The KGB’s success identifying CIA agents in the field
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Re: The KGB’s success identifying CIA agents in the field
#2I wonder if this pattern could still be applied.
For a NOC they'll setup a shell corporation called "Southern Electronics Corporation, LLC" or some other discrete sounding name and have a real website, office address and phone number actually manned, but surely they register the corporations, domains, phone numbers at the same place, staff the phones with the same voices...
Makes me wonder if they fixed the problem or if it's just hidden one level deeper.
Re: The KGB’s success identifying CIA agents in the field
#3> Any Soviet citizen had an intimate acquaintance with how bureaucracies function
This makes me wonder whether there is any literature out of the Soviet Union on topics like this, kind of like how the U.S. produced works like Dale Carnegie's How to make friends and influence people.
Re: The KGB’s success identifying CIA agents in the field
#4I wonder if this pattern could still be applied. For a NOC they'll setup a shell corporation called "Southern Electronics Corporation, LLC" or some other discrete sounding name and have a real website, office address and phone number actually manned, but surely they register the corporations, domains, phone numbers at the same place, staff the phones with the same voices... Makes me wonder if they fixed the problem o…
There are a lot of services which will act as the Registered Agent for an LLC or corporation. Those can have hundreds of corporations listed at their mailing address with the same phone number. It wouldn't be too difficult to put a few NOC shell corps into the buckets already existing legit businesses.
Re: The KGB’s success identifying CIA agents in the field
#5> Any Soviet citizen had an intimate acquaintance with how bureaucracies function This makes me wonder whether there is any literature out of the Soviet Union on topics like this, kind of like how the U.S. produced works like Dale Carnegie's How to make friends and influence people .
I'm trying to decipher the implication. Is it that Americans have a unique understanding of friendship and influence?
Re: The KGB’s success identifying CIA agents in the field
#6The most important of which was how officers in the field under diplomatic and deep cover stationed across the globe were readily identified by the KGB.
A dirty little secret within the world of clandestine operations is that the majority of official-status officers (diplomatic or military cover) are known by the host country intelligence services. This is largely because you generally only take so much risk with ongoing collection efforts, for example going through customs and attending official diplomatic functions (dinners etc...) under status is typical and gives the locals a record. What they do in their "off time" is the real collection work, but even then their chance of gaining access to well placed contacts that have very specialized intelligence is low. The majority of officers know this, and it ends up being a political dance, where if someone gets too risky with their collection they get tagged and persona-non-grata'd.
The real question here is why the Soviets decided at that time to burn the officers that it knew about - because that turns into a tit-for-tat across waters that eats up resources and really strains diplomatic relations. I think the answer is very clear in that it was the last gasp of a dying system, so they were doing what they could to purge and wrest power.
Nothing particularly shocking or complicated here if you know how the system works.
Re: The KGB’s success identifying CIA agents in the field
#7> Any Soviet citizen had an intimate acquaintance with how bureaucracies function This makes me wonder whether there is any literature out of the Soviet Union on topics like this, kind of like how the U.S. produced works like Dale Carnegie's How to make friends and influence people .
I'm trying to decipher the implication. Is it that Americans have a unique understanding of friendship and influence?
It's that 'Winning Friends and Influencing People' was a gateway to success, and an activity the vast majority of the population was trying to be successful at. Whereas a soviet book on navigating bureaucracy would serve the same role.
Re: The KGB’s success identifying CIA agents in the field
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm trying to decipher the implication. Is it that Americans have a unique understanding of friendship and influence?
It's that 'Winning Friends and Influencing People' was a gateway to success, and an activity the vast majority of the population was trying to be successful at. Whereas a soviet book on navigating bureaucracy would serve the same role.
Thanks yes, that is pretty much what I meant.
Re: The KGB’s success identifying CIA agents in the field
#9> Any Soviet citizen had an intimate acquaintance with how bureaucracies function This makes me wonder whether there is any literature out of the Soviet Union on topics like this, kind of like how the U.S. produced works like Dale Carnegie's How to make friends and influence people .
Russian bureaucracy goes back centuries. I don't think that the way things were handled was fundamentally different in 1970 from what it was in 1870. For literature on the topic look for the classics: Gogol, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Ilf and Petrov are good ones.
The rules are simple: you give bribes, in a form of money, goods, or favors. If you're on the receiving end of a bribe, make sure you share with relevant people.
Other than that, the methods described in Dale Carnegie books work just as well in Russia as in America.
Re: The KGB’s success identifying CIA agents in the field
#10> Any Soviet citizen had an intimate acquaintance with how bureaucracies function This makes me wonder whether there is any literature out of the Soviet Union on topics like this, kind of like how the U.S. produced works like Dale Carnegie's How to make friends and influence people .
I'm trying to decipher the implication. Is it that Americans have a unique understanding of friendship and influence?
"How to make friends and influence people" was actually written more from a sales perspective. The topics usually boil down to efficiently establishing trust with lots of people. While I'm not sure this is really what's being asked, it does actually make a little sense in a capitalist vs communist sort of way.