The CIA is reforming its training and deployment of agents around the world, shifting its top priority from fighting terror networks to spying on Russia and China, CNN reported on Friday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th December, 2021) The CIA is reforming its training and deployment of agents around the world, shifting its top priority from fighting terror networks to spying on Russia and China, CNN reported on Friday.
The new policy will transform the way agents are trained, prepared and deployed, giving them more in-depth focus on specific major nations and regions, as they used to do before the focus changed to a much more wide-ranging "war on terror" after the September 11 attacks two decades ago, the report said.
The war on terror emphasized paramilitary operations spearheaded by Special Operations forces against Islamist terror groups, but now the CIA will be trying to rebuild its intelligence gathering capacity toward nations such as Russia and China as highlighted in the 2018 National Defense Strategy, the report said.
Over the past two decades, the CIA has especially undermanned or ignored Chinese global penetration in resource-rich regions such as West Africa while focusing on more dramatic and fashionable targets and operations, it said. The agency also needs to recruit more Mandarin speakers and regional experts, the report added.
The move will also require extensive reforms in training the agency's top intelligence analysts and senior officers who recruit and run agents around the world, according to the report.
