The Recruitables: Why Trump's Team Was Easy Prey for Putin
A former CIA officer looks at the personality traits that might have allowed Russian intelligence to manipulate key members of the presidents inner circle.
By ALEX FINLEY October 26, 2017
By now, it should be clear to anyone following the news that Russian intelligence made a formidable effort to approach the Trump campaign and assess the potential to manipulate its members. As a former officer of the CIAs Directorate of Operations, I can tell you that Russian security services would have been derelict not to evaluate the possibility of turning someone close to Trump. While the question of collusion remains open, its beyond dispute that Russia tried to get people around the president to cooperate. The June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower is indication enough, but other encounters bolster the argument.
How do you get someone to do something they should not do? Generally, an intelligence officer looks for a persons vulnerabilities and explores ways to exploit them. It usually comes down to four things, whichin true government stylethe CIA has encompassed in an acronym, MICE: Money, Ideology, Coercion, Ego. Want to get someone to betray his country? Figure out which of these four motivators drives the person and exploit the hell out of it.
It is important to note, too, that a person might not know he is doing something he shouldnt do. As former CIA director John Brennan testified in May, Frequently, people who go along a treasonous path do not know they are on a treasonous path until it is too late. Sometimes, such people make the best assets. They are so sure in their convictions that they are acting in their own best interest or in the best interest of their country that they have no idea they are being completely manipulated.
The Russians know all this, too.
From an intelligence point of view, the people surrounding Trump, and Trump himself, make easy targets for recruitment. This is not to say these people have definitely been recruited by Russian intelligenceand theyve all denied it repeatedlybut you can be sure that Russias intelligence services took these factors into consideration when they approached the campaign.
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http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/26/trump-team-prey-putin-215743