The main mission of the CIA is to "change the world." It does not always work out: thanks to the work of Soviet and then Russian counterintelligence, CIA operations have repeatedly suffered a fiasco.
Francis Pooers
On May 1, 1960, Francis Powers, an American pilot and CIA agent, made his usual reconnaissance flight. Its purpose was to photograph industrial and military facilities on the territory of the Soviet Union, as well as record signals from radar stations. Nothing foreshadowed trouble. This was not Powers' first such flight, but Soviet border guards did not yawn on Labor Day. As many as 8 missiles were fired at Powers' plane, one of which shot down a Soviet plane launched to intercept an American spy. At an altitude of ten kilometers, Powers ejected and safely descended to the ground, where he was captured by vigilant local residents. Eisenhower, learning about the incident, said that the plane got lost during the execution of a meteorological mission, but Powers' special equipment,as the testimony given to them showed the absurdity of the statement of the US President. By a court decision, the American intelligence officer was sentenced to 10 years in prison, after 2 years Powers was exchanged for Rudolf Abel.
Ames case
The main CIA failure during the Cold War and the main success of the KGB was the recruitment of Aldrich Hazen Ames. The head of the CIA's counterintelligence department worked for the USSR and Russia for almost 10 years and passed on the most important data, thanks to which all the efforts of the CIA in recruiting and undercover work in the USSR passed without a trace. Ames would have continued to work for our intelligence, but in 1994 he was caught, found guilty of high treason. He is currently serving a life sentence. According to the official version, suspicions of Ames arose because of his imprudent large spending on personal goals, as well as the fact that he transmitted extensive information about the CIA agents in the USSR in large units, which caused their massive capture, exposing Ames. According to the unofficial - Ames passed the "mole".
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James Angleton
In the 1950s, the CIA tried to carry out active anti-communist propaganda in Eastern Europe and on the territory of the USSR. They practiced dropping agents into "enemy territory", distributing leaflets and other methods, but these actions did not bring serious results. Hundreds of CIA agents were sent on a "mission" to the territory of the USSR, but it was all in vain: our counterintelligence knew in advance about all the plans of the CIA. The fact was that Russian intelligence officers were integrated into training camps in Germany, and James Angleton, responsible for the security of secret operations at the CIA headquarters, coordinated their conduct with his best friend in British intelligence, Soviet spy Kim Philby. Philby received from Angleton the coordinates of the CIA landing zones, which seriously affected the success of American intelligence operations.
William Wolf Weisband
William Wolf Weisband, a Soviet intelligence agent, worked for the CIA as a translator, but in addition to his direct duties, he was also involved in undermining American control over the situation in the Far East. On the eve of the Korean War, Weisband single-handedly deprived the CIA of information about the impending military operations. It was the failure of the CIA, arranged by Weisband, that provoked the American authorities to create another special service, which today is called the National Security Agency.
The Fogle case
The almost anecdotal story of the capture of CIA agent Rain Foghl, which occurred this year, stirred up the information background. Fogle worked undercover as the third secretary of the political section of the US Embassy in Moscow, headed by Michael Klechevsky. The Political Section of the US Embassy collected information on defense, foreign policy, and security issues in Russia. After Fogl was exposed (in which a "spy kit" was discovered), he was declared persona non grata and hastily sent to the United States.
Atomic failure
On September 20, 1949, CIA analysts made a prediction that "it is possible that the USSR will create its atomic bomb in the mid-50s, the most likely date is mid-1953." In fact, CIA specialists made their conclusion 22 days after the USSR conducted the first nuclear tests. This statement was all the more surprising against the background of the fact that an American Air Force plane, flying from Alaska, found traces of radioactivity. The American intelligence department was unable to add two and two and "woke up" only later, realizing that it simply "blinked" the Soviet atomic bomb.
Snowden
And, of course, a serious blow to the reputation of the "omnipotent" CIA was dealt by the behavior of Snowden, who ultimately remained in Russia. The confrontation between the special services of Russia and the United States continues.
