ideology is the enemy of intelligence.

If you're an ideologue, your mind is made up.

You don't want to be confused with facts.

The MAGA movement, and its loyalty to President Trump,

could compromise the mission of the CIA.

So says Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tim Weiner,

author of the recent book The Mission, the CIA in the 21st century.

I'm Sasha Pfeiffer. In for Mary Louise Kelly.

This is Sources and Methods from NPR.

Ideology represents just one of the challenges Winer lays out in his history of the modern CIA.

Another is technology. Gone are the days when a fake passport and a cover story are all a spy needs to get by.

So what is an ambitious intelligence officer to do in this era of cameras everywhere, of retinas scanners of AI.

Before we get to the answer, a heads up that this is our only episode this week.

We're off for the Thanksgiving holiday and back with our regular Thursday episode on December 4th.

And now here's Tim Weiner with Mary Louise Kelly.

How much harder is it these days for a spy to spy?

It's a challenge unlike any in the history of espionage, which goes back to when Sun Tzu wrote the Art of War 26 centuries ago.

Yeah.

And Sun Tzu said, no, your enemy.

Well, the problem is your enemy knows you.

An example of the challenges facing the CIA.

Twelve years ago, Chinese spies and hackers broke into the federal office of personnel management

...