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"We were lazy and the CIA is now flying blind against Hezbollah," the former official said.Īt about the same time that Hezbollah was identifying the CIA network in Lebanon, Iranian intelligence agents discovered a secret internet communication method used by CIA-paid assets in Iran. One former senior intelligence official told ABC News that CIA officers ignored warnings that the operation could be compromised by using the same location for meetings with multiple assets. Hezbollah then began to "roll up" much of the CIA`s network against the terror group, the officials said. A current US official denied that CIA officers met their agents at Pizza Hut.įrom there, Hezbollah`s internal security arm identified at least a dozen informants, and the identities of several CIA case officers. Two former officials describe the location as a Beirut Pizza Hut. The CIA used the codeword "PIZZA" when discussing where to meet with the agents, according to US officials. Hezbollah then learned of the restaurant where multiple CIA officers were meeting with several agents, according to the four current and former officials briefed on the case. In Beirut, two Hezbollah double agents pretended to go to work for the CIA. "Collecting sensitive information on adversaries who are aggressively trying to uncover spies in their midst will always be fraught with risk," said the US official briefed on the spy ring bust.īut others inside the American intelligence community say sloppy "tradecraft" - the method of covert operations - by the CIA is also to blame for the disruption of the vital spy networks.

The US official, speaking for the record but without attribution, gave grudging credit to the efforts of Iran and Hezbollah to detect and expose US and Israeli espionage. Attacks on the US embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 killed more than 300 people, including almost 260 Americans. "Remember, this group was responsible for killing more Americans than any other terrorist group before 9/11," said a US official. Other current and former officials said the discovery of the two US spy rings occurred separately, but amounted to a setback of significant proportions in efforts to track the activities of the Iranian nuclear program and the intentions of Hezbollah against Israel.