is expected to keep secrets secret.
But the US intel community is one gigantic sieve these days. The intel we got from the Brits hit the front page of the New York Times within hours. The leak jeopardized the UK’s investigation of the Manchester Evil Loser. The Brits were rounding up his accomplices, but the leak revealed information that could tip off those accomplices.
So Theresa May let the US have it. She cut off intel sharing (for a time). Rightly so.
What It Means
The US intel community has made leaking the norm. FBI and CIA agents have developed tight relationships with reporters from the New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN. Those relationships were built to damage Trump. But now these leaks are helping ISIS.
Could be that the FBI and CIA simply forward every drop of intel to their favorite NYTimes reporter. But that’s unlikely.
More likely: **reporters are blackmailing the FBI and the CIA. **
How to Develop a Resource
To explain how the New York Times can blackmail the CIA, let’s look at how the CIA “develops” resources. I’ll be brief. If I get something wrong, some CIA veteran can correct me in the comments:
** Hang out where you might meet someone who knows something you want to know ** Strike up conversations. Share some secrets about yourself. Gain their trust ** When they start to talk, listen. Take notes ** When they prove they have insider access to some key target, ask them more probing questions ** While all this going, have your colleagues video and audio record your ever interaction with this unsuspecting stooge ** When you decide it’s time for the stooge to gather serious intel, inform them that you’re with the CIA and every secret they’ve shared with your new friend is preserved on 4K video with surround sound ** Offer to share your video and audio with the stooge’s buddy, who happens to be an al Qaeda bigwig ** Watch your stooge turn white, then give you all the intel you need ** Until the al Qaeda bigwig figures out what’s going on ** Or until the CIA leaks the stooge’s name
That’s about how the CIA does it. It’s also how the FBI infiltrates organized crime. It’s also how salesmen work. Up to a point. They all build rapport before dropping the big ask. Only the CIA has evidence that could, in the wrong hands, get the stooge (and his family) tortured and killed. If it got into the wrong hands.
What the New York Times Has on FBI and CIA
I count at least 17 felonies committed by FBI and CIA agents since December. All in an attempt to hurt Trump. All through intel leaks to the New York Times and Washington Post.
The Times and Post reporters who developed those stooges at the FBI and the CIA know their names. They have them on tape. They could destroy their sources. Unless those sources keep cooperating.
When those reporters want more intel for a story, who do you think they call? What do you think they tell them? Something like, “Hey, Jimmy. How’s it going? Gee, Jim, I’d love some pictures of the carnage over in England . . . Oh, that’s classified? Well, gee, that’s too bad. Cause I’d really like to see those pictures. In fact, Jimmy, I’d like to see them so bad. If I don’t see those pictures, Jim, I might go out and get drunk. If I get drunk, I might get loose lips. I get that way ya know. I might even tell somebody where I got the Flynn documents. That’d be terrible.”
So FBI Jimmy coughs up the graphic photos.
That’s how it works. Gain confidence. Use blackmail.
Sounds like the New York Times is using the CIA’s game against the CIA now.
Maybe Trump should offer immunity to FBI and CIA agents who’ve been blackmailed. In exchange for giving up their handlers at New York Times and Washington Post. The agents would be fire, of course. But they wouldn’t go to jail.