CIA情报官员如何物色特工人选

爱思英语编者按：中央情报局（CIA）是美国政府的情报、间谍和反间谍机构，主要职责是收集和分析全球政治、经济、文化、军事、科技等方面的情报，协调美国国内情报机构的活动，并把情报上报美国政府各部门。它也负责维持在美国境外的军事设备，在冷战期间用于推翻外国政府。中央情报局也支持和资助一些对美国有利的活动，例如曾在1949年至1970年代初期支持第三势力。根据很多报道和一些中央情报局重要人物的回忆录，中央情报局也组织和策划暗杀活动，主要针对与美国为敌的国家的领导人。中情局的根本目的，是透过情报工作维护美国的国家利益和国家安全。

我在海外为中央情报局(CIA)工作的三十多年中，在我这样的情报官员看来，一个不言而喻的事实就是：作为另外一个国家的公民，为一家外国情报机构充当间谍，你必须得做一名混蛋。在招募特工或“线人”时，我们要求他要无视保全自我的本能，要违反自己国家的法律──做一名叛国者。我们要让他相信，任何泄密事件或特工人员都不会暴露他的身份。

During my thirty-plus years working abroad for the CIA, the unspoken truth among case officers like me was that you'd have to be nuts, as the citizen of another country, to be a spy for a foreign intelligence service. In recruiting an agent or 'asset,' we were asking him to ignore the instinct of self-preservation, to break the laws of his own country伟to become a traitor. And we were asking him to trust that no leak or mole would ever expose him.

如今，仍然有需要窃取的机密，被发现的后果依然危险。莫斯科最近驱逐一名所谓的中情局官员的行为引人瞩目，但是这样的事情只能算是为间谍活动的失败付出的小小代价。

Today, there are still secrets that need stealing, and the consequences of detection remain dangerous. Moscow's recent expulsion of an alleged CIA officer was dramatic, but such moves are among the lesser costs of espionage gone awry.

那么，情报官员如何劝说一个人当叛国者呢？肯定没有现成的教材。整个过程与人际交往一样复杂。如果可能的话，情报官员应该与未来的特工发展友谊；信任的关系必须建立。但是在表面之下，这位CIA官员会对目标人选的抱负、恐惧和欲望进行持续的、而且经常是铁面无情的评估。你必须了解潜在招募对象的动机，这样你才能更好地利用他的弱点，最终让他对你的“行动计划”持一种正确的心态。

How, then, does a case officer persuade someone to become a traitor? There is no definitive handbook. The process is as complex as human relationships. If possible, a friendship should develop between the case officer and the prospective agent; bonds of trust must be established. But beneath the surface, there is the CIA officer's constant and often uncharitable assessment of the target's aspirations, fears and desires. You must know what motivates the potential recruit so that you can better exploit his vulnerabilities and, in the end, put him in the right frame of mind for your 'pitch.'

在进行评估的时候，CIA依据的是缩写为MICE的人类四个基本动机：金钱(money)、意识形态(ideology)、良知(conscience)和自我意识(ego)。美国情报界的一些机构也许没有意识到MICE一词已经是复数形式的单词了，坚持要在后面加一个S，用来代表“性”(sex)。不过色诱陷阱不是一个可靠的招募手段。一个受到胁迫的特工往往会感到忿恨、郁闷，容易叛变和制造假情报。其它有些国家（最臭名昭著的就是俄国）就在间谍行动中毫无顾忌地使用了色诱陷阱。

In making this assessment, the CIA relies on four basic human motivations, described by the acronym MICE: money, ideology, conscience and ego. Some agencies in the U.S. intelligence community, perhaps not realizing that MICE is already a plural word, insist on adding an S to the end for sex. But sexual entrapment is not a reliable recruitment technique. A blackmailed agent tends to be resentful, brooding, prone to disloyalty and the fabrication of intelligence. Other countries, most infamously Russia, have used sexual entrapment in intelligence operations without compunction.

与一名动机是为了挣钱的特工之间的关系很直接：“我们给你现金，你去窃取机密。”北非某国的一名飞机机械师就是一个例子，他在1974年报告说苏联出口的六架新的米格23战斗机(MiG 23)已经交付给他所在的空军基地。他愿意拍下这些飞机的每一个细节，并提出只要这些照片有价值，要按照片数量支付他酬金。

The relationship with an agent motivated by money is straightforward: 'We give you cash, and you steal secrets.' Consider the case of the aircraft mechanic in a North African country who, in 1974, reported that six new export models of the Soviet MiG 23 fighter had been delivered to his military air base. He was willing to photograph every detail of the planes and proposed being paid per frame, as long as the images were of value.

一天晚上，在一轮皎洁的月光下，他爬遍了机身拍摄照片。在拍最后一张回视机身的照片时，他爬到了飞机的鲨鱼状机头上面──突然向后一滑，人往后掉了下去。他抬头一看，发现自己让中空的飞机机头向下倾斜了20度。他无法矫正这玩意儿──又担心自己的赏金会泡汤──情急之下他沿着停机线挨个把其它五架战斗机的机头都弄成了向下倾斜的样子，好让它们跟第一架飞机一样。他得到了赏金，但是他也丧失了接近飞机的权力，也就失去他的利用价值。

One night, under a brilliant African moon, he crawled all over the plane, snapping photos. For a final rear-facing shot, he shinnied out onto the shark's nose of the aircraft伟and suddenly slid backward off the front. He looked up to discover that he had bent down the hollow nose needle at a twenty-degree angle. Unable to straighten the thing out伟and worried that his payment would be jeopardized伟he proceeded down the flight line in a panic and bent the five needles on the remaining fighters to match the first. He got his money, but his access was lost, along with his usefulness.

