Explained: Why America’s secret agency CIA doesn’t spy on UAE

United States' Central Intelligence Agency does not spy on the UAE’s government, three former CIA officials familiar with the matter told Reuters, creating what some critics call a dangerous blind spot in US intelligence.

The CIA’s failure to adapt to the UAE’s growing military and political ambitions amounts to a “dereliction of duty,” said a former CIA official.

The United Arab Emirates finances the military leader trying to topple a United Nations-recognized government in Libya. It helps lead a coalition of nations imposing an economic blockade of Qatar, despite US calls to resolve the dispute. It hired former staffers of the US National Security Agency as elite hackers to spy in a program that included Americans as surveillance targets, a Reuters investigation found this year.