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to "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":

to "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 ago
You'd think the "commit suicide" lesson would just be "perform any of the prior taught skills not well enough."
- tempsy 7y ago
  You 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 ago
  Nice. 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 ago
  Dying isn't as easy as you think, and being incapacitated in a an already-bad situation is immeasurably worse.
- rasz 7y ago
  not your own suicide
i_am_nomad 7y ago
I’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.
- e40 7y ago
  Please tell us more about that interaction!
- walrus01 7y ago
  Unless you really know what you're doing and have a good spectrum analyzer and set of horn antennas, you're going to detect 6, 11, 18 and 23 GHz band microwave in the general area of Camp Peary from totally ordinary telecom and cellular backhaul purposes. Stuff like 1' and 2' size dishes on Verizon and TMobile monopoles, rooftop sites and towers forming point to point 18 GHz band, single or dual linear polarity, 40, 60 and 80 MHz wide links to other poles. A cursory search shows that there's a plethora of ordinary FCC part 101 licensed microwave stuff in that area, to the point that coordinating a new point to point link would require some additional engineering work. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Peary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Peary
- scott_s 7y ago
  I read the memoir of a CIA case officer ("See No Evil" by Bob Baer) while at that same university. It was surreal to think the place he trained was where I would end up if I turned right instead of left when getting off the highway.
selectodude 7y ago
Ed Snowden has a bit in his book about his time at the Farm. It sounded insane, and in line with that.
- goatinaboat 7y ago
  That’s what I was thinking of. He wasn’t parachuting into a speedboat with a Glock between his teeth, he was mostly sitting in classes in his book. And living in a death trap hotel when the stairs collapsed. Eating Froot Loops with sour milk for breakfast was as arduous as it got.
WalterBright 7y ago
> how to flip or crash a car Build a ramp and hide it behind a fruit cart, like they do in every movie car chase ever.

chimi 7y ago

You'd think the "commit suicide" lesson would just be "perform any of the prior taught skills not well enough."

tempsy 7y ago
You 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 ago
Nice. 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 ago
Dying isn't as easy as you think, and being incapacitated in a an already-bad situation is immeasurably worse.
rasz 7y ago
not your own suicide

i_am_nomad 7y ago

I’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.

e40 7y ago
Please tell us more about that interaction!
walrus01 7y ago
Unless you really know what you're doing and have a good spectrum analyzer and set of horn antennas, you're going to detect 6, 11, 18 and 23 GHz band microwave in the general area of Camp Peary from totally ordinary telecom and cellular backhaul purposes. Stuff like 1' and 2' size dishes on Verizon and TMobile monopoles, rooftop sites and towers forming point to point 18 GHz band, single or dual linear polarity, 40, 60 and 80 MHz wide links to other poles. A cursory search shows that there's a plethora of ordinary FCC part 101 licensed microwave stuff in that area, to the point that coordinating a new point to point link would require some additional engineering work. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Peary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Peary
scott_s 7y ago
I read the memoir of a CIA case officer ("See No Evil" by Bob Baer) while at that same university. It was surreal to think the place he trained was where I would end up if I turned right instead of left when getting off the highway.

selectodude 7y ago

Ed Snowden has a bit in his book about his time at the Farm. It sounded insane, and in line with that.

goatinaboat 7y ago
That’s what I was thinking of. He wasn’t parachuting into a speedboat with a Glock between his teeth, he was mostly sitting in classes in his book. And living in a death trap hotel when the stairs collapsed. Eating Froot Loops with sour milk for breakfast was as arduous as it got.

WalterBright 7y ago

> how to flip or crash a car Build a ramp and hide it behind a fruit cart, like they do in every movie car chase ever.