Current Events > is being a CIA spy agent really like in the movies? What's the reality?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Started binging seasons of "Chuck" and made me wonder what spy life is really like in the real world? Are these guys really doing the work out of novelty or is the pay really worth it? Thoughts anyone?

i think wired or something made a video like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUqeBMP8nEg

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https://www.npr.org/2019/12/08/781640364/can-a-computer-catch-a-spy

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https://viruscomix.com/page529.html

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Destabilizing countries and installing dictators who are friendly to the US.

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i assume a majority of the work is sitting at a desk and looking through databases

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Guerrilla Soldier posted...

i assume a majority of the work is sitting at a desk and looking through databases

Yeah that's what I thought too.

Making lists of brown people in foreign countries to kill, overthrowing democracy, poisoning US citizens, etc

Anything about 'my life as a CIA agent' slice of life shit or whatever is just marketing and PR. A prerequisite of working for the CIA is that you are a psychopath

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there's a few cia "agents" posting pro american propaganda on ce


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ModLogic posted...

there's a few cia "agents" posting pro american propaganda on ce

I love chuck

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The answer to "Is X like in the movies?" is pretty much always no
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Lonestar2000 posted...

Destabilizing countries and installing dictators who are friendly to the US.

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Argo's based on one of my favorite real-life espionage stories. They dramatized it a little bit, of course (in real life there were no police cruisers chasing the airplane down the runway at the last minute, for instance), but iirc it was otherwise pretty faithful.

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Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor I think I heard that phrase in in Hellsing

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Topaz seems kind of strait.

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insomniacRA posted...

Started binging seasons of "Chuck" and made me wonder what spy life is really like in the real world? Are these guys really doing the work out of novelty or is the pay really worth it? Thoughts anyone?

IRL people with the job description "James Bond" exist but they generally do not get into firefights or seduce the enemy or perform any elaborate B&E. They're responsible for gathering data from informants, validating the data is accurate, managing contacts, getting new contacts, and burning bridges if a contact is compromised.

They also get training on how to avoid law enforcement in the local countries of wherever they're stationed just in case.

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Here's my absolute top tier favorite spy story about a dude who played the Nazis so fucking hard he won an Iron Cross which is like the Nazi Congressional Medal of Honor & required Hitler's personal approval and the Member of the Order of The British Empire which is the British equivalent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Pujol_Garc%C3%ADa

Edit: it is very likely the landing at Normandy would have failed if not for him.

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You should watch a show like SEAL Team or even Jack Ryan to get a better idea of how CIA operatives work in the field. It's a lot like what @Tyranthraxus described. They don't get cool gadgets and have to fight their way out of impregnable fortresses with cool ninja skills.

lolife67 posted...

You should watch a show like SEAL Team or even Jack Ryan to get a better idea of how CIA operatives work in the field. It's a lot like what @Tyranthraxus described. They don't get cool gadgets and have to fight their way out of impregnable fortresses with cool ninja skills.

They didn't or don't get high tech gadgets.

One gadget that was used was a coin that can be opened where you could hide a message on a small piece of paper.

That aside I read where the Russians classified a Swiss Army knife as a CIA tool from when they had the U2 pilot.


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I went to the spy museum in DC and they made it seem like it was a lot of work and was boring most of the time and the risk was huge. But there were a lot of neat little gadgets with cameras in them during the cold war.

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There were actually some pretty cool gadgets at the Spy Museum in D.C., and you should definitely check it out if you get a chance. Two floors of non-stop awesomeness. Some of the stories they tell are really harrowing.

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PrettyBoyFloyd posted...

They didn't or don't get high tech gadgets.

Yes, I should have been clearer in my word choice.

As far as movie gadgets go.

Note how Q occasionally gets on Bond's case for losing things.

Like imagine finding a Omega watch and be like "cool" and not knowing it could blow the whole room up.

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ModLogic posted...

there's a few foreign "agents" posting anti american propaganda ITT

Ftfy

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I have a great aunt who is super secretive about what her job/profession was. whenever people ask her about it she says she did cartography / surveying sorts of stuff and then just very quickly changes the subject, but she doesn't really have any tools or odds and ends that I'd associate with someone who'd worked at that for decades and then retired. she never tells any work related stories or really talks about her past in general. she's lived alone basically since she was grown up and is really rich with this super fancy house that's way too big for just one person

basically my entire family is at least 50% suspicious that she actually worked for some secret government agency

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It's a lot slower now that they don't spend half the day concocting failed Castro assassination plots.

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tremain07 posted...

Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor I think I heard that phrase in in Hellsing

"Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor. My bullet punishes all... without distinction!"

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If the CIA is even half as capable as people meme them, then what their day-to-day operations are like is probably radically different from what most people assume because they would be fully capable of projecting a false impression on to the US population just as well as they could any other country.

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They started the crack epidemic and have ruined a countless # of lives

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in Jack Ryan he works a desk job when he's not on missions

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kirbymuncher posted...

I have a great aunt who is super secretive about what her job/profession was. whenever people ask her about it she says she did cartography / surveying sorts of stuff and then just very quickly changes the subject, but she doesn't really have any tools or odds and ends that I'd associate with someone who'd worked at that for decades and then retired. she never tells any work related stories or really talks about her past in general. she's lived alone basically since she was grown up and is really rich with this super fancy house that's way too big for just one person

basically my entire family is at least 50% suspicious that she actually worked for some secret government agency

Ask her if she paid taxes on the house and observe her facial reaction. She sounds like the musings of a woman who met somebody rich in prague or somewhere exotic -- murdered him -- took his fortune and have been smuggling little bits of fortune since. Tell me, does your aunt take a lot of trips to foreign countries? Does she bring back expensive watches, jewelry, and claim that she bought them on her trip?

I'd be careful drinking anything she gives you.

s0nicfan posted...

If the CIA is even half as capable as people meme them, then what their day-to-day operations are like is probably radically different from what most people assume because they would be fully capable of projecting a false impression on to the US population just as well as they could any other country.

To be fair the CIA went to shit after the Soviet Union fell.

That's why 9/11 happened.

Unless they allowed it to happen.

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insomniacRA posted...

Ask her if she paid taxes on the house and observe her facial reaction. She sounds like the musings of a woman who met somebody rich in prague or somewhere exotic -- murdered him -- took his fortune and have been smuggling little bits of fortune since. Tell me, does your aunt take a lot of trips to foreign countries? Does she bring back expensive watches, jewelry, and claim that she bought them on her trip?

she's like 90 years old lol


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PrettyBoyFloyd posted...

To be fair the CIA went to shit after the Soviet Union fell.

That's why 9/11 happened.

Unless they allowed it to happen.

DUN DUN DUN aaaaaand Michael Moore emerges.

kirbymuncher posted...

she's like 90 years old lol

I'm saying, she could have done it in her youth. Totally plausible, considering how things were back then.

masterpug53 posted...

Argo's based on one of my favorite real-life espionage stories. They dramatized it a little bit, of course (in real life there were no police cruisers chasing the airplane down the runway at the last minute, for instance), but iirc it was otherwise pretty faithful.

I don't know how faithful it was to portraying actual CIA-style work, but in terms of historical accuracy Argo is about as accurate as The Patriot, i.e. not accurate at all.

PrettyBoyFloyd posted...

To be fair the CIA went to shit after the Soviet Union fell.

That's why 9/11 happened.

Unless they allowed it to happen.

Fairly certain that for years, under both Clinton and Bush Jr., that both were told a major terrorist plot was being planned, and neither Presidents did much about it.

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