CIA gets insurance for their agents? That seems rather bizarre.
This seems to be specifically about liability insurance. If I'm for example a Chinese government employee working for the CIA, what kind of liability will this insurance cover?
This seems to be specifically about liability insurance. If I'm for example a Chinese government employee working for the CIA, what kind of liability will this insurance cover?
https://www.clements.com/personal/foreign-service-insurance/
The term "agent" in TFA's headline is causing confusion. The actual source quote says "intelligence personnel". The CIA has many types of employees involved in foreign operations including station staff, case officers, analysts, security, etc. Only a small subset of those are doing what we'd consider "spying" and most of those are "official cover" operatives. That means they publicly work at the U.S. Embassy but as part of the trade delegation or state department. There are very few "Non-official cover" operatives (NOCs), and many of those are contractors or military personnel on loan to the CIA not CIA employees. TFA doesn't say this firm's insurance would be related to NOCs.
In general, the vast majority of the work intelligence agencies do isn't even especially secret. Also, a lot of the information gathered is from sources who aren't CIA employees or even contractors, just business people or academics doing what they normally do and getting debriefed for half an hour on the phone about conversations they may have had or things they might have noticed.
Even the article body inexplicably continues to use those terms interchangeably.
A CIA agent is typically a foreign individual who has been recruited to provide information to the CIA. However, “asset” is probably the more commonly used term. They are not “intelligence personnel.”
A CIA Specialized Skills Officer would be someone that might get to engage in James Bond/Jason Bourne style antics.
It’s not a bad deal for either side. The CIA doesn’t have to pay if an agent does something naughty and the insurance company gets a standard income.
Just wait until you hear about employers taking out life insurance policies on their employees.
https://clark.com/insurance/has-your-employer-taken-out-life...
But CIA agents are kind of inherently doing something naughty, and the CIA doesn't have to pay either way.
Who would the insurer be paying? The Chinese government? I don't think a Chinese CIA agent would be facing any meaningful financial liability if caught.