Former CIA investigator reveals that 'restaurant' is an important key for spy intelligence
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Looking at movies with spies, there are scenes where high-class restaurants and cafes are used as places where spies meet up with information providers. These scenes seem to be somewhat in line with the reality of spies, and former investigators of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) , an American intelligence agency, say that `` restaurants '' play an important role in spying activities I am revealing.
Ex-CIA Officer Reveals How Eateries Are Key To Spycraft: The Salt: NPR
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/10/16/770368584/eat-drink-and-be-wary-ex-cia-officer-reveals-how-eateries-are-key-to- spycraft
Former CIA operative Amaryllis Fox was a CIA operative who had infiltrated terrorist organizations in 16 countries around the world. Fox, who published a memoir called “ Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA ” in 2019, says, “Restaurants and cafes are the lifeline of espionage in many ways.”
“The restaurant offers the opportunity to meet the people we are looking for, such as government officials and members of terrorist organizations. This may help us predict or prevent the next terrorist attack. Sometimes we find a target by chance, 'says Fox.
In 2005, Lindsay Moran , a former CIA operative who published a memoir called “ Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy, ” said, 'I will meet with the target using meals and drinks.' 'Since it is desirable that the target cannot be found by the target acquaintance, we will bring the target to a restaurant away from the work place. I ’ll prepare the best seating location for the secret conversation in the restaurant in advance. ” Also, if there is a back door, it is better as a meeting place.
Fox says that restaurants with multiple entrances and booths and seats that cannot be seen by others are positively evaluated as candidates for restaurants to use for the visit. Furthermore, although it is basic, it is necessary to consider the opening hours of the store and the police patrol.
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Both Fox and Moran were hired as CIA operatives and then sent to a secret training facility called ' the Farm ' in Virginia. On the farm, how to turn a car upside down or break it, how to handle a handgun, how to lower a parachute, how to operate a high speed boat, how to resist torture, how to treat wounds pierced with a knife with shopping bags and duct tape, The method was lectured. And it seems that the training on such farms also included a “method of scouting restaurants”.
In fact, Mr. Fox has experienced the importance of restaurants in intelligence activities before working for the CIA. Mr. Fox went to Myanmar from the age of 18 and had been conducting activities such as interviewing Aung San Suu Kyi, who had been developing a democratization movement. At that time, it seems that he tried to contact a local dissident journalist, but the journalist said that `` The safest way to contact me is to leave a message in the toilet tank of a cafe in Yangon '' thing.
As told, Fox headed to the cafe and looked for the toilet tank, and found a folded letter. The letter says 'Please order French fries' and Fox says that when you actually ordered French fries at the cafe, the waiter who brought the potatoes was a journalist collaborator.
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For spies, restaurants are not only the best place to exchange information, but they also give them the opportunity to observe their partner's habits, personality, and calmness while eating. On the other hand, this is not just a privilege for the spy, but also provides an opportunity for the interviewee to check whether the contacted agent is trustworthy.
Mr. Fox said he had an opportunity to meet at a pub with a professor who wanted to be a member of Myanmar to promote democratization. Mr. Fox said about his activities and goals, but the professor just told me `` I can not believe the story of your adventure drama '' `` Thank you for the drink '' I failed.
Some spy novels engage violently with enemies or make flashy turns, but according to Fox, most of the espionage is sober and spend time with a coffee at the café with the meeting partner. It is necessary to spend an infinite time. On the other hand, it seems that there were a lot of actual activities to use different names for each strategy, and it was necessary to pay attention to whether the combination of strategy contents and name changes matched.
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There are many scenes where you meet an important person in a restaurant where spy seems to be high in movies etc., and many people may associate with wine cooking with French cuisine, but not necessarily in all cases Not true. “I sometimes eat elegant dinners with US government funding, but sometimes I'm in a dirty store with an unpleasant partner,” Fox pointed out.
In addition, Mr. Moran seems to have made some misunderstandings by designating the restaurant as a meeting place with the target. Mr. Moran, who met at a place away from the man's workplace and address to meet with an Albanian man who seems to have useful information, said from a man, `` This person wants to have a romantic relationship with himself '' He stated that he had a hard time thinking. Even after telling clearly that “I don't want to be in a romantic relationship,” he seems to have behaved like a date every time he met Mr. Moran. The man was married.
by bruce mars
It is also important to meet with the person you want to meet with, but it is also important to get in touch with the information provider when you want it and meet at the designated location. Some operatives prefer to leave a mark at a specified location, but a CIA instructor has devised a way to use a Starbucks gift card as a contact tool.
In this method, the operative first distributes a gift card to the information provider and instructs 'Please buy coffee with this card when you have a request to meet'. The agent checks the balance of the gift card regularly, and if the balance of the card given to a specific information provider has decreased, the person knows that the person wants to meet, so they meet at a pre-designated place I can. Gift cards are a relatively safe way to contact because they are not tied to an individual.
by Adrianna Calvo
Mr. Fox and Mr. Moran have already retired from the CIA, but it seems that the traps of the CIA era will not be lost even if they return to the general public. Mr. Moran often said that children tend to choose the best seats for CIA operations when choosing seats for a restaurant, and “listen to other people's conversations and analyze body language. Or stop guessing about the relationship of the person you saw. '
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