The CIA is usually known for being discreet since they're, well, spies, but that didn't seem to be the case recently when a flub in their commication techniques outed them to Iran and Hezbollah. Such as, using trackable cell phones. Haven't they ever seen a spy movie?
Here's what basically happened:
Over in Lebanon, a group of CIA agents communicated with each other through text messaging on their cell phones, mostly about places where they'd be meeting up and such. Their chosen spot was a Pizza Hut location in Beirut, so, naturally, their codeword was simply "PIZZA." Genius. Anyway, Hezbollah counter-intelligence caught them by using their "latest commercial software" to examine cell phone data in the area, and when they stumbled across the absolutely uncrackable codeword of choice, "PIZZA," they were able to infer that the meeting spot must be somewhere where, go figure, pizza was served. That led them to a Pizza Hut in the city and, in turn, the CIA agents themselves.
Then, in Iran, counter-intelligence officials over there were able to discover what Gawker referred to as a "secret internet communication method used by CIA-paid assets in Iran" which led them to dozens of CIA spies.
There's not really much info on what happened to the spies in Lebanon and Iran, but apparently the entire network of spies in Lebanon has been lost.
[Via Gawker]
