CIA forced to curb spying in Lebanon

[Alamuti Lotus]

CIA forced to curb spying in Lebanon
The agency's crucial post in Beirut is affected after the arrest of several informants this year, sources say.

Reporting from Washington— The CIA was forced to curtail its spying in Lebanon, where U.S. operatives and their agents collect crucial intelligence on Syria, terrorist groups and other targets, after the arrests of several CIA informants in Beirut this year, according to U.S. officials and other sources.

"Beirut station is out of business," a source said, using the CIA term for its post there. The same source, who declined to be identified while speaking about a classified matter, alleged that up to a dozen CIA informants have been compromised, but U.S. officials disputed that figure.

U.S. officials acknowledged that some CIA operations were suspended in Beirut last summer. It's unclear whether full operations have resumed. Beirut is considered a key watching post for turmoil in the Middle East.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-cia-spy-20111121,0,868084.story

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Extent and Objective of CIA Operations Under-reported

Recent revelations by the LA Times about the shutting down of CIA spying station in Beirut vindicated long held claims by Hezbollah about the agency’s work and fell short of outlining why and how this network operated.

As soon as Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah announced last June that the security apparatus of the Resistance had discovered the existence of Israeli and American agents in its ranks last June, the American Embassy in Beirut denied it, dismissing it as mere allegations.

Of course no one was waiting for the American side to announce any detailed position besides the official denial from the American Embassy in Beirut, considering that Nasrallah announced that those who worked to recruit Hezbollah members were embassy employees. As reported by American journalists briefed by American intelligence officials, no one in the US took the matter seriously. The words of Nasrallah were seen as another round of empty accusations for public consumption.

But there is more to what happened than the "semi-official recognition" currently being reported in the American press Monday.

American intelligence has been facing a major crisis since last spring. Back then, intelligence authorities found out that some spy recruits were framed not only in Lebanon, but also in Syria and Iran.

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/extent-and-objective-cia-operatoins-under-reported