CIA/Station/Chief
 CIA/Station/Chief | |
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| The leader of the CIA station in a given country, the center of a web of influence within political parties, civic associations, student groups, labor unions, media, the military and other governmental agencies. |
A Chief of Station (COS) is the leader of that CIA station, charged with maintaining, creating, and exploiting the infrastructure in that country to implement clandestine aspects of foreign policy such as psychological warfare and paramilitary actions. CIA influence within political parties, civic associations, student groups, labor unions, media, the military and other governmental agencies can be described as a web with the Chief of Station at its center. In nations where US presence is extensive, additional managerial personnel known as Chiefs of Base (COB) may be located within US Consulates. In some countries, particularly when a potentially explosive political situation may be brewing, a CIA officer may be installed as Ambassador.[1]
Activities
Counterspy described them as
“The key figures, at least in an operational sense, within the CIA infrastructure are known as Chiefs of Station (COS). Usually located within the U.S. Embassy compound, Chiefs of Station are charged with maintaining, creating, and exploiting the infrastructure within a given country.
U.S. Foreign Policy, both overt and covert, is administered through what is known as the "country team" concept. This "country team", nominally, headed by the ambassador, is composed of the highest ranking foreign service officers within a given country, including the COS. Its job is to concretize the often vague platitudes issued by Washington. The CIA's role in all-this, of course, is the implementation of clandestine aspects of foreign policy.
The range of covert actions available to the CIA is limitless where a strong infrastructure exists...Two categories of covert action exist: Psychological Warfare and Paramilitary. Psychological Warfare actions, as defined by former CIA agent Philip Agee, include "propaganda (also known simply as media), work in youth and student organizations, work in labor organizations (trade unions, etc.), work in professional and cultural groups, and in political parties." He goes on to define paramilitary actions as "infiltration into denied areas, sabotage, economic warfare, personal harassment, air and maritime support, weaponry, training and support for small armies."
An example of this clandestine policy and implementation can be seen with tensions that existed between the U.S. and Cuba during the early 1960s. The goal of U.S. foreign policy was to isolate Cuba from the rest of the non-communist world, in Latin America, governments were pressured to break diplomatic relations. Those governments that opposed U.S. policy towards Cuba soon began experiencing internal strife and economic chaos, directed, of course, by the CIA.
The Chief of Station is charged with overseeing the use of these techniques and the network of contacts that makes them possible. The world wide infrastructure maintained by the CIA intervenes in the affairs of other nations on a daily basis, not 'from time to time as the National Security Council may direct.'”
Counterspy, Philip Agee (1975) [2]
Diplomatic cover
The Department of State usually provides the COS and other CIA personnel with cover stories, hiding them among real Foreign Service Officers, and providing them with diplomatic immunity. In many countries, CIA personnel are found in the U.S. Embassy's "political" section. In nations where U.S. presence is extensive, additional managerial personnel known as Chiefs of Base (COB) may be located within U.S. Consulates and/or military facilities. In many areas where the CIA uses military bases for cover, these bases house large technical support facilities that cannot be housed in Embassies and Consulates.{cn}[3]
Those CIA personnel living under diplomatic cover are relatively easy to spot. Other intelligence services, host governments, regular visitors, and even local nationals employed by the Embassy have little or no trouble spotting CIA personnel. The fact that other intelligence services and host governments are usually aware of the CIA's presence has never really troubled the Agency...there are certain advantages to letting your presence be known. Disgruntled individuals have little trouble locating the Agency, and Third World security forces often look to the CIA for technical assistance.[3]
Coverage
Wikispooks concentrates on already historically exposed station chiefs. Cryptome has a list of more recent Chiefs from the period 2010-2016.[4]
Examples
References
- ↑ Counterspy winter 1975, volume Issue 2 available at https://github.com/lattera/CounterSpy/blob/master/CounterSpy_2-2_Weisberg.pdf
- ↑ https://github.com/lattera/CounterSpy/blob/master/CounterSpy_2-2_Weisberg.pdf
- ↑ a b
- ↑ Archived at https://archive.is/CSmTC
