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

npr.org

71–80 of 159 posts

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

#71

Wow CIA agents are actually just swell folks who have all of our best interests at heart. I feel a lot better about all those third-nation torture dungeons now. Earlier this year NPR hired as CEO the guy who previously ran the USA organization for external propaganda. It's so surprising that NPR are even more committed to internal propaganda than they were before they hired him.

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.

> I'm having trouble understanding how one can seriously consider NPR 'internal propaganda.' Their national broadcasts are like radically centrist and unbiased

“Radically centrist” and “unbiased” are mutually incompatible descriptions, the former of which is compatible with propaganda favoring the elite consensus.

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

#72

Wow CIA agents are actually just swell folks who have all of our best interests at heart. I feel a lot better about all those third-nation torture dungeons now. Earlier this year NPR hired as CEO the guy who previously ran the USA organization for external propaganda. It's so surprising that NPR are even more committed to internal propaganda than they were before they hired him.

For those of us not in the loop. the guy = John Lansing USA organization for external propaganda = USAGM (U.S. Agency for Global Media).

I was unaware that the BBG had renamed itself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Agency_for_Global_Media

For those who don't know what it is, this is the parent agency of RFE, Voice of America, etc.

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

#73

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’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 o…

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

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

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> I'm having trouble understanding how one can seriously consider NPR 'internal propaganda.' Their national broadcasts are like radically centrist and unbiased “Radically centrist” and “unbiased” are mutually incompatible descriptions, the former of which is compatible with propaganda favoring the elite consensus.

Radically centrist in that they go out of their way not to be liberal or conservative in an attempt to stay unbiased, sometimes to the detriment of the programming.

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

#75
post #68

When did "eatery" become an acceptable term for restaurant?

I don't know that I've ever used it, but there are plenty of places to eat that I wouldn't call a 'restaura t', and that's what I'd assume someone using it was referring to (a d possibly including restaurants in a context such as this).

Cafés, 'diners', crêperies/breakfast places, anywhere in a shopping centre/'mall', that sort of thing.

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

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is—no joke—one of the main reasons why tech companies feed their employees on campus.

I don't get that. I don't bring my laptop to lunch even in the office. Prior to this job, I had neither a laptop nor (paid) on-site lunch.

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

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm having trouble understanding how one can seriously consider NPR 'internal propaganda.' Their national broadcasts are like radically centrist and unbiased “Radically centrist” and “unbiased” are mutually incompatible descriptions, the former of which is compatible with propaganda favoring the elite consensus.

Radically centrist in that they go out of their way not to be liberal or conservative in an attempt to stay unbiased, sometimes to the detriment of the programming.

I think we can all at least agree that is a delightful headline.

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

#78

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.

> 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.

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

#79
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moore's Law says you now bug every restaurant table in DC.

Crowdsource. Pay people to run an app when they go around DC, that records constantly from their mic, and uploads it to the cloud along with their location. I’m sure someone has already thought of this!

"Hey Alexa|Google|Siri, search for 'crowdsourced eavesdropping'."

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

#80
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.

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