Counterintelligence

In his recently published To Catch a Spy: The Art of Counterintelligence, James Olson, a veteran of the CIA’s clandestine service and its former chief of counterintelligence, breaks down the basics of China’s espionage services and how they operate.

The Chinese counterintelligence threat is more deep, more diverse, more vexing, more challenging, more comprehensive and more concerning than any counterintelligence threat I can think of.

Beijing’s success in Utah shows “how pervasive and persistent China has been in trying to influence America,” said Frank Montoya Jr., a retired FBI counterintelligence agent who lives in Utah.

Charles McGonigal, center, the former counterintelligence chief at the F.B.I.’s New York office, was accused of using his position to seek business for an associate.

Charles McGonigal, former special agent in charge of the FBI’s counterintelligence division in New York, leaves court in New York last month.

Charles McGonigal, retired since late 2018, was the special agent in charge of counterintelligence for the FBI’s New York office, the largest in the bureau.

Counterintelligence professionals warn of the risks of psychological manipulation by foreign agents looking to con targets into divulging information.

During the Revolutionary War, he played a key role directing clandestine operatives and running counterintelligence missions.

Further, it seems clear that the counterintelligence vetting process failed to pick up some rather radical and distasteful views, but these views do not seem to be his motivation for leaking.

He was the special agent in charge of the Counterintelligence Division of the FBI’s New York Field Office, and he made important decisions regarding investigations and targets.

In this March 8, 2023, file photo, Charles McGonigal, former special agent in charge of the FBI's counterintelligence division in New York, arrives at Manhattan federal court in New York.

It collects human-source intelligence (HUMINT), both overt and clandestine, and has a counterintelligence role.

Prior to Operation True North, Goodwin served in the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations specializing in counterintelligence and counterespionage.

Prior to Yale, Asha served as a special agent in the New York Division of the FBI, specializing in counterintelligence investigations.

And one of the top of your list was the Defense, Counterintelligence and Security Agency.

Another troubling name on the list is BGI, a genomics company suspected of using prenatal test kits to “collect genetic and genomic data from around the globe,” as the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center put it.

In 2021, he was promoted to section chief of the Counterterrorism Human Intelligence Section in the Counterintelligence Division at headquarters.

It will have a domestic focus and be responsible for counterintelligence and intelligence-gathering functions and a South African intelligence service responsible for foreign intelligence-gathering.

Joseph Stalin’s feared counterintelligence group Smersh has been reinstated by, British intelligence has claimed.

Peter Strzok, a former top FBI counterintelligence agent who helped lead the bureau’s investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, was fired in 2018 after the anti-Trump text messages came to light.