The Qualities That Make a Great Case Officer

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The Qualities That Make a Great CaseOfficerJoseph W. WipplPublished online: 13 Jun 2012.

To cite this article: Joseph W. Wippl (2012) The Qualities That Make a Great CaseOfficer, International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, 25:3, 595-603, DOI:10.1080/08850607.2012.678696

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JOSEPH W. WIPPL

The Qualities That Make a GreatCase Officer

A case officer for an intelligence agency, such as the Central IntelligenceAgency (CIA) or the United Kingdom’s MI6, or Russia’s SVR, or theFrench DGSE, or others, is expected to meet agent candidates, cultivatethem, develop them for recruitment, recruit them as agents for espionage,handle them for the production of intelligence while maintaining theirsecurity, and distribute in writing their intelligence production. Not every‘‘great’’ case officer is able to carry out all of these expectations at a highlevel. Indeed, some are able to do only one or two but those they are ableto do exceptionally well. Many of the skills acquired in the agentrecruitment cycle are applicable later on, as case officers become managersof case officers and are also required to interact with case officers fromforeign intelligence services.During a 35-year career with the CIA, I had the good fortune to serve

overseas in a number of large CIA offices. I also served as the Europe

Joseph W. Wippl became Professor of the Practice at Boston University inMay 2011 after serving as a Senior Lecturer in the school’s Department ofInternational Relations. During his 35-year career with the CentralIntelligence Agency’s (CIA) National Clandestine Service (NCS) he servedas an operations officer and manager in Bonn, West Germany; GuatemalaCity; Luxembourg; Madrid; Mexico City; Vienna; and Berlin. Onassignments at the CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, he was DeputyChief of Human Resources; Senior NCS representative to the Aldrich AmesDamage Assessment Team; Chief of the Agency’s Europe Division; and theCIA’s Director of Congressional Affairs. Prior to his arrival at BostonUniversity as a CIA Officer in Residence, he occupied the Richard HelmsChair for Intelligence Collection in the NSC training program.

International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, 25: 595–603, 2012

Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN: 0885-0607 print=1521-0561 online

DOI: 10.1080/08850607.2012.678696

AND COUNTERINTELLIGENCE VOLUME 25, NUMBER 3 595

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division chief overseeing numerous field offices. Both as a case officerand manager of case officers, I had the opportunity to work with andobserve a number of excellent or ‘‘great’’ CIA case officers, asdistinguished from competent and motivated but average case officers. Inliaison capacities, I was also able to observe a few outstanding foreignofficers. The CIA extensively tests and interviews applicants for theposition of case officer. Presumably, other foreign intelligence services doso as well. The testing is evaluated and criteria is established for hiring aspecific type of person.Skills always play a big part in recruitment for employment. Education,

language fluency, scientific background, and business skills may all play akey part in hiring a case officer candidate. But these skills can changewith time, as fluency in Arabic or Chinese would now give a candidatean advantage in the hiring process, much as Russian, German, andFrench did forty years ago. However, certain personal characteristics orattributes are more permanent or more basic in case officer hiring thandefined skills such as language or technical savvy. Despite my manyyears in the business, exactly how the CIA or other intelligence servicesestablish whether a person has the personality to be a case officerremains unknown to me. I would never think of asking the CIA’spersonnel office what these personality traits are because it would neverrespond. It is a secret. I was hired, and hundreds of others I haveknown, both somewhat like me and somewhat unlike me, were hired aswell.To give a number or percentage of ‘‘great’’ case officers among case

officers in general is difficult, if not impossible. Similarly, the percentageof case officers who ever recruit a ‘‘great’’ agent, that is, an agent whoproduces essential intelligence over an extended period of time or whocarries out essential activity for the case officer’s government over anextended period of time, is a question difficult to answer definitively. Dofifteen or twenty percent of case officers ever recruit a ‘‘great’’ agent?What national groups might be included in that statistic? Some nationalgroups are relatively easy to recruit, while others are difficult or next toimpossible to recruit. What percentage of case officers handle a ‘‘great’’agent, that is, one who has already been recruited? Twenty-five to thirtypercent? Anyone, even a case officer hired to do so, finds it difficult topose the question ‘‘Will you commit espionage against your governmentfor my government?’’ Handling an already recruited and committed agentis far easier. In my experience, most case officers cannot ask the espionagequestion, while many more, given the opportunity, are able to handle anagent. Some of the notable character traits I have observed of ‘‘great’’case officers are integrity, energy, sensitivity, flexibility, optimism, andtrustworthiness.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENCE

