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Eat, Drink and Be Wary: Ex-CIA Officer Reveals How Eateries Are Key to Spycraft
- jwilk 7y agoText-only version: https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=770368584 https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=770368584
- cheschire 7y agoI wonder if they give a class in juggalo paint at the farm, and other means of bypassing facial recognition programs. The tenure of a field operative these days must be incredibly short
- Liquix 7y agoInteresting point. One could assume that having full access to both the intricacies of the system and the ability to purge/hide people from it would help domestically, but what about international spies? Juggalo paint to fool facial recognition in Texas is one thing, but may backfire in Shenzhen..
- hos234 7y agoThey just walk around in Batman getup. Why do you think the international wholesale market for cosplay is located there?
- smacktoward 7y agoThey've certainly gone to similar lengths in the past: see https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/meet-the-cias-disguise-artists-who-helped-cold-war-spies-disappear https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/meet-the-cias-disguise-art..., for instance.
- eunoia 7y agoThe former Chief of Disguise for the CIA did an AMA relatively recently. Pretty candid and fascinating stuff. For the curious: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/a32j7e/im_jonna_mendez_the_former_chief_of_disguise_for/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/a32j7e/im_jonna_mende...
- larrywright 7y agoHer videos for Wired are pretty fun as well. My family watched them together and found them fascinating. Shortly afterward, I was in DC with my family on vacation, and we went through the international spy museum (which is a lot of fun). When we got to the gift shop, we found out she’d been there not even an hour before signing copies of her book. I was bummed, to say the least.
- gorgoiler 7y agoHow resilient is facial recognition to good old fashioned spectacles with optionally attached plastic {nose, eyebrows, moustache}? https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51WNRdX9cxL._SX425_.jpg https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51WNRdX9cxL... There’s 2^3 + 1 disguises / operations right there for ya! 2^4 + 1 if you {,don’t} include a beard hung off your ears.
- rm_-rf_slash 7y agoFacial recognition countermeasures can be considered in some ways obsolete in an era of stance and gait recognition.
- ryanmercer 7y ago>and how to commit suicide. And that's when I'd come to my senses, realize all the sweet talk they lured me in with was rubbish, and hand in my 2 second resignation notice, if an employer is going to train me on how to end my own life I'm out.
- jacquesm 7y agoSome things are worse than suicide.
- ryanmercer 7y agoWhich is exactly why I'd quit.
- ootan 7y agoClearly not cut out for that line of work...
- TooCleverByHalf 7y agoOr maybe it's a clever ruse.. checkmate adversary
- authoritarian 7y agoIt's the US government, so you're far more likely to have to "suicide" someone else than kill yourself
- Scapeghost 7y agoheh you were downvoted for that. Apparently someone approves of * An employer training their employees to kill themselves. * A line of work where employees may have to kill themselves. * Dying for the US government (more like actually the interests of the elites) and the "greater good". How is that different from the indoctrination of suicide bombers? Before someone retorts with "because they kill innocent civilians", do you think the CIA etc never does that?
- mysterydip 7y agoThis is well known but often ignored for convenience. Go to any restaurant in the DC area around lunchtime and you'd be amazed at what you can learn from the table next to you.
- synack 7y agoWorks in SF too
- ryacko 7y agohttps://thefederalist.com/2018/11/07/incoming-democrat-chairman-dems-will-go-all-in-on-russia-impeach-kavanaugh-for-perjury/ https://thefederalist.com/2018/11/07/incoming-democrat-chair... Overheard on Amtrak in some cases (strange since Amtrak does offer roomettes).
- diabeetusman 7y agoNo roomettes on the Acela. The NYC -> DC route only takes like ~4 hours
- _delirium 7y agoHey don't undersell the one fast train in the USA: it's only ~3 hours! Plus there are now a handful of nonstop trips that take 2 hr, 35 mins [1]. [1] https://wamu.org/story/19/07/25/amtrak-launches-nonstop-acela-train-from-d-c-to-new-york-but-is-it-worth-it/ https://wamu.org/story/19/07/25/amtrak-launches-nonstop-acel...
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- Wohlf 7y agoThis is very much in the security training government and military have to take annually as well.
