Ex-CIA agent says US has lost its spy mojo

A former senior CIA officer has said that the loss of assets is not only a setback, but part of a disturbing pattern.

"When you lose your entire station, either in Tehran or Beirut, that's a catastrophe," said Robert (Bob) Baer, a legendary CIA agent whose Middle East exploits were fictionalised in the George Clooney film Syriana.

Baer said the disaster was due in part to a new generation of agents that has forgotten, or never learned, the traditional methods of intelligence gathering.

"They don't understand tradecraft, and we have lost our touch in espionage," the ABC News quoted Baer, as saying.

ABC News had earlier reported that more than a dozen spies working for the CIA in Iran and Lebanon have been caught and are feared dead.

One US official said the losses had occurred because espionage is inherently a "risky business" in which there are "occasional setbacks."

After a decade of war in Afghanistan and eight in Iraq, US counter-terrorism efforts have absorbed some of the habits and practices of the US military, which he thinks is an unsustainable way for a spy agency to do business, Baer said.

Technology, for example, has improved the agency's ability to find and eliminate targets, but at a cost.

"We're very good with drones. We've got, at the CIA, targeters that can find the enemy and get rid of them remotely. But all traditional espionage has gone away. And that does concern me because you need both. You just cannot live off drones forever," Baer said.

Baer, who speaks frequently with current CIA officers, also notes that simply serving in war zones has contributed to the atrophy, a sentiment echoed by several recently retired CIA officers.

"There is an entire generation of case officers who have only met with assets on a base, surrounded by security. It's not the same as meeting assets on a street, where you are responsible for your own security and surveillance," said one retired officer who still consults for the agency.