Many people’s understanding of the CIA comes from entertainment (Hollywood) and infotainment (social media, high-bias “news” television channels). For others, an occasional documentary (of varying credibility) or a solid news report (typically highlighting the odd operational failure) round out their knowledge of an organization that is — by necessity — secretive, closed to public inspection.
Few are the dogged curiosos who plumb the depths of books penned by former CIA officers, historians and investigative journalists. Map onto this menagerie the public’s generally thin understanding of the executive branch in general, and issues like congressional oversight in particular, (reflecting the quality of civics education today) and we get the disjointed, fuzzy picture of the Agency held by many Americans. (Orchid Isle residents with whom I have discussed the matter had a better understanding of menehune.)
Particularly vexing to many folks, and the stuff of Ivory Tower philosophical debates, is ethical considerations of CIA spying. You, too, may ask, “How can someone be ethical and engage in a lifestyle of lying, stealing and other acts normally considered dishonest?” Simple question, complex issue.
A full treatment exceeds the scope of this piece, but let’s look at some related Agency facts, highlight resources for further reading, and let you play judge. To be clear, I am mostly addressing classic gentleman-spy tradecraft — historically the bulk of the CIA’s operational work — not the more sensational areas of covert action or the White House initiated period of detentions and enhanced interrogations (topics for another day).
To start, you may be surprised to learn that people of faith abound in the CIA. Sure, there are purely cultural adherents, but I can vouch for the existence of a plenitude of officers whose religious upbringing and adulthood bind them with convictions. All Abrahamic branches have representation, with Mormons comprising a high percentage (missionary-derived international experience and language skills, valuing of education, and clean lifestyles advantage them among applicants).
In my time, it was not hard to find a Bible study tucked away in the basement at headquarters, smudged foreheads bobbed along the corridors on Ash Wednesday, and I ran into executive-level leaders at Washington, D.C., area church services more than once. My first exposure to Eastern Orthodoxy came from a fellow operations officer whose hobby was iconography. I worked alongside adherents of Judaism and was subordinate to, and supervisor of, several Muslims. (People forget Old Testament accounts of spies, which gave rise to the quip that espionage is the world’s second oldest profession and cast the craft squarely on God-believers’ side, at least on occasion.) Ethical officers embracing other religious traditions are also present (a neopagan who worshipped trees comes to mind), as are atheists with their own codes of morality. (I worked with few officers whose sense of ethics was … let’s say, “fluid,” another topic for yet another day.)
Secondly, you may find it strange that the CIA has rigid ethical codes and training for all officers. The Congressional Research Service in 2018 published an unclassified two-page overview of CIA ethics education, the breadth of which surprises many readers. (I recall one formal in-house course that shared the title of this article.) One revelation in the report that shocks many outsiders is the informal system through which conscientious objectors can opt out of assignments that cross their beliefs or convictions. The paper is easy to find online. Give it a read. (A window into ethics and intelligence work more broadly can be found at intelligence-ethics.blogspot.com.)
What about on a personal level? Well … my children only learned of my true profession after I left (and they did not believe me until their tour of CIA headquarters in my final week). On occasion, I worked in alias and disguise. Is such government-sanctioned lying — a protective measure for self, family, those we work with — unethical? I stole secrets for a living. Is such theft — for thwarting terrorist attacks, disrupting nuclear proliferation, catching moles in our intelligence community — ethically justifiable? Does the end justify the means or is this all kapu?
I’ll let you be the judge and, if you want to explore the issue more deeply, check out “Spying Through a Glass Darkly: The Ethics of Espionage and Counter-Intelligence” by Cecile Fabre (April 2023, Oxford University Press).
J.P. Atwell is a former senior CIA operations officer. His two-decade career began as an intelligence analyst and took him to every continent, save Antarctica. He now calls Hawaii Island home. He welcomes your comments at island.intelligencer@gmail.com.