Federal agents spent under the orders of foreign powers? A play of shadows that crosses the centuries. In debt and dissatisfied not to be recognized at its true value, the general of the continental army Benedict Arnold tries to deliver the fortress of West Point to the British during the War of American Independence. How not to mention the example of Aldrich Ames, an officer of CIA countelerting recruited by Russian intelligence services in the 1980s? Or, more recently, that of Kevin Patrick Mallory, a CIA former who has become Beijing’s eyes and ears in 2017?
Eight years later, a report from the Marine Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) is concerned about an increase in recruitment of federal agents by foreign powers in the coming months. Consulted by Cnnthe document considers “a high degree of certainty” that foreign opponents are trying to recruit these federal employees. According to American information, these foreign powers, including Russia and China, would be tempted to “take advantage” of the massive layoffs provided by the Trump administration and remote -controlled by Elon Musk.
Does Elon Musk’s plan create “an ideal recruitment field”?
Since the return of the cantor of Maga (to Make America Great Again) at the White House, and the effective start of the government efficiency committee – the “DOGE” – piloted by the boss of X, tens of thousands of civil servants were pushed to the exit door. At the end of February, some 2 million federal agents received an email summarizing them to scratch what they and they had done last week. An absence of response was equivalent to a resignation. Note that 100,000 of them have either accepted the departure plan, or already been dismissed to date, according to The American news agency Reuters.
For Holden Triplett, former director of counterintelligence at the National Security Council under the first Trump administration and former FBI attaché at the US Embassies of Moscow and Beijing, the Republican government is “perhaps creating, involuntarily, the ideal recruitment environment” for foreign powers. And for good reason, “employees who feel ill-treated by their employer have historically shown a much higher propensity to disclose sensitive information,” he argues with our colleagues from CNN.
Internet, a major asset
Witnesses, like the rest of the world, of this bureaucratic skimming, Russia and China are on the lookout. Thus, the two giants focus their efforts on recently dismissed civil servants with a security authorization. Agents during trial period are also in the viewfinder. Often vulnerable, these profiles have long been privileged targets for intelligence services. The CIA itself willingly recruits employees disappointed by opposing governments, using similar tactics. “Political turbulence in your country? Work with us to help us help your nation!” Summates our colleagues from CNN a former intelligence agent by paraphrasing the American strategy.
At the time of the Cold War and Aldrich Ames, foreign intelligence services resorted to methods such as infiltration in institutions, recruitment through direct contacts, psychological manipulations, or the exploitation of personal and financial vulnerabilities. Half a century later, they have a major, much more efficient and less expensive asset: Internet, and more particularly social networks like Linkedin, Tiktok, Rednote and Reddit. Thus, we are asking today an agent of the FSB (Russian intelligence services) or the MSS (their Chinese equivalent) to publish job offers on LinkedIn actively targeting American federal employees.
In the corridors of the Trump administration, the warnings are swept away with the hand. National Intelligence Director, Tulsi Gabbard, recently accused “unfair” officials of being the only threat to the flight of critical information. “How can they believe that this is the right way to keep their posts,” she scratched on the Fox News antenna at the end of February. And to add: “And it is precisely these individuals that we must identify and eliminate, so that the real patriots who work in this area and who are engaged in our mission can focus on their task”. This does not answer the size question: how to make sure that these federal agencies dismissed officials do not sell foreign powers sensitive information on the first world and military power?