Originally Posted by FliesWay2Much

As I know you're aware, virtually all famous American spies did what they did for greed and not ideology (even Jonathan Pollard). There have been just a couple of exceptions (Ana Montes being one) who sold out their country for ideological reasons. Given the hundreds of clerks (out of who-knows-how-many who have not been caught) who have been arrested for simple theft (greed) and the senior clerk in Buffalo who was arrested for helping druggies circumvent checkpoints (greed), many of them in a similar financial situation (heavy debt, living above their means, keeping a mistress on the side, etc) would be easy targets for a foreign intelligence service.

Pitching takes a lot of time and tradecraft. I'm not sure the type of tradecraft geared towards exploiting greed is in AQ's skill set. Certainly, they have cornered the market on pitching on ideology grounds. Paying a screening clerk a few thousand dollars to get someone in the back door of an airport is child's play when the target has bills to pay or a lifestyle to maintain.