Live data from Hacker News

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

npr.org

91–100 of 159 posts

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

#91
post #17

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.

https://thefederalist.com/2018/11/07/incoming-democrat-chair... Overheard on Amtrak in some cases (strange since Amtrak does offer roomettes).

[deleted]

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

#92
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!

La Liga:

> The Spanish football league La Liga has admitted that its official smartphone app has been making audio recordings in order to identify pirate broadcasts of football games.

> The league said its app detected the location of users, and if they were found to be in a bar, it then recorded audio clips using phone microphones.

> The app used an algorithm to identify whether the person was watching a football game from the recording and compared that with their location to see if it the bar owner had paid for a licence to show the game or not.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/06/12/spanish-fo...

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

#93
post #9

I found this title subtly wrong, and it took me a little while to realize why: my accent doesn't have the Mary–marry–merry merger, so "Be Wary" and "Be Merry" don't rhyme for me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-language_vowel_changes...

I read it as Eat, Drink, and Be Werry, and it took me a second of mild confusion to realise it was Wary, for much the same reason.

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

#94

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.

Reminds me of the nytimes journalist who overheard Ty Cobb (Trump's former lawyer) talking about the Russia investigation at a restaurant in DC: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/19/us/politics/isnt-that-the...

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

#95
post #27

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

The former Chief of Disguise for the CIA did an AMA relatively recently. Pretty candid and fascinating stuff. For the curious: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/a32j7e/im_jonna_mende...

Her videos for Wired are pretty fun as well. My family watched them together and found them fascinating.

Shortly afterward, I was in DC with my family on vacation, and we went through the international spy museum (which is a lot of fun). When we got to the gift shop, we found out she’d been there not even an hour before signing copies of her book. I was bummed, to say the least.

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

#96

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.

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.

Fun fact: Using knowledge gained in this way isn't insider trading[1]. Conceivably a person could even sell tips based on information heard in public places to traders. During the golden age of Wall Street, this was extremely common. Traders or their lackeys would visit businesses (or the bars near them) and pump employees for info.

[1] Not a lawyer, not legal advice.

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

#97
post #8

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…

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.

>AFAIK

You better know well, all given :)

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

#98
post #9

I found this title subtly wrong, and it took me a little while to realize why: my accent doesn't have the Mary–marry–merry merger, so "Be Wary" and "Be Merry" don't rhyme for me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-language_vowel_changes...

As someone who does have this merger, which one (of Mary/marry/merry) does "wary" most resemble for you?

Wary.

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

#99

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.

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…

That was a drop waiting to be picked up

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

#100
post #9

I found this title subtly wrong, and it took me a little while to realize why: my accent doesn't have the Mary–marry–merry merger, so "Be Wary" and "Be Merry" don't rhyme for me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-language_vowel_changes...

As someone who does have this merger, which one (of Mary/marry/merry) does "wary" most resemble for you?

I think the answer is "Mary".

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Rhymes:English/%C9%9B%C9%99%C...

Post reply on HN