Qatar turns dogs on Russian spies in custody; U.S. seeks answers about post-Sovi

What would you do if a trusted ally has two top Russian intelligence officers in custody? Well, if you were the CIA, you would probably question them about the extent of Russia's intelligence network in the Middle East.

That's what the CIA is now doing in Qatar, where the emirate has been holding two Russian FSB officers accused of assassinating the former Chechnya President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. The CIA has tried to extract information from the officers on Moscow's spy network, particularly in the Persian Gulf region.

The CIA doesn't directly interrogate the Russians. Instead, the U.S. agency feeds questions via Qatari interrogators, who are showing the Americans novel ways of extracting information. These include using dogs to maul the Russian detainees.

Moscow's FSB knows very well about the U.S. involvement in the interrogation of its officers. As far as the FSB knows, the two detainees have been singing and have fingered Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov as having ordered the assassination. The officers were given three weeks to assassinate the former Chechen president.

The CIA has learned from the interrogations that Russia's Mideast spy network has deteriorated over the last decade. There are fewer officers and many of them are inexperienced. In addition, Russia's links to Palestinian and Arab terrorists, who have often conducted dirty operations in the Middle East, have been reduced.

Source: Geostrategy