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Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

antipolygraph.org

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Re: Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

#91

Post by post-it »

Hikikomori wrote: post #77
XorNot wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That research was oriented towards making sure it wasn't possible though. You're saying "of course it isn't" - but how do you know that? At the time the Soviets had the same sort of projects. So until you're sure it's not possible, the potential capability is an enormous threat if it is. How they went about that research is where the waste creeps in.

Was drugging random Americans with LSD also a valid experiment? Parts of the CIA was just insane back then, maybe still is.

Yeah absolutely. Figuring out which, if any, drugs can be used to control people is extremely valuable for defence, not to mention offence. Same with the fascist Japanese frostbite experiments.

Let me be clear: these were all wrong and unethical, and I would not have approved or conducted them. But if you're a government agency tasked with doing wrong and unethical things in the name of national security, they were all good ideas to at least try.

Re: Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

#92

Post by snickerbockers »

singleshot_ wrote: post #39

> but I wondered why a petty thief thought she could get into the Agency. It’s reassuring to know no one at the CIA has ever done anything wrong, like stealing fifty dollars.

The problem from the CIA's perspective isn't petty theft, it's getting caught.

Re: Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

#93

Post by greedo »

mrb wrote: post #67

"Someone who hated computers so much that she had the secretary print out her emails so she could read them was interrogated for hours about hacking into Agency networks [...] there was often a gross mismatch between a person and the accusations made against them." Well, isn't it expected? If I were a double agent, faking that I was so computer illiterate that I ask my emails to be printed out would be the perfect co…

Didn't RMS do this with his emails?

Re: Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

#94

Post by snickerbockers »

shevy-java wrote: post #17

> countermeasures such as butt-clenching Ehm ... I am actually not that convinced of that, largely because e. g. the KGB operated quite differently. And it seems very strange to me that the CIA would train an army of wanna-be's as ... butt-clenching recruits. The more sensible option is to have a poker face; and totally believe in any lie no matter how and what. That's kind of what Sergey Lavrov does. He babbles abou…

I got yelled at for inadvertently "closing my sphincter" (the examiner's exact words) the one time I tried to take a polygraph at the CIA, they do actually care about that.

Re: Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

#95

Post by kirubakaran »

Animats wrote: post #62
AndrewStephens wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was put through the mill of getting higher level security clearances so I could be assigned to classified projects. Fortunately, I never was. Sure was lucky you didn’t work on any of those classified projects -

The company had decided to move networking R&D to Colorado Springs, where they supported USAF facilities, and I didn't want to leave Silicon Valley for that.

Sure

Re: Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

#96

Post by tptacek »

wedog6 wrote: post #89
tptacek wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do the people writing these kinds of comments think the CIA is? There are mustache-twirling villains there, in greater proportion than in other government organizations, but the median CIA employee sits at a desk and translates cables from Farsi to English and back again, or keeps track of the rainfall in Azerbaijan. A very small fraction of the agency does anything more "interesting" than that, and the majority…

It's not about mustache twirling villains though is it. There are also a large number of people there who sit at desks and handle the logistics of moving people who are entitled either to be treated as PoWs or to a fair trial, into countries where they can be tortured while preserving a facade of it not being done by the agency itself.

Just have the courage of your convictions and extend this logic of culpability to everybody who works for the United States Government. Otherwise, it just sounds like you don't understand that a huge fraction of the work of intelligence is preventing wars.

I don't think the CIA is broadly a force for good. I think that the presumption that most people working there are evil is unfounded, though. It's a huge organization with a big portfolio, most of which isn't telegenic or activating.

Re: Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

#97

Post by ungreased0675 »

rapnie wrote: post #78
XorNot wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That research was oriented towards making sure it wasn't possible though. You're saying "of course it isn't" - but how do you know that? At the time the Soviets had the same sort of projects. So until you're sure it's not possible, the potential capability is an enormous threat if it is. How they went about that research is where the waste creeps in.

I always wonder when I see one of those hypnosis shows, where someone from the audience makes themselves a docile fool in front of a large crowd, whether they are stooges or it is the real deal. But I wouldn't volunteer to get hypnotised to figure that out, in fear of being the next person who stands imitating a dog in heat on such a stage.

There’s a good book about this called Reality is Plastic. It may give you a new perspective.

Re: Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

#98

Post by stego-tech »

Paracompact wrote: post #44
stego-tech wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not bad, just as misinformed as most folks out there about the process and requirements. National Security is a PITA, full of cutthroat sociopaths who would eat the SV VC-types for breakfast. That is a compliment , because the work they do is broadly dark and grimly necessary, at least at the levels of global geopolitics a lot of them are expected to operate at. I washed out in contracting for much the same reason th…

It would seem there's a spectrum of beliefs regarding the people in the CIA, the FBI, in politics, etc. ranging from "They're just like us!" to "They're lizard people (for better or for worse)." In other words, is it the situation or is it the person/self-selection? I self-identify as uninformed about the bigger picture, but my experience working in a federally adjacent sector where all my colleagues are perfectly no…

In my experience, 99.9% of the federal bureaucracy is regular normies just trying to make a living, pay the bills, and eke out a pension if they're lucky.

The remaining 0.1% aren't "lizard people" so much as apex predators in their fields, or political appointees. The latter are dangerous because they're fickle, vain, and narcissistic; the former are dangerous because they know where the skeletons are in the closet, where the bodies are buried in the desert, and have dirt on everyone whose corpse they didn't have to climb over into their position.

> I'm curious if you're willing to elaborate on this story.

My story is simple: I wrote extensive system documentation that the developers refused to (but gleefully took credit for), caught a colleague picking locks on secure doors and ditching work to go on dates, and noped out of the politicking between subcontractors maneuvering for a bigger cut of the pie in lieu on focusing on the mission at hand. This was not the problem.

The problem is I reported the first two, and thus became a ripe target for the third.

Re: Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

#99

Post by keepamovin »

Arainach wrote: post #59

I applied for an internship with the NSA. My understanding of the process (years ago, pre-Snowden) was that they did a pass on your resume (I can't recall if there was even a phone screen), then they started background checks and if there were N internships the first N people to pass the security clearance were selected. They went through the standard stuff, interviewing my neighbors, etc. Then they flew me to Fort M…

At lesat now the IC has dirt on you should you ever step out of line.

Re: Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

#100

Post by keepamovin »

fmajid wrote: post #63

Polygraphs are junk science. I wonder why they haven’t graduated to fMRI. Can’t be for lack of funds. My guess is the polygraph bureaucracy is what’s known in Washington as a self-licking ice cream cone.

Perhaps the point is it's "confession theatre". You're put in a stress position, worried that the "magical machine" can read your darkest secrets, and told that everything will go easier if you're just honest, and so that's why you're inclined to spill them. Which is what they are trying to get you to do.
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