CIA情報官員如何物色特工人選

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─to become a traitor. And we were asking him to trust that no leak or mole would ever expose him.
我在海外爲中央情報局(CIA)工作的三十多年中，在我這樣的情報官員看來，一個不言而喻的事實就是：作爲另外一個國家的公民，爲一家外國情報機構充當間諜，你必須得做一名混蛋。在招募特工或“線人”時，我們要求他要無視保全自我的本能，要違反自己國家的法律──做一名叛國者。我們要讓他相信，任何泄密事件或特工人員都不會暴露他的身份。

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.
如今，仍然有需要竊取的機密，被發現的後果依然危險。莫斯科最近驅逐一名所謂的中情局官員的行爲引人矚目，但是這樣的事情只能算是爲間諜活動的失敗付出的小小代價。

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.'
那麼，情報官員如何勸說一個人當叛國者呢？肯定沒有現成的教材。整個過程與人際交往一樣複雜。如果可能的話，情報官員應該與未來的特工發展友誼；信任的關係必須建立。但是在表面之下，這位CIA官員會對目標人選的抱負、恐懼和慾望進行持續的、而且經常是鐵面無情的評估。你必須瞭解潛在招募對象的動機，這樣你才能更好地利用他的弱點，最終讓他對你的“行動計劃”持一種正確的心態。

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.
在進行評估的時候，CIA依據的是縮寫爲MICE的人類四個基本動機：金錢(money)、意識形態(ideology)、良知(conscience)和自我意識(ego)。美國情報界的一些機構也許沒有意識到MICE一詞已經是複數形式的單詞了，堅持要在後面加一個S，用來代表“性”(sex)。不過色誘陷阱不是一個可靠的招募手段。一個受到脅迫的特工往往會感到忿恨、鬱悶，容易叛變和製造假情報。其它有些國家（最臭名昭著的就是俄國）就在間諜行動中毫無顧忌地使用了色誘陷阱。

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.
與一名動機是爲了掙錢的特工之間的關係很直接：“我們給你現金，你去竊取機密。”北非某國的一名飛機機械師就是一個例子，他在1974年報告說蘇聯出口的六架新的米格23戰鬥機(MiG 23)已經交付給他所在的空軍基地。他願意拍下這些飛機的每一個細節，並提出只要這些照片有價值，要按照片數量支付他酬金。

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─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─and worried that his payment would be jeopardized─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.
一天晚上，在一輪皎潔的月光下，他爬遍了機身拍攝照片。在拍最後一張回視機身的照片時，他爬到了飛機的鯊魚狀機頭上面──突然向後一滑，人往後掉了下去。他擡頭一看，發現自己讓中空的飛機機頭向下傾斜了20度。他無法矯正這玩意兒──又擔心自己的賞金會泡湯──情急之下他沿着停機線挨個把其它五架戰鬥機的機頭都弄成了向下傾斜的樣子，好讓它們跟第一架飛機一樣。他得到了賞金，但是他也喪失了接近飛機的權力，也就失去他的利用價值。

The agent motivated by ideology─or, as often as not, by the traumatic loss of ideology─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.
因意識形態原因而當特工的人──或者說是由於意識形態迷失而造成的創傷──可能要慢慢發展，有時需要耗時多年。這種特工不再信任自己的政府。她受到了所在體制的傷害，憎恨那些毀了她事業的上司。無論是過去還是現在，世界上都存在很多這樣的政權，在奪去了人的希望之後又植入絕望：1950年代的斯大林(Stalin)政權，2013年的德黑蘭毛拉政權。1960年代，一位被派駐紐約的名叫德米特里•波利亞科夫(Dmitri Polyakov)的蘇聯軍官要求把他病入膏肓的兒子送到美國尋求一位醫生的救治，遭到了莫斯科方面毫不留情的拒絕。他的意識形態基礎喪失殆盡，變得鐵石心腸，開始爲CIA效力。現在他仍然被認爲是中情局有史以來最優秀的線人之一。

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─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─rational, humanistic, a man of erudition─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.
爲良知所驅使的特工值得期待。他也許是救世主式的人物，在尋找爲自己贖罪的方式，或者是爲了給他所在的體制贖罪──抑或爲世上所有的邪惡贖罪。也許隨着年齡的增長，也許在經歷了太多的戰爭與背叛之後，抑或是有了在天安門廣場上駕駛坦克的經歷之後，悔恨會喚起一個人的良知。也有人可能因爲頓悟而良心發現。也許某位伊朗的核科學家──理性、具有人本主義精神、博學──有一天會意識到這個伊斯蘭國家擁有核武器到底意味着什麼，於是帶着機密從伊朗沙漠中的地下離心實驗室裏跑出來。

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.
因自我意識而有心當特工的人是福也是禍。安撫得好，他會隨時響應、積極行動、專心投入。但是一旦開始了安撫，你就無法停止：他會要這要那，喜怒無常，強人所難。自我意識是人類最強大的驅動因素，而且就像俄國人十分清楚的那樣，它包含了性在其中，他們這麼多年來在俄羅斯國內和國外對目標設置了大量色情陷阱。

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─all in the belief that he was personally spying for Jimmy Carter, God help him.
情報官員也會在那些看似正在尋找自我的人中間挖掘潛在的特工，他們的精神由於清洗、文化革命或曠日持久的稅收調查（克里姆林宮(Kremlin)如今最喜歡用的一種手段）而被踐踏摧毀。在1970年代末期，情報官員告知（其實是誤報）一名自尊心極強而且有神經質的特工他的零碎情報已經報告給了白宮(White House)，受到高度評價。他心中凋謝的自我意識綻放了：現在有人仰仗他、賞識他了！僅此一點就讓這個性情溫順的小個子男人不顧心中的恐懼，開始搞出機密文件──深信他是親手在爲吉米•卡特(Jimmy Carter)刺探情報。上帝保佑！

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─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.
間諜遊戲是研究人性的一個理想課題。幹這一行的人在信任與背叛、希望與恐懼、愛與恨之間往來遊移。即使到現在，我們的情報工作仍需要加大力度──以求弄清俄羅斯是如何利用天然氣來延伸它的觸角，伊朗多快會擁有核武器，或者中國如何籌劃在太平洋地區贏得主導權。遍佈世界各地的情報官員會繼續他們的工作，力勸人們充當叛國者，並部署下與這門行當同樣古老的間諜工具。