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Inside the Starbucks at CIA HQ
- nandhp 12y agoIsn't Starbucks Store #1 at Pike Place in Seattle? That seems like it would be suspicious; wouldn't it be better to borrow the store number of the one inside the Safeway or something?
- jc123 12y agoSurprised Starbucks got more points than the CIA museum https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8370849 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8370849
- rustyconover 12y agoI wonder if it is cash only. Credit card transactions would also be revealing to interested parties. If there ever was a time for the "Company" to pick up the tab, this would be one just to prevent the data leak to the outside world.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- dsl 12y agoIt's not cash only, but the few credit card terminals I used had warnings next to them to the effect of "be sure of which card you are using." I discovered the easiest thing to do was use cash.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- omegaham 12y agoI imagine that a similar process happens for pretty much all mundane jobs in sensitive locations. Sure, people think about the process to recruit high-level personnel for CIA and NSA positions... but what about the janitors, truck drivers, plumbers, and warehouse personnel? I imagine that these people are paid pretty well for their positions, as they're not being paid for their skills; they're being paid for trustworthiness.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- chroma 12y agoInteresting article. The CIA sounds like a terrible place to work. No smartphones, definitely no BYOD, and you can't talk to coworkers about your projects. You don't even know if you have old friends who work at the same place. The benefits and pay are probably decent, but it seems like one could find a better job in the private sector. I guess the restrictions weed out a lot of people who aren't truly dedicated to the CIA's purpose.
- BugBrother 12y agoI believe it is painful in high security organizations, by definition. You can often e.g. only use tools which are vetted and stamped OK by a complex and expensive process -- so they are old. Imho, security is really interesting theoretically, but probably not to work with outside of the academic world.
- dsl 12y agoYou usually have to put in your years in the government, then move to a defense contractor. I wouldn't call it a terrible place to work. The work is pretty fulfilling, and worth giving up checking Facebook on your lunch break for.
- bane 12y agoThe tradeoff may be that you might get to work on some of the hardest problems known. At least harder than your average chat or photo sharing app.
- tzs 12y ago> The baristas go through rigorous interviews and background checks and need to be escorted by agency “minders” to leave their work area I would have expected the baristas to be actual CIA agents in training. Barista is a job available all over the world. Starbucks itself has locations in 65 countries, covering most of North and South America, most of Europe, and most of Asia. They also have pretty good coverage in the Mideast and Arab regions. Map here [1]. Being able to be planted in a coffee house as a barista and pull that off without suspicion would be a useful skill for an undercover agent trying to monitor what's going on in an area. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks#Locations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks#Locations
- brianbreslin 12y agoMaybe some of them are...?
- barkingcat 12y agoeven if they are junior agents, they wouldn't be written about in the washington post. And even if the writer suspected that, she wouldn't write that with her byline on the article.
- chrissnell 12y agoThis is pure conjecture but I've served in the military and know how these things work in the more security-sensitive areas of that organization: My guess is that they are contractors, placed there by whatever corporation handles the rest of their foodservice. They could be former military servicemembers (cooks, quartermaster, etc) who have clean enough records and credit to obtain the security clearance. I'd be willing to bet that they are the most highly-paid baristas in the country.
- CoachRufus87 12y agothey check your credit?
- bane 12y ago
- mindcrime 12y agoMeh... am I supposed to hate the CIA and the rest of the military-industrial-espionage complex any less because of a cheery article about their Starbucks store? If anything, I now think less of Starbucks as a company, for knowing that they agreed to such a setup. I mean, yeah, maybe I'm being overly sensitive and care too much about torture, detention camps, pervasive surveillance, blatant disregard of the Constitution, illegal experiments on unwitting victims, and the other myriad crimes committed by these assholes, but this article does nothing to give me the warm fuzzies.
- bane 12y agoI don't think the CIA wants to give you the warm fuzzies. After all, their sole occupation at the end of the day is basically to destabilize and overthrow governments.