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BASIC INTEGRITY NECESSARY

Seemingly trite, but integrity in a ‘‘great’’ or any case officer is essential. But whatexactly does integrity mean? For a case officer, integrity means not managing ormanipulating the facts. A case officer meets agent ‘‘developmentals’’ and agents,usually doing so alone. What the case officer reports must reflect the reality ofwhat occurred at the meeting. While the agent is the case officer’s ‘‘bread andbutter,’’ this relationship cannot cloud the case officer’s judgment if a problemdevelops with the agent or the clandestine operation. The case officer mustaccurately report events when breaches of security occur (and they do), whenan agent loses access, or when an agent wishes to change the relationship.When issues of security evolve, either threatening the case officer or the agent,early indicators are usually present. Integrity means never ignoring theseindicators and always ensuring that the operation is secure.Again and again, I have experienced ‘‘great’’ case officers reporting on

their mistakes. For instance, a case officer must report any suspicions ordiscovers that the agent is not loyal. If an intelligence organization isengaged in human intelligence (HUMINT—espionage), compromises willoccur. This is fact. Why? Because the case officer is human, as is the agent.Thus, embarrassments will occur, with criticism and second guessing therule of the day. Every case officer, ‘‘great’’ or less, has at some time donesomething stupid, and that goes triple for agents. Integrity involves comingclean with the facts. Another and obvious aspect of integrity isresponsibility for the correct and legal expenditure of government funds.Few have ever been fired for incompetence, but many have been fired formisusing government money.The strong emphasis on integrity is connected to the requirement that case

officers live a life of cover. Case officers usually present themselves to foreigncontacts, extended family members, and friends as something other thanintelligence officers. They may present themselves as employed in othergovernment agencies or as working in the private economy. Case officersfrequently describe their employment as being in public or privateorganizations which may actually exist, but they themselves do not exist inthem. The spouses of case officers are required to do the same. Outside theorganization, deception (of sorts) takes place. Cover, in most instances, ismeant to protect a case officer’s security as much as it is to deceive anagent candidate. Inside the intelligence organization, complete candor isdemanded. The case officer must do both: that is, deceive outside butnever inside. This makes the need for integrity different for the case officerthan for perhaps a senior partner at now-defunct Lehman Brothers or aplumber. That said, integrity is as absolutely essential in every professionas it is for a case officer, but in those professions or jobs it is not intension with another part of one’s cover life.

AND COUNTERINTELLIGENCE VOLUME 25, NUMBER 3

THE QUALITIES THAT MAKE A GREAT CASE OFFICER 597

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‘‘Great’’ case officers are able to relegate cover into a comfortable cornerof their lives; they do not allow the deceptive elements of their lives toimpinge on their personal agendas. For most individuals in friendlycontact with a case officer, a short explanation of a cover job is all theyneed or want to hear. But a ‘‘great’’ case officer never falls in love with thecover or the cover story.Yet, integrity does not mean or imply sainthood. The private lives of case

officers are the same as those of the middle class people from whom caseofficers are drawn. A recent presidential candidate stated that a man whocheated on his wife would cheat on his business partner. Of course, thatcomment was meant to pander to a part of the electorate, but no evidenceconvincingly connects one with the other. One type of indiscretion can getsomeone into trouble, while the other could mean a jail sentence. Thesame goes for case officers. A certain percentage of case officers have, willhave or have had relationships with another partner outside of marriage.This activity does not or need not compromise their integrity within theintelligence organization. In a small number of, and sometimes veryembarrassing, cases, however, a security problem could exist for caseofficers in a relationship with a foreign national, especially if the purposeof the relationship is an aggressive attempt by another security service tocompromise or recruit the case officer. Again, the integrity issue has asidebar different from the remainder of society. Case officer integritydemands the reporting of an outside relationship, most especially whenmanipulation is suspected.

