China, Iran hire private detectives to monitor dissidents in the US, FBI says

Authoritarian governments like China and Iran are turning to private investigators to track and surveil dissidents living in the U.S. to avoid sending their own agents.

One such investigator, Michael McKeever, was hired for a seemingly routine job of surveilling a debtor who owed money in Dubai. In reality, the target was journalist Masih Alinejad, an Iranian woman who has severely criticized the dictatorial regime in her native country.

FBI agents were also surveilling her as part of an investigation into an Iranian plot to kidnap the woman, according to the Times.