- saagarjha 7y ago
- deftnerd 7y agoI wonder what criteria is used to determine "the most operationally optimal seat in the restaurant". If it's a standard formula that most agents use because it's tried and true, then it could be viable to bug one or two tables in select restaurants in the DC area. Basically, cast a wide net and see what information you get. Same could apply at restaurants where business deals are discussed in order to perform insider trading, but unless they have a "movers and shakers" booth or room, it would be harder to pick the right table. Probably easier to pay waiters for intel.
- someguy101010 7y agopor que no los dos?
- kps 7y agoMoore's Law says you now bug every restaurant table in DC.
- beamatronic 7y agoCrowdsource. Pay people to run an app when they go around DC, that records constantly from their mic, and uploads it to the cloud along with their location. I’m sure someone has already thought of this!
- comicjk 7y agoI found this title subtly wrong, and it took me a little while to realize why: my accent doesn't have the Mary–marry–merry merger, so "Be Wary" and "Be Merry" don't rhyme for me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-language_vowel_changes_before_historic_/r/#Mary%E2%80%93marry%E2%80%93merry_merger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-language_vowel_changes...
- apendleton 7y agoAs someone who does have this merger, which one (of Mary/marry/merry) does "wary" most resemble for you?
- jamiek88 7y agoWary.
- junar 7y agoI think the answer is "Mary". https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Rhymes:English/%C9%9B%C9%99%C9%B9i https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Rhymes:English/%C9%9B%C9%99%C...
- hisnameisjimmy 7y agoMary and Merry are exactly the same as Wary to me.
- barry-cotter 7y agoMary
- stordoff 7y agoI read it as Eat, Drink, and Be Werry, and it took me a second of mild confusion to realise it was Wary, for much the same reason.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- goatinaboat 7y agoto "the Farm," a secret CIA facility in Virginia where their grueling training included all the obligatory skills of what Fox refers to as "the Bond business": how to flip or crash a car; how to use a Glock; how to parachute; how to use a speedboat; how to withstand torture; how to use a grocery bag and duct tape to bandage a punctured chest; and how to commit suicide This is over-egging the pudding a bit.
- chimi 7y agoYou'd think the "commit suicide" lesson would just be "perform any of the prior taught skills not well enough."
- tempsy 7y agoYou laugh, but this story from a few months ago is crazy https://nypost.com/2019/07/24/fbi-agent-brother-to-cop-accused-of-murder-for-hire-plot-dead-by-suicide-sources/ https://nypost.com/2019/07/24/fbi-agent-brother-to-cop-accus... Some redditors who were at the bar posted on how he was with agents that were bartenders
- themodelplumber 7y agoNice. I've seen enough action films to know I'd want to go out via explosive speedboat death, involving a prominent chrome throttle control and a makeshift ramp if possible.
- anigbrowl 7y agoDying isn't as easy as you think, and being incapacitated in a an already-bad situation is immeasurably worse.
- rasz 7y agonot your own suicide
- i_am_nomad 7y agoI’ve had a bit of interaction with the Farm. As a kid, my dad and I would sail past it (as close as you can get without being blared at). I’ve heard explosions coming from there, and seen people rappelling from helicopters into the woods. Later, I was a physics student at a university very close to Camp Perry. We were able to detect microwave transmissions on odd bands, at odd hours, that seemed to be directed from or to the camp. There was a helicopter that flew over campus towards “the Farm” every Saturday at midnight, for some reason. Perhaps most memorably, I had a very unpleasant interaction in town with someone who, I found out in the Washington Post a while later, was Aldrich Ames.
- zby 7y agoWarning: I tried to read it - but after half of it I found no content.
- unethical_ban 7y agoDid you have a technical issue with npr.org or are you stating your opinion that the article wasn't interesting?
- zby 7y agoIt was an opinion. I am now sorry for being snarky - but my opinion did not change - whole article about the surprising iformation that spies meet at restaurants.
- jessaustin 7y agoWow CIA agents are actually just swell folks who have all of our best interests at heart. I feel a lot better about all those third-nation torture dungeons now. Earlier this year NPR hired as CEO the guy who previously ran the USA organization for external propaganda. It's so surprising that NPR are even more committed to internal propaganda than they were before they hired him.
- themodelplumber 7y agoI found it pretty informational, IDK. As CIA propaganda goes I think I'd put more stock in Hollywood. Even the Bourne films featured Panera Land...err I mean Pamela Landy to soften the blow to our image from narcissists and alcoholic bureaucrats.
