Posing as journalists

The CIA has been using media workers for intelligence gathering and allowing agents to pose as journalists, according to a Council on Foreign Relations report, despite a 1977 directive virtually prohibiting such activity. The directive allows such activity only if the CIA's director specifically approves of it. The director has granted such approval once or twice since the early 1980s, according to former director Robert Gates.
The Central Intelligence Agency apparently is so good at keeping secrets that few people realized that for the past 19 years, agents have been allowed to pose as journalists and [...]