The US Central Intelligence Agency released on Thursday a trove of newly declassified “Studies in Intelligence” documents on its homepage.
The move was the result of a long-running lawsuit between the agency and a former employee Jeffrey Scudder – according to the Washington Post (see video clip below) – whose CIA stint includes a 2-year spell looking after the agency’s historical files which ultimately ended his CIA career after he submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act to release records of old clandestine operations he believed should have been made public.
Amongst the 249 documents released, spanning from the 1970s to 2000s, there’s one labeled “Analyzing Economic Espionage” which attempts to examine foreign intelligence operations against US economic interests beyond the scope and threats of technological advances – including the focus on certain traits of Americans that make them vulnerable to foreign agents, ie. resulting in a threat to the US.
“Foreign intelligence services are more inclined to operate against American targets outside the US” and “some intelligence services that stop short of recruiting US citizens use intelligence operatives to elicit information from them; the targeted American is unwitting of his interlocutor’s intelligence connection”.
The 7-page document listed “certain personality attributes that increase our vulnerability”:
– Americans like to talk. We tend to be sociable and gregarious, even with casual contacts. We want to be liked, especially by foreigners, because many of us are still trying to overcome an “ugly American” complex. We place a higher premium on candor than on guile, on trust than on discretion.
– Many Americans do not know foreign languages, which in some respects puts them at a disadvantage when living in foreign countries. This does not mean we are “innocents abroad,” but it may make us less likely to pick up clues of suspicious behavior. Americans who do not know the language of a given country may forget that nationals of that country in a position to overhear their conversations often do know English.
– Many Americans are ambitious, oriented toward job advancement and professional recognition. Inevitably, some morally weak individuals are willing to sacrifice personal integrity in pursuit of their career goals.
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