PERSONAL ENERGY

While every ‘‘great’’ case officer has integrity, that trait is shared with theCIA’s general population. In my experience, a character trait that all‘‘great’’ case officers have in common, independent of nationality, is energy.In order to recruit spies (agents), the case officer must generally meet many

people who are targets or potential targets for recruitment. The case officermust do so in a limited amount of time; tours of duty in one locale varyfrom two to four years. The ‘‘great’’ case officer must quickly use everytool at his or her disposal. In the past, these tools included social events ofall kinds, or a call to an individual based on a story in the press, anintroduction from a contact, or some concoction of events seeminglyplausible to the target. A famous case illustrating the required imaginationwas a ‘‘great’’ case officer renting a car under an alias and causing a dentin the fender of a vehicle owned by the target, then leaving a note on thewindshield with a telephone number at a local hotel. This contact resultedin a recruitment of a very productive agent. The ‘‘great’’ case officer uses amental rolodex to acquire contacts. Today’s ‘‘great’’ case officer will


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continue to use the tried and true methods of the past, but also utilize the newsocial networks of the present for leads to targets of interest. The pace ofcontact is now faster than ever.The ‘‘great’’ case officer will willingly put in the time required to meet and

develop agents. This means a great deal of night and weekend work, with aninnate joy in the chase for agents exceeding that of the average case officer.The downside can be burnout and neglect of one’s personal life. Some caseofficers are out six nights a week, while others are out none. Achieving abalance is as desirable as it is improbable. The ‘‘great’’ case officer engagesin a great deal of socializing. The flesh must be as willing as the spirit.Some ‘‘great’’ case officers do not drink alcoholic beverages, but they arenot numerous or if religious convictions are involved, they do not last longin the job. Being able to hold one’s spirits is a definite plus in agentassessment and recruitment, as is eating richly and often. The ‘‘great’’ caseofficer can follow a long evening of socializing with an early breakfast,again socializing. Behind a ‘‘great’’ case officer is, at times, though notalways, a socially supportive spouse who is also adept at the cultivation ofcontacts. When a husband and wife work together as a team, the result isadditional input by the spouse in assessment and development of agentcandidates. The operational team is not the rule, rather it is the exception,but when it happens, it is a pleasure to watch.

THAT SPECIAL ‘‘SIXTH SENSE’’

The ‘‘great’’ case officer is sensitive to what people want or need. In fact,‘‘great’’ recruiting officers are often people who are wired differently fromthe rest of humanity. They have a ‘‘sixth sense’’ of what people want, andcan initiate trust with others almost immediately. Indeed, I believe eventheir physical appearance is different. It is like a benign nervousness,seemingly self-centered, but boring in on the other person’s personality.This type of ‘‘great’’ case officer is able to cultivate and recruit but is oftennot interested in handling and administering his or her recruitments. Thisjob is left to other case officers. This type of case officer is also the mostdifficult to manage. He or she is most apt to operate outside rather thaninside the office. Tolerance for this type of officer has regrettably declinedover the decades because of the Intelligence Community’s neverendingdrive for more bureaucratic control of personnel in order to avoid theembarrassments. When serious mistakes or compromises occur, thetemptation is to add another layer of authority. To repeat, there is noprogrammatic espionage recruitment effort can be successful withoutperiodic embarrassment.Whether a ‘‘sixth sense’’ or more normal person, the ‘‘great’’ case officer

has a strong antenna for what a target personality’s needs are and no



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qualms about satisfying those needs. Those needs can be money, revenge,adventure, ideals, and friendship. With patient cultivation and time, thecase officer can assess what those needs are, and whether they aresufficient to warrant an approach for recruitment. The ‘‘great’’ case officercan correctly establish why the target individual wants or needs money.Money can mean indulging desires and fantasies, offer security, or giverecognition. Money can pay for education or medical attention. For goodreason, money is often considered to be the preeminent motive forespionage: in a way, it is.But other motives, powerful but more subjective, also exist. Soviet Colonel

