Foreign adversaries are stepping up efforts to identify, contact, and exploit frustrated U.S. soldiers and veterans following the recent prolonged government shutdown, Army intelligence officials warn.
It's a surge driven by financial strain, job insecurity, and online expressions of dissatisfaction, Military Times reported Tuesday.
According to a Nov. 13 message from Lt. Gen. Anthony Hale, the Army's top intelligence officer, foreign agents are posing online as recruiters, think tank analysts, consulting firms, and other seemingly legitimate professional networks in an effort to make inroads with service members who may be anxious about their pay or their jobs.
The 43-day shutdown left approximately 750,000 federal employees furloughed without pay and created paycheck uncertainty and work delays for active-duty troops.
Hale told the force that adversaries viewed the turmoil as an opportunity to prey on "individuals seeking new employment opportunities, expressing dissatisfaction, or describing financial insecurity."
Hale warned that foreign intelligence officers are offering soldiers and veterans "jobs" or "easy money" in exchange for white papers or insights into military operations, with the goal of extracting sensitive national security information.
These schemes, he said, are tailored to appear routine and harmless — but are designed "to collect sensitive information for the benefit of their country at the cost of our own."
Adam Lowe, spokesman for Army Counterintelligence Command, confirmed to Military Times that the service has seen "a massive uptick" in these attempted recruitment and exploitation efforts. This is Hale's second all-Army warning this year; his first was issued in May.
"This latest one came at the very end of the shutdown when soldiers and Army civilians — many with access to TS/SCI [top secret/sensitive compartmented information]— were put in precarious financial situations," Lowe said.
He added that increasingly toxic online political discourse has made it easier for foreign intelligence services to spot troops publicly airing grievances and target them accordingly.
Lowe said operational security limited the amount of detail the Army could share, but disclosed that Counterintelligence Command has recorded 25 arrests and more than 650 national security investigations since its activation four years ago — "significant increases," he noted.
Seven soldiers have already been publicly charged this year with offenses ranging from espionage to sharing sensitive information with foreign agents.
Hale urged troops to remain vigilant.
"If the offer seems flattering, urgent, exclusive, or too good to be true," he wrote, "it probably is."
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