- mindcrime 12y agoTrue, but in theory - to some extent - Congress has some oversight of the CIA and (again, in theory) the will of The People can influence the CIA's budget and authority, etc. All in all, I'd guess that CIA leadership would prefer people see them as benevolent guardians of peace and democracy as much as possible. But I could be wrong. Maybe they are effectively untouchable, know it, and don't give a flap what people like us think. shrug
- BugBrother 12y ago
- qewrffewqwfqew 12y agoNot a spook, but it bugs me also when I'm asked to give my name to identify an order. I have an unusual name that people find difficult to pronounce and spell. Meanwhile, there are five Matts behind me who have each ordered different things. All six of us have to keep visual attention on the service area so we can identify our stuff when it comes out, because I won't know whose name they're trying to call and latte-Matt has been assigned the same identifier as sandwich-Matt. It bugs me even more that stores adopt this as a mark of "friendliness". It's not friendly, it's presumptuous, rude and inconvenient. I'll happily chat to the staff and exchange names when it's quiet, but don't make them try and learn mine when they're flat out doing their job. Just give me a number, or call out what I ordered - both practices vendors have been following successfully for thousands of years.
- beachstartup 12y agoi'm sorry but it sounds like you're making things up. if your name is hard to spell or pronounce, why give them your real name? these kinds of social constructs are meant to be gamed, not taken at face value. i know people who give baffling names to baristas just for the fun of it. also, every starbucks i've ever been to say the name you give them, and the order description when they call out for pickup. MIKE DOUBLE ICED AMERICANO. JOHN SOY CAPPUCCINO. LINDSAY FRAPPUCCINO WITH CARAMEL.
- SyneRyder 12y agoAt the cafes in Australia they rarely call out the order description, only the name, repeatedly until someone collects their order. Which often tempts me to give my name as "Bueller"... I used to give an easier name to baristas (even though it turns out 75% of baristas can't spell "Colin" either), but once I signed up for a loyalty card it caused issues that my "Starbucks name" didn't match the one on my loyalty card, so I mostly use my real name now. Nowadays the baristas at my local have memorized my real name & my order, so it's no longer an issue.
- JacobAldridge 12y ago
- r0h1n 12y ago>>“But giving any name at all was making people — you know, the undercover agents — feel very uncomfortable. It just didn’t work for this location.” >> There are no frequent-customer award cards, because officials fear the data stored on the cards could be mined by marketers and fall into the wrong hands, outing secret agents. What? CIA agents don't like a real-name policy or their coffee consumption being mined by marketers? Who'da thought.
- thret 12y agoThis reminds me of the Seinfeld joke: Jerry: This isn't a good time. Telemarketer: When would be a good time to call back, sir? Jerry: I have an idea, why don't you give me your home number and I'll call you back later? Telemarketer: Umm, we're not allowed to do that. Jerry: Oh, I guess because you don't want strangers calling you at home. Telemarketer: Umm, no. Jerry: Well, now you know how I feel. [hangs up phone]
- hughdbrown 12y agoSo here's an idea: why doesn't Starbucks create and distribute the names? A sticker goes on the cup and the secret agent gets the corresponding name on a piece of paper. Like, they print paper with two parts: one part is the sticker that goes on the cup and the other goes to the customer. Or maybe do it inside-out: print the cups with some phrase on them and have paper that peels off with the same phrase to give to the customer. And do it across all the Starbucks stores. I'd like this: the number of times I have to explain "Hugh" [1] or get a cup that says Q or Hue or Hu is modestly annoying. [1] That conversation goes like this, at least in my imagination: Me: Like Hugh Grant or Hugh Laurie or Hugh Hefner or Hugh Jackman or Hugh Brown. Barista: Who is Hugh Brown? Me: I am Hugh Brown and you are making my coffee.
- waterlesscloud 12y ago"...[CIA employees]can’t fiddle with their smartphones during downtime. For security, they have to leave them in their cars." Pay no attention to the guy just outside the fence remotely rooting them all. Heh.
- thomasmarriott 12y agoan intelligence agency. that specializes in proxies. failing sutton's law. who would've guessed.. wait for it..'thanks, your ORDER NUMBER is #' ta-da!
- mkhpalm 12y agoSo the moral of the story is secret agents get uncomfortable when a barista asks to put their name on a cup? These people sound super easy to spot in a crowd.
- wtracy 12y agoWell, they get uncomfortable being asked for their name in a context where they are already known to be doing covert work for the CIA. If it was a normal Starbucks where nobody in the room knew about their day job, they probably wouldn't care.
- JacobAldridge 12y agoAt CIA Starbucks, not even the advertorial is called out by name.