Opinion

Robert Steele: Counterintelligence Failure by CIA and NSA in Venezuela

...I know something about Venezuela and I know something about how the Soviets and Cubans have always “owned” Venezuelan intelligence and therefore Venezuelan politics. It was that lesson, learned in 1986, that caused me to realize that counterintelligence is the other book-end to secret intelligence, the first being Open Source Intelligence (OSINT). “Do not send a spy where a schoolboy can go” must ALWAYS be matched with “always know what your counterpart spies are doing.” This is where CIA  and NSA and the NRO fail every time.

The author makes one fundamental mistake in neglecting the very strong and very superior presence of Cuban intelligence and counterintelligence across Venezuela, which has always been a US launching pad for really stupid shit aimed at Cuba (and thus useful to the Cubans as a means of pulsing the state of CIA’s idiocy on any given day), and a second mistake in assuming that the Soviets are recent arrivals — they have been there for decades, as have the Chinese. I have long wanted to get a grip on what percentage of CIA’s covert operations budget for Cuba goes directly to the Cubans via their expertly managed double-agents, all of whom have “passed” CIA’s mediocre poloygraph examinations.