- agoodpr838 7y agoMad Men + CIA. I don’t watch much TV but I’d watch that.
- nominated1 7y agoFor those of us not in the loop. the guy = John Lansing USA organization for external propaganda = USAGM (U.S. Agency for Global Media).
- walrus01 7y agoI was unaware that the BBG had renamed itself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Agency_for_Global_Media https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Agency_for_Global_Media For those who don't know what it is, this is the parent agency of RFE, Voice of America, etc.
- unlinked_dll 7y agoI'm having trouble understanding how one can seriously consider NPR 'internal propaganda.' Their national broadcasts are like radically centrist and unbiased while the local/syndicated programs can be hard hitting and completely opposed to the government.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 7y agoI wonder how much of CIA spycraft has been made obsolete because of social media? In the past finding out who someone's family, friends, interests, political leanings, where they travel, and skills might involve sending a human to secretly follow them around. Now you can just see who their family and friends on Facebook are, look at their daugther's Instagram page to see where the family has traveled, see their comments on reddit to know their political leanings, and looked at LinkedIn to see what skills they have.
- blantonl 7y agoCIA agents are trained to be perfectly just like "one of us" leading apparently normal lives. There are most likely CIA agents among us here on Hacker News... functioning as technology executives, sales people, engineers, developers, etc
- Mirioron 7y ago>technology executives I've always wondered what the upper limit for this is. How high up on the social/wealth ladder do you have to go for there to essentially be no chance that the person is an intelligence officer?
- ImprovedSilence 7y agoValid. Why work for a gov pension when your stock bonus is 7+ figures a year.
- Der_Einzige 7y agoThe higher you go in the ladder the more likely you are to be talking to a spook
- velosol 7y agoGilman Louie says hi ;) .
- agota 7y agoI love this The Onion video that is a news report on the CIA's most successful project ever, Facebook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqggW08BWO0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqggW08BWO0
- walshemj 7y agoInteresting that one passed on SIS (the traditional tap on the shoulder by a don) I was surprised that the CIA will take dual nationals on as Officers.
- c3534l 7y agoWhen did "eatery" become an acceptable term for restaurant?
- rhapsodic 7y ago>When did "eatery" become an acceptable term for restaurant? I can't recall a time when it wasn't.
- OJFord 7y agoI don't know that I've ever used it, but there are plenty of places to eat that I wouldn't call a 'restaura t', and that's what I'd assume someone using it was referring to (a d possibly including restaurants in a context such as this). Cafés, 'diners', crêperies/breakfast places, anywhere in a shopping centre/'mall', that sort of thing.
- c3534l 7y agoWouldn't a cafe be a drinkery?
- nitwit005 7y agoShould one be surprised that the CIA have lunch meetings when recruiting people? Honestly, that part of things always seemed quite similar to a sales or marketing job. They also apparently do things like go to conferences, meet people, and collect business cards.
- oska 7y ago> invited her to a pub called the Fuggle & Firkin Fuggle is a classic English aroma hop, released in 1875 by Mr Richard Fuggle. [1] Firkin is an English brewery cask unit, specifically one fourth of a barrel or half a kilderkin. [2] There used to be a chain of Firkin pubs in the UK, all of which featured Firkin in the name, e.g. Fettler and Firkin, Goose and Firkin, etc. [3] [1] https://www.britishhops.org.uk/varieties/fuggle/ https://www.britishhops.org.uk/varieties/fuggle/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_brewery_cask_units#Firkin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_brewery_cask_units#Fir... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firkin_Brewery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firkin_Brewery
- microcolonel 7y agoThere are also Firkin pubs in Southern Ontario.
- charwalker 7y agofox and Firkin in my hometown closed but the brewery there now rocks sours.
- hawaiian 7y agoCalifornia in a lesser known town? I know of a Firkin & Fox.
- rasz 7y ago>Moran moved on from the spy world. Moran heads communications at the Environmental Investigation Agency. "EIA is a 501(c)(3) independent, international, non-profit advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.". 30 year old environmental non profit, totally not the perfect front organization for spy operations, right up there with jet chartering business (Aero Contractors, Pegasus Technologies, Tepper Aviation, etc).
- ncmncm 7y agoThe most essential skill of spycraft is extortion, not dining.