Tens of thousands of diplomats are descending on United Nations headquarters in New York City this week. But while the annual U.N. General Assembly high-level gathering is supposed to center on diplomacy, espionage and security considerations also loom large.
The espionage concern centers on the FBI's role to detect and counter a vast number of intelligence officers hiding among various diplomatic delegations. These intelligence officers hope to evade the FBI scrutiny that falls on colleagues who are stationed in the U.S. full time. Their mission might be to approach a foreign or U.S. government official for recruitment, receive information or materials from an already recruited source, or pursue an altogether more nefarious agenda.
The National Security Agency also plays a pivotal role during UNGA week, bugging the rooms, computers, and cellphones of foreign officials and listening in on their meetings. To be fair to the Israelis and French, the NSA also bears little notice of alliances in its activities. NSA intelligence collection also supports longer-term insight into the personalities and dynamics at play inside foreign governments. And it helps identify prospective future targets for CIA recruitment approaches.
Already highly complex, this protective mission is made even more challenging by resource strains. These strains are particularly severe with the DSS. In turn, the NYPD and protection-trained special agents/officers from other federal agencies are also drafted in for support. Fortunately, foreign officials' national protective details can reduce the burdens on the U.S. government.
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