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Eat, Drink and Be Wary: Ex-CIA Officer Reveals How Eateries Are Key to Spycraft

219 points| lnguyen | 6 years ago |npr.org | reply

148 comments

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[+] mysterydip|6 years ago|reply
This 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.
[+] opportune|6 years ago|reply
Also true for the Caltrain, coffee shops, and nicer restaurants between SF and SJ. And SFO, SJC, and SEA airports; I think I hear some salesman loudly talking about a deal almost every time I fly out of those places on weekdays.
[+] openasocket|6 years ago|reply
My fiance worked for a movie theater in the DC area for a while. Once she found, left on the floor, a packet for an Afghanistan diplomat program put on by the US State department. Big itinerary with lots of names, dates, contact information, not just for the various stops and talks but for the people selected for the program. Nothing classified or obviously sensitive, but I'm sure someone with the interest could run through those contacts and come to a lot of conclusions about the US's foreign policy goals in the region. Or to follow these up-and-coming Afghanistan diplomats around on their trip to the US and maybe grab some blackmail.
[+] electricslpnsld|6 years ago|reply
Back in my Portland days I got the DL on some of Nike’s soon to be announced Jordan’s when an obviously high ranking Nike designer popped open his MacBook and proceeded to have a design review at a local coffee shop! Maybe not the most actionable information but kind of fun to see.
[+] cafard|6 years ago|reply
Years ago--as you would judge by the names--we were walking along 14th or 15th NW and my wife overheard the following snippet:

woman a: .... Anyway, that's what Bill said. woman b: But what did Hillary say?

A co-worker to whom I mentioned this suggested that perhaps the business improvement district hired actors to walk about and hold such conversations.

[+] a11yguy|6 years ago|reply
A friend works in the city of London, he told me taxi drivers always have details about business deals that aren't yet public for the very same reason.
[+] Wohlf|6 years ago|reply
This is very much in the security training government and military have to take annually as well.
[+] tempsy|6 years ago|reply
Airport lounges for sure
[+] bitlax|6 years ago|reply
Except Founding Farmers.
[+] deftnerd|6 years ago|reply
I 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.

[+] pjmorris|6 years ago|reply
My wife likes to sit in what she calls 'the Mafia seat', the seat in a restaurant that is best-protected by walls, etc, from behind, and that gives the best view of the rest of the room, so you can see what or who is coming.

She's not in the mafia or allied professions, AFAIK, but I'd wager that similar metrics are used by the professionals.

[+] kps|6 years ago|reply
Moore's Law says you now bug every restaurant table in DC.
[+] ben_jones|6 years ago|reply
I'd imagine the priority might be:

1) Microphone all possible tables and have them record/signal when key words are overheard

2) Befriend/seduce/bribe wait staff and train them to roam around in optimal patterns to catch conversation

3) Some kind of subtle hearing amplification/focusing device

4) Record all conversations using a device on your person and process them later

[+] oska|6 years ago|reply
> 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/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_brewery_cask_units#Fir...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firkin_Brewery

[+] ryanmercer|6 years ago|reply
>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.

[+] RcouF1uZ4gsC|6 years ago|reply
I 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.

[+] cheschire|6 years ago|reply
I 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
[+] rm_-rf_slash|6 years ago|reply
Facial recognition countermeasures can be considered in some ways obsolete in an era of stance and gait recognition.
[+] Liquix|6 years ago|reply
Interesting 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..
[+] goatinaboat|6 years ago|reply
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.

[+] i_am_nomad|6 years ago|reply
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.

[+] selectodude|6 years ago|reply
Ed Snowden has a bit in his book about his time at the Farm. It sounded insane, and in line with that.
[+] chimi|6 years ago|reply
You'd think the "commit suicide" lesson would just be "perform any of the prior taught skills not well enough."
[+] WalterBright|6 years ago|reply
> 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.

[+] nitwit005|6 years ago|reply
Should 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.

[+] zby|6 years ago|reply
Warning: I tried to read it - but after half of it I found no content.
[+] rasz|6 years ago|reply
>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).

[+] walshemj|6 years ago|reply
Interesting 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.

[+] seppin|6 years ago|reply
> I was surprised that the CIA will take dual nationals on as Officers.

You keep your citizenship but cannot carry two passports.

[+] ncmncm|6 years ago|reply
The most essential skill of spycraft is extortion, not dining.
[+] c3534l|6 years ago|reply
When did "eatery" become an acceptable term for restaurant?
[+] jessaustin|6 years ago|reply

[deleted]

[+] unlinked_dll|6 years ago|reply
I'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.
[+] nominated1|6 years ago|reply
For those of us not in the loop.

the guy = John Lansing

USA organization for external propaganda = USAGM (U.S. Agency for Global Media).

[+] themodelplumber|6 years ago|reply
I 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.