I just have one quick question, other than the way Redford met Pitt in "Spy Game", how do the secret intelligence agencies find people to become clandestine ops or "Spies". And most of all how do they recruit people to kill for them. Do they recruit ex-criminals who have done it before, do they brain wash or do people simply volunteer not knowing they will have to kill?
"Poor is the Pupil who cannot surpass his master" Da Vinci
I've been wandering about the same thing too. My guess would be they recruit them from the army like in the movie. Soldiers that show exceptional skills are picked out and reasigned, then given training, and then go on to become a spy.
"That which doesn't kill you, will most likely try again."
lol i thought the CIA preferred to keep their hands clean by hiring non-US residents to do their dirty work...uh..."free-lancers" if you will...
shareNowdays, you can just mail your resume and cover letter to the CIA or apply in person at Langley(which will soon be Houston).
This goes for all jobs in the CIA, including the Clandestine service.
Just watch Al pacino,collin ferrel's (spelling ) 'The Recruit' . It shows the recruitment policy for the CIA.
i hope recommending us 'the recruit' in order to find out the recruitment policy for the CIA was just sarcasm fitaa.
shareI'm pretty sure that if you guys just went to the CIA website all of your questions would be answered. their recruitment process is noting like the movies. they dont recruit non citizens, I can't believe someone actually said that. you have to be a citizen to do any work at the office let alone be a spy. the recruit is not even close, and why would you even say they recruit ex-cons. all of these answers are just stupid.
dont believe anything you hear about the topic because its not true, the truth is that no one knows how they recruit agents but the recruiters and other high ranking officals.
i think a trip to cia.gov would clear things up greatly for a few of you...
That would...somewhat. You can't expect an agency who plays The Great Game to be so open about their policies in a website everyone has access to.
However, it's quite true that ppl with totally irrelevant backgrounds work in the CIA. Like a general MD who became a case officer in East Germany way back in the 60's. There are even historians who work as intelligence officers!
Being a 'spy' or, more correctly, a field intelligence officer is very taxing and boring. Definitely not James Bond.
There's some amount of headhunting, too, as far as I know. Out of college and the like. Historians are prized for their document analysis capacities, and of course, people with a good knowledge of languages are always useful.
Wearer of the Red Straightjacket
Especially languages nowadays.
If you can speak Arabic well and fancy some adventure and/or interrogating in Gitmo. The CIA is right for you.
I read it in a news article a few days back, I'm not kidding. The CIA is in need for Arabic speakers nowadays.
Ace, what moron would do that? getting into the CIA isnt flashy or hip, its dangerous, not just looking out for enemies everywhere, but also over your back, like that agent, whats her name..Plame, her identity was leaked so easily as if it was nothing & your dear president pardoned the fall guy....i would not just work in any intelligence agency, they all stink.
" I am talking about..ethics "
It helps if you have a military background. A few years ago I was in the army when the government threatened to withdraw important overseas service cash allowances to troops serving abroad. My C.O. and several from other battalions/regiments strongly opposed this and sought the support of others.
A petition was drafted that i signed. This equated to a mutiny so I was arrested and charged both with mutiny and sedition. The army wanted to keep this quiet so I was offered the opportunity of resigning subject to being screened for a possible military intelligence role elsewhere. I accepted and was passed as suitable but told that it would be covert intelligence work abroad ( I speak Hindi/Pushtu and Arabic ). I hadn't the nerve to do this so I resigned, but was threatened with a Court Martial. Fortunately this threat never came to anything since the officers I served with refused to testify against one another.
'The Great Game' does not mean field intelligence work. It is a specific reference to the mainly covert struggle between Britain and Czarist Russia for control of Central Asia before World War 1. It is rather an insult to compare the ham-fisted nonsense perpetrated by the CIA to the events of a hundred years ago.
In fact it's rather redundant even to suggest that the CIA is an 'intelligence' agency. If you compare them to SIS (now MI6), the KGB (now mainly subsumed into the FSB) and the Mossad/Shin Beth/Aman you find that CIA is prone to far more blunders and mistakes than the others, mainly because of turf wars withh DIA and other agencies, and their close involvement with politics.
Wrong the KGB is now known as the SVR. FSB is like the American FBI/NSA and MI5. Their CIA version is the SVR. It stands for Sluzhba veneshnostoi raboti. Litterally translated as the Service for Foreign Work.
shareMost of what you post I agree with, but do you really think the CIA doesn't retain foreign non-citizens? Come on, be real. They make not "officially" work for the Agency, but if the CIA is paying them for the HUMINT they provide, then they are at least contracted by the Agency thus they are employed by the CIA. They just, in general, don't work in the CIA offices either in the States or abroad.
I don't doubt for one second the CIA has paid killers on it's payroll either. However, I don't for one second think that ANY of them are ex-convicts. An assassin generally has to know why they are sent out to kill somebody, AND agree with the reason, or they won't be assigned to retire the mark.
They have a position on the CIA.gov website that sounds like you do some killing because it requires that you have combat experience or military SF training to be considered. I think its a Specialized Skills Operations Officer if I remember reading it correctly. That might count as a hired killer or someone trained to kill.
share[deleted]
They hire citizens (field ops officers) who thus "recruit" (ie. hire $$) foreign operatives to conduct surveillance and feed information to Washington through the operatives. These foreign recruits most often times are found in positions of some power in the home country.
Read Kessler's "Inside the CIA" for a good portrait of the operations of the CIA. One thing is for sure, US tax dollars are generously distributed to obtain information.
nope thats a great film because the training process is actually accurate
shareYou are confusing some of your terms. The CIA uses case officers that are US citizens employed by the federal government to identify, recruit, and run assets which are typically local to the country where the I telligence activity is happening.
Now the CIA will recruit Americans to work for the agency in much the same way any other group does, through its web site, job boards, career fairs etc. the vetting process can be relatively complex depending on your background, work history etc.
When President Roosevelt established the OSS (now the CIA) in 1942, he expressly wanted it to be a non-military agency. And the man he put in charge of creating the agency, Major "Wild Bill" Donovan, was a bit of a snob, and focused on Ivy League schools. Professors, coaches, members of faculty were used to recruit students straight out of class and into the Agency. That's why the CIA had a rep - until the 70's or 80's - for being very WASPY. Especially compared to Hoover's FBI, which Donovan saw as a bunch of glorified cops. Blue collar agents to his white collar agents. If you watch MUNICH you'll notice the CIA men are all blond. Very good casting on Spielberg's part. As for today, it's probably more of a mix between college and military recruiting. For more, check out what's probably the best historical-fiction novel ever written on the CIA, "The Company" by Robert Littell. They made a mini-series, but it didn't even come close to the book.
sharehttp://www.cia.gov/employment/jobs/core_collector.html
Most CIA OPERATIVES are recruited out of the military. These are the jobs that we see in the movies (usually depicted inaccurately). However, many people are recruited into the CIA or other intelligence agencies out of college. They too can sometimes have assignments that take them overseas. But generally the intelligence community seeks people with skills in political and computer science, accounting (to track the financial status of terrorists), foreign languages (not the usual romance or germanic languages like spanish, french, german, italian, etc. but what they call "low-density" foreign languages like Arabic, Farsi, Uzbeki, Mandarin and so on). Unfortunately, competition for these jobs is extremely high. People have been romanced by these movies thinking that they can lead fascinating lives similar to James Bond or Jason Bