Foreign spies are exploiting the instability created by the George Floyd protests to gather new info on America's national security, sources tell us

• Disagreements between President Trump and the Pentagon over the violent clashes between police and protesters across the US have opened a new front for hostile foreign intelligence collection, sources tell Insider.

• "My concerns would be first everything that China and Russia might learn about fault lines within the US national security structures," said one official. "Who is weak? Ethical? Petty? This is all really good stuff to collect."
• Life has become easier for spies operating in the United States, as law enforcement is focused on the crisis.
• "All the guys who are supposed to be following the hundreds of Russian and Chinese spies operating in the US are being tasked to hunt for some antifa fantasy of Trump's," said one official.

Intelligence officials among US allies are deeply concerned that the political instability triggered by more than a week of occasionally violent clashes between police and protesters across the United States has opened a new front for hostile foreign intelligence collection.


"The Pentagon is actively resisting calls by the US president to militarize domestic law enforcement," an intelligence official with a NATO country who spoke to Insider on the condition that they not be named, in exchange for explaining how they would approach spying on the US during the current crisis.


"That alone opens up all sorts of new avenues for collection of critical intelligence that will remain valuable even if this current crisis passes, but also it changes some of the reporting dynamics that officers already in place in the US would be asked to task," said the official. 


Four officials from NATO countries spoke to Insider on background with regard to the crisis, with two requesting that their concerns be generally expressed as background and not quoted directly. The officials were a mix of domestic and foreign intelligence officials, along with one senior law enforcement official responsible for counterintelligence operations.

All four officials agreed that tensions between the Trump administration and the military alone pose a major opportunity for hostile intelligence services such as China and Russia, as well as "frenemy" services such as Israel and Turkey, to collect new intelligence and sources.


'How will these debates change the current power structure in the US national security decision making? Who is in and who is out?'

One intelligence operative — who commonly recruits espionage sources directly — used a series of bullet points to express how they would be tasked by their superiors to collect and recruit during the current political crisis in the US:

• The open-source information on the US Military in potential conflict with the Trump Administration [is important]. No public comment by any official is too minor to be of use, as nobody has ever seen the US civilian-military relationship in this state.

• How will these debates change the current power structure in US national security decision-making? Who is in and who is out? What are they pushing for? What does this mean for specific projects or debates that are underway? 

• Recruitment: The situation will make it that much easier to determine potential targets for recruitment as much of these conflicts are playing out in the open. Social media is an excellent source for finding people who are disgruntled, disillusioned, or potentially ideologically suitable to recruit.

'Who is weak? Ethical? Petty? This is all really good stuff to collect'

"This sounds about right," said a NATO military intelligence official who works closely in counterintelligence.

"My concerns would be first everything that China and Russia might learn about fault lines within the US national security structures, both military and civilian. And that's all just public right now on social media and television news," said the official. "Situations like these bring out the best and worst in officials, who are just like anyone else. Who is weak? Ethical? Petty? This is all really good stuff to collect."

All of the sources agreed that signal intelligence collection would also be even more highly prized. While the US systems are well protected, services such as the Chinese, Russians, and to a certain extent, the Israelis have capabilities to eavesdrop on official and unofficial communications as the Trump administration reacts.


'All the guys who are supposed to be following the hundreds of Russian and Chinese spies operating in the US are being tasked to hunt for some antifa fantasy of Trump's'

"There would be so much to learn from private communications as well as official ones, intercepts of email and phone calls — even personal calls — like a colonel or general important to your country… do they sound more or less likely to decide an order is illegal? These are all the things being discussed right now."


And the overall distraction is making life easier for the spies already operating in the United States, as the entire law enforcement apparatus is focused on the crisis, particularly key intelligence collecting units of the FBI that would normally be chasing Chinese and Russian spies, said the counterintelligence officer.

"All the guys who are supposed to be following the hundreds of Russian and Chinese spies operating in the US are being tasked to hunt for some antifa fantasy of Trump's," said the official. "And all the signal intelligence stuff you point at them and their embassies to keep an eye on them is being used to collect phone numbers of protesters. COVID lockdown was probably pretty tough on the spies, but this had got to feel like a holiday."

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