Why the CIA doesn't spy on the UAE

[TomSea]

Why the CIA doesn't spy on the UAE
Aram Roston

(Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates finances the military leader trying to topple a United Nations-recognized government in Libya. It helps lead a coalition of nations imposing an economic blockade of Qatar, despite U.S. calls to resolve the dispute. It hired former staffers of the U.S. National Security Agency as elite hackers to spy in a program that included Americans as surveillance targets, a Reuters investigation found this year.


FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates June 24, 2019. File photo. Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

And yet, in a highly unusual practice, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) does not spy on the UAE’s government, three former CIA officials familiar with the matter told Reuters, creating what some critics call a dangerous blind spot in U.S. intelligence.

The CIA’s posture isn’t new. What’s changed is the nature of the tiny but influential OPEC nation’s intervention across the Middle East and Africa - fighting wars, running covert operations and using its financial clout to reshape regional politics in ways that often run counter to U.S. interests, according to the sources and foreign policy experts.

Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-emirates-spying-insight/why-the-cia-doesnt-spy-on-the-uae-idUSKCN1VG0V3

Good article, the article goes on to say there is some disagreement over this in the CIA.