Oleg Penkovsky was motivated more by revenge against the Soviet system fornot promoting him to general officer than he was by money. The CIA’sAldrich ‘‘Rick’’ Ames was motivated to spy for the Russians primarily bymoney, but also by serious resentments against an Agency system that wasnot recognizing his abilities. Others, like Israeli spy Eli Cohen and Sovietspy Richard Sorge, were motivated by ideals and a sense of adventure.Most people, like most agents, have numerous motivations for theirconduct. A ‘‘great’’ case officer will negatively judge or carefully monitor atargeted individual who has only one motivation. If the motivation is onlymoney, the agent’s loyalty can easily switch to whoever pays more. If onlyidealism, disappointment is bound to happen because the realities ofpolitical life inevitably force unwanted compromises.‘‘Great’’ case officers often have the ability to identify someone in a group

who, for some reason, does not belong to the group in a social sense. Forinstance, a person may not belong to an area’s dominant and acceptedrel ig ious or ethnic group. Often enough, beneath the surface,discrimination exists, causing resentment. The targeted individual may thenlook upon the case officer’s country as exemplary; U.S. intelligence has anadvantage in this scenario because the United States is very integrative. Inaddition, many people in the world have some personal connection to acountry like the U.S. or the UK. They may have relatives there or theymay have studied there. A prospective agent’s positive attitude toward therecruiter’s country is a good point to start. A friendly attitude may notnecessarily lead to espionage, but beginning positively rather than withhostility toward the case officer’s country is better. The ‘‘great’’ caseofficer can almost immediately establish a mutuality of interests with thetarget. One foreign case officer I knew had an innate feel for othernational groups and how they felt, whether positive or negative, toward hiscountry. He cultivated the former and ignored the latter to great effect.Finally, at times, the case officer judges that the personality of an agent

candidate is such that recruitment would cause unsolvable problems.Often, individuals do not have a sense of their own or the case officer’ssecurity. They are the easiest to recruit but, unless their access to


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intelligence is unique and a matter of national security, the case officer willresist the temptation to recruit that individual. This is difficult becauseespecially ‘‘great’’ case officers are, ironically, frequently naı̈ve, believingthey can control and fix every situation. In fact, they cannot.

THE GENIAL DISPOSITION

A personality trait common to ‘‘great’’ case officers involves a combinationof likeability, charm, humor, and openness that engenders trust. Soviet spyRichard Sorge had a personality that women loved and men admired. Afortunate man indeed! A security service head once remarked to me thatanother country’s representative was incredibly likeable; it was impossiblenot to like him. For most people, close friends come from theirneighborhoods, the schools they attended, or the professions they entered.To wedge oneself into a circle of friendship takes a special gift. The‘‘great’’ case officer will search for and develop common interests with atargeted individual. These can include hobbies of all kinds. If the agentcandidate is a fisherman, the case officer will learn to fish. If the hobby isskiing, opera, or rap music, he will seek to identify with it. The ‘‘great’’case officer will give much of self, meaning his or her feelings, in order toget quickly into the feelings and motivations of the agent candidate. Thecase officer will help the candidate through tough times, either personallyor professionally. The ‘‘great’’ case officer will maintain contact with acontact, even after moving on to another location. In one instance, theagent candidate rejected the case officer’s offer of cooperation. The twonevertheless became friends and maintained contact through Christmasgreetings over the next two-and-a-half decades. Then, when politicalconvulsion took place in the former candidate’s country, he offered hisservices as an agent to provide the kind of information requested decadesearlier. What a ‘‘great’’ case officer also understands is that he cannotplease everyone, nor, as hard as it often is for the ‘‘great’’ case officer toaccept, will everyone love her or him. At times, the relationship simply willnot click.

A WILLINGNESS TO LEARN

A ‘‘great’’ case officer has knowledge or is willing to learn. The case officermust be familiar with the history, politics, and culture of the host country orregion. In most instances, language is absolutely essential. The officer mustbe sympathetic to the circumstances of the people in the assigned country.‘‘Great’’ case officers often have exceptional expertise in their areas ofinterest. Knowledge of a foreign environment has no substitute whenengaged in discussions with or cultivation of a foreign national. Not only



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is credibility immediately established with the foreign national, but theforeign national’s interest is captured by this unusual person (the caseofficer) who is totally engaged in understanding myriad facts about thenational’s environment. The ‘‘great’’ case officer never stops askingquestions of his agent candidate, for reasons of both assessment, that is,would the candidate accept a recruitment approach, and of gainingknowledge of the candidate’s access and interests.As noted, some ‘‘great’’ case officers are primarily recruiters. Other

