By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
The FBI is reportedly turning to Facebook in an apparent effort to recruit Russian spies or people who know them.
The bureau recently began running three Facebook ads in with Russian texts over images and illustrations in the Washington D.C. area, CNN first reported.
One of the ads reads, “For your future, for the future of your family,” over a photo of a young woman with her family at her graduation.
The link directs people to the FBI Washington D.C. Field Office’s website for its counter intelligence program and encouragers users to meet “in person.”
The FBI declined to provide specifics about the ads, but one special agent said Russian spies “are very active and pose a security risk.”
“We cannot comment except to note that Russia has a large number of intelligence officers based in Russian diplomatic facilities around the world. They are very active and pose a security risk to the US and our allies,” Alan E. Kohler Jr., special agent in charge of the Washington field office’s counterintelligence division told CNN on Tuesday.
“The FBI uses a variety of means to gather information, including the use of sources,” he said. “The FBI will use all legal means available to locate individuals with information that can help protect the United States from threats to our national security.”
“Russia has long been a counterintelligence threat to the US” and the FBI will “continue to adapt our investigative and outreach techniques to counter the threat,” he added.
