Koodakh

U.S. intelligence agencies were largely caught off guard by the Russian invasion. The occupying forces limited their use of radios and cell phones and went mostly undetected by the United States’ surveillance networks, current and former officials said, an indication of the Russians’ technological savvy. “It looks like the Russians learned from Osama bin Laden and used couriers,” Joel Harding, a former military intelligence officer who worked for the Army’s intelligence command and has experience in surveillance operations, said in a recent interview. “They held access to those with a need to know and exercised strict discipline in communications security. That is the best professionalism I’ve seen from them ever.”