‘‘great’’ case officers are only handlers. A handler is normally someoneintimately familiar with the subject matter to which the agent has access,possibly through his personal background or more likely throughindividual study. The ‘‘great’’ handler keeps up on requirements forintelligence, and makes certain to be prepared to ask the right questionsand give the right guidance to the agent. In the CIA, this ‘‘great’’ caseofficer type works closely with collection management officers who servein the Agency as enablers and conduits for intelligence reporting.1 The‘‘great’’ handler also manages the case in such a way as to not onlyproduce the maximum of high value intelligence but also to doeverything possible to ensure the agent’s security. This handler oftenbecomes the agent’s ‘‘father confessor,’’ above all listening. Finally, the‘‘great’’ handler will stop everything also in order to write up a timelyand readable draft of the intelligence suitable for dissemination to thegovernment.

EXERCISING SELECTIVITY AND PATIENCE

Agent recruitment is a tedious process with a low rate of success and a highrate of return. Of every ten agents recruited, eight will fall by the waysidebecause they lose their access or they tire of the commitment, one will be aproblem—mainly of security—and one will work as a productive agent,perhaps for decades. The recruitment cycle has more than its share ofdisappointments. Case officers might work on a case for years and bedisappointed when the targeted individual is recalled to his or her homecountry. An agent candidate may accept a recruitment approach, but aftera short time decide not to cooperate. Or, after much work, an agentcandidate may simply say ‘‘no’’ to the recruitment approach. The agentcandidate might breach security by telling friends and family of his ‘‘secretrelationship’’ with another security service. Almost worst of all, pangs ofconscience might lead the agent to inform the government of hiscooperation with a foreign intelligence service. Even worse occurs when theagent is actually directed against the case officer’s intelligence organizationby another intelligence organization to gather information or passfabricated information.


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All these situations and more take place. Yet, the ‘‘great’’ case officer getsup the next day and goes about the business of recruiting sources. When caseofficers stumble in the sense of a compromise, a sort of perverse pleasureoften occurs among organization members who are not case officers. Manycase officers will not recruit after one or two tours of duty because of thebattering they take from critics and second guessers. But the ‘‘great’’ onescontinue to take the risks inherent in human intelligence operations. The‘‘great’’ case officer basks in the rush of adrenalin that happens whenevera recruitment effort is successful. A case officer is actually selling a greatproduct—counterintuitively, spies are rarely caught—of clandestinecooperation. A successful agent recruitment trumps any accomplishmentby a product salesman, with the possible exception of the victory of apolitical leader. Being willing to continue in this fascinating work is amatter of disposition, often a sunny disposition.

COMMON CHARACTERISTICS

Some areas of a case officer’s personality are too opaque. While required toobey the laws of his or her own government, a case officer is given the rightto break the laws of another government for the purpose of collecting secretinformation. Does the case officer, for instance, derive pleasure in gettingaway with something, much as an adolescent would through a prank? Is therepresent in the case officer a secret desire to overcome the fear of breakinglaws, even if they are those of another country? Is there satisfaction in givingmoney or psychological support to an agent who has become a friend as wellas a source? Does the case officer have a need to control relationships and tohear from the agent feelings the agent would never express to another person?I have known and observed about thirty ‘‘great’’ case officers, including a

half-dozen foreign nationals. They are a diverse lot, yet have many commoncharacteristics. All are dedicated to their jobs. Surprisingly to outsiders, theystrongly tend to being insecure, needing some affirmation of theirpersonalities through recruitment or handling operations. They like foreignerswhile concurrently being patriotic to their own country. They are interestingpeople and are interested in others. They enjoy taking risks, and feel that norisk is so small that it is not worth taking. They want to see the shadows oflife more clearly. They exude energy and are delightful company. In sum,those qualities go a long way in making a ‘‘great’’ case officer.

REFERENCE1See Joseph W. Wippl and Donna D’Andrea, ‘‘The CMO in the CIA’s NationalC l ande s t i n e Se rv i c e , ’ ’ I n t e r na t i o na l J ou rna l o f I n t e l l i g e n c e andCounterIntelligence, Vol. 23, No. 3, Fall 2010, pp. 521–533.



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The Qualities That Make a Great Case Officer