因意识形态原因而当特工的人──或者说是由于意识形态迷失而造成的创伤──可能要慢慢发展，有时需要耗时多年。这种特工不再信任自己的政府。她受到了所在体制的伤害，憎恨那些毁了她事业的上司。无论是过去还是现在，世界上都存在很多这样的政权，在夺去了人的希望之后又植入绝望：1950年代的斯大林(Stalin)政权，2013年的德黑兰毛拉政权。1960年代，一位被派驻纽约的名叫德米特里•波利亚科夫(Dmitri Polyakov)的苏联军官要求把他病入膏肓的儿子送到美国寻求一位医生的救治，遭到了莫斯科方面毫不留情的拒绝。他的意识形态基础丧失殆尽，变得铁石心肠，开始为CIA效力。现在他仍然被认为是中情局有史以来最优秀的线人之一。

The agent motivated by ideology伟or, as often as not, by the traumatic loss of ideology伟may develop slowly, sometimes over years. This agent no longer believes in her government. She has been abused by the system and hates the superiors who have ruined her career. Lots of regimes around the world, past and present, take away hope and institutionalize despair: Stalin in the 1950s, the mullahs in Tehran in 2013. A Soviet military officer named Dmitri Polyakov, posted to New York in the 1960s, was refused permission by an implacable Moscow to take his fatally ill son to a U.S. doctor. His ideology faded, his heart hardened and he started to work with the CIA. He is still considered one of the agency's best assets ever.

为良知所驱使的特工值得期待。他也许是救世主式的人物，在寻找为自己赎罪的方式，或者是为了给他所在的体制赎罪──抑或为世上所有的邪恶赎罪。也许随着年龄的增长，也许在经历了太多的战争与背叛之后，抑或是有了在天安门广场上驾驶坦克的经历之后，悔恨会唤起一个人的良知。也有人可能因为顿悟而良心发现。也许某位伊朗的核科学家──理性、具有人本主义精神、博学──有一天会意识到这个伊斯兰国家拥有核武器到底意味着什么，于是带着机密从伊朗沙漠中的地下离心实验室里跑出来。

The agent motivated by conscience bears watching. He may be messianic and looking for ways to atone for his sins, or for the sins of his system伟or for all the Evil in the World. The ticking of remorseful conscience may come with age, with too much war or betrayal, or with having driven a tank in Tiananmen Square. Or it may come with enlightenment. Perhaps an Iranian nuclear scientist伟rational, humanistic, a man of erudition伟will realize one day what it would mean for the Islamic Republic to have nuclear weapons and will emerge from the subterranean centrifuge halls of the Iranian desert with secrets in hand.

因自我意识而有心当特工的人是福也是祸。安抚得好，他会随时响应、积极行动、专心投入。但是一旦开始了安抚，你就无法停止：他会要这要那，喜怒无常，强人所难。自我意识是人类最强大的驱动因素，而且就像俄国人十分清楚的那样，它包含了性在其中，他们这么多年来在俄罗斯国内和国外对目标设置了大量色情陷阱。

The agent motivated by ego is a blessing and a curse. Properly stroked, he can be responsive, motivated and focused. But once the stroking starts, you cannot stop: He will be needy, moody, demanding. Ego is one of the most powerful human motivators, and it encompasses sex, as the Russians knew very well in running their sexual ambushes against targets inside and outside Russia over the years.

情报官员也会在那些看似正在寻找自我的人中间挖掘潜在的特工，他们的精神由于清洗、文化革命或旷日持久的税收调查（克里姆林宫(Kremlin)如今最喜欢用的一种手段）而被践踏摧毁。在1970年代末期，情报官员告知（其实是误报）一名自尊心极强而且有神经质的特工他的零碎情报已经报告给了白宫(White House)，受到高度评价。他心中凋谢的自我意识绽放了：现在有人仰仗他、赏识他了！仅此一点就让这个性情温顺的小个子男人不顾心中的恐惧，开始搞出机密文件──深信他是亲手在为吉米•卡特(Jimmy Carter)刺探情报。上帝保佑！

A case officer also looks for prospects among individuals who seem to be in search of an ego, their spirits stamped flat by purges, cultural revolutions or protracted tax investigations (a favorite tactic of today's Kremlin). In the late 70s, one agent with abysmal self-esteem and a nervous disposition was told (falsely) by his case officer that his intel tidbits had been reported to the White House to rave reviews. His shriveled ego flowered: He now had people who counted on him and admired him! That's all it took for the meek little man to ignore his fears and begin bringing out classified documents伟all in the belief that he was personally spying for Jimmy Carter, God help him.

间谍游戏是研究人性的一个理想课题。干这一行的人在信任与背叛、希望与恐惧、爱与恨之间往来游移。即使到现在，我们的情报工作仍需要加大力度──以求弄清俄罗斯是如何利用天然气来延伸它的触角，伊朗多快会拥有核武器，或者中国如何筹划在太平洋地区赢得主导权。遍布世界各地的情报官员会继续他们的工作，力劝人们充当叛国者，并部署下与这门行当同样古老的间谍工具。

The spy game is a perfect subject for examining the human condition. Its practitioners traffic in trust and betrayal, hope and fear, love and hatred. And even now, our intelligence needs multiply伟in the rush to understand how Russia will use natural gas to extend its reach, or how soon Iran will have a nuke, or how Beijing plans to achieve hegemony in the Pacific. Case officers around the world continue their work, trying to persuade people to become traitors and deploying tools as old as the trade itself.