CIA Man Came Under Suspicion for Stealing Documents Years Ago
Former CIA senior ops official Dale Bendler confessed only to violation of Foreign Agents Registration Act in plea deal with Justice Department.
A former senior CIA officer who pleaded guilty Wednesday to working illegally as an agent for unidentified foreign clients came under suspicion years earlier as a security risk, reliable sources tell SpyTalk.
Dale Britt Bendler, 68, of Miami, Fla., was suspended with pay during a European assignment between 2016 and 2019, a one time senior CIA colleague said on condition of anonymity to discuss such a sensitive issue.
“We were concerned about him years ago……he did not have the greatest reputation, ever,” this person said. “At one point he was put on leave with pay, because we didn't want him to have accesses (to classified files). And now they're just finally getting around to putting him in jail, which is good.”
The former official hinted that the CIA got onto Bendler after classified material he had access to started showing up in the hands of an allied foreign government the agency was monitoring.
This former official and others speculated that the involvement of an ally in the case—and not Russia or China—was the reason the Justice Department did not identify the government in its Wednesday plea deal announcement. One of the former officials said the FBI was brought into the case, which was eventually turned over to the DoJ for prosecution on far more serious espionage charges, but the department declined.
“What happens often is we give it to Justice Department, they're like, we don't have enough evidence. We're like, are you kidding me? We've given you all of this,” the former official said. “So my bet is they did some kind of sting against him, and they finally got the evidence and now they're doing something about it.”
Neither the announcement nor news reports listed an attorney for Bendler, nor could one be immediately found for comment. As a matter of practice, the CIA does not comment on personnel matters, especially those involving former undercover officers.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Bendler worked for the CIA from 1983 to 2020. Intelligence sources said he started out in Latin America and then shifted to counterterrorism after the 9/11 attacks, which took him to Africa and Europe. He was introduced on a 2024 podcast as a CIA paramilitary officer in El Salvador and Angola who “did foreign intel assignments in Europe casing hard targets” and “worked the EIT [Enhanced Interrogation Techniques] program at black sites, and more.” Sometime along the way he also took up the cause of anti-Castro Cuban exiles, particularly veterans of the the disastrous 1961 CIA-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs.
In recent years he’s been an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump, according to his LinkedIn posts. One former top CIA officer said he broke contact with Bendler on LinkedIn because of that. Another former colleague called him “a big talker” who is now “on YouTube pontificating on macho topics.” Yet another called him “not the smartest guy. I dealt with him a couple of times but never served with him. Very Trumpy.”
In 2005-2006, however, Bendler was liked or trusted enough to be appointed CIA chief of station in Brussels, a former colleague recalls.
Following his retirement, according to the DoJ, he worked as a full-time CIA contractor at the CIA with a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) security clearance. According to his LinkedIn page, he also worked as a contracted instructor with U.S. Army Special Forces between 2014 2020.
“Beginning in July 2017 and continuing through at least July 2020, while a full-time CIA contractor and TS/SCI clearance holder, Bendler worked with a U.S. lobbying firm and engaged in unauthorized and hidden lobbying and public relations activities on behalf of foreign national clients,” the DoJ said.
And worse, according to the DoJ announcement.
“During the course of Bendler’s unauthorized lobbying and public relations activities, Bendler also abused his access to CIA resources and personnel by, among other things, searching classified CIA systems for any information related to his private lobbying clients, improperly storing and disclosing non-public, sensitive, and classified U.S. government information to people not authorized to receive such information, and lying to the CIA and the FBI about his status as a foreign agent and his unauthorized lobbying and public relations activities.”
Bendler faces up to seven years in prison when he’s sentenced July 16.
7 years doesn't seem to me enough time for a traitor like this.
Throw away the key