Viagra, alimony and fishing gear: how the CIA recruited agents around the world

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States recruited agents around the world, and it did not use only monetary rewards for this purpose.

A wide variety of methods were used: from fishing gear to promises to pay for education or other needs of a person. This is reported by NBC.

It is noted that CIA employees could offer a person help in paying alimony, buying a refrigerator or alcohol, and other similar "gifts." As former intelligence officers said, money rarely became the main reason for agreeing to cooperate.

Much more often, people are prompted to spy by personal motives: grievances, disappointment in their own leadership, or disagreement with the political regime of the country, they reported.

The material states that the essence of the CIA's recruitment strategy has always been a careful study of a person's individual needs. Journalists cite a typical case from 2008, when an American agent managed to win over one of the Afghan field commanders about 60 years old not with money, but with just four Viagra tablets.

According to the recollections of intelligence veterans, traditional methods of recruitment using large cash bribes or weapons rarely proved effective. Weapons often ended up in other hands, and ostentatious gifts like money, jewelry, and cars attracted undue attention.

For example, Soviet intelligence officer Dmitry Polyakov, who began cooperating with the CIA after the death of his son, refused significant monetary payments, asking instead only for power tools, guns, and fishing gear. Another defector - engineer Adolf Tolkachev - asked the Americans for Western music.

Former CIA officer Douglas London noted that the agency often inclined people to cooperate in very everyday ways: it paid for refrigerators, expensive medical operations, and treatment.

Source: vesti.ru