Friday, December 26, 2008 2:17 PM By: Dave Eberhart
The CIA has developed a novel incentive to gain cooperation and support in Taliban-plagued Afghanistan - handing out libido-enhancing Viagra pills to targeted village patriarchs, according to a report in the Washington Post.
Whatever it takes to make friends and influence people - whether it’s building a school or handing out Viagra, said one agency operative with multiple tours in that war torn country.
Standard incentives - such as money, jewelry and cars - are too ostentatious, noted another operative to the Post.
If you give an asset $1,000, he’ll go out and buy the shiniest junk he can find, and it will be apparent that he has suddenly come into a lot of money from someone, said Jamie Smith, a veteran of CIA covert operations in Afghanistan. Even if he doesn’t get killed, he becomes ineffective as an informant because everyone knows where he got it.
The key, Smith said, is to find a way to meet the informant’s personal needs in a way that keeps him firmly on your side but leaves little or no visible trace. Newsmax.com
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