RealClearDefense carries a story about Iran arresting and imprisoning 17 Iranian nationals who are supposedly CIA spies. This started me wondering if the CIA does “stuff” (makes calls, plants things) making various Iranians appear to be assets in order to get them in trouble.
I can imagine using this as a way to create internal suspicion and distrust in various government agencies in Iran. It would be a kind of false-flag-in-reverse operation where we make it appear we are in contact with their people when the truth is otherwise. Their denials, while totally truthful, would not be believed because paranoia is the main job qualification for counter-espionage agents.
Under this sort of regime, the more “CIA spies” Iran arrests, the better we’ll like it. Our pro forma tut-tutting about Iran harassing all those ‘innocent’ citizens will only make them crazier.
Plus a veritable blizzard of such disinformation could provide cover for our real agents. I’m reminded that the best place to hide a book is in a library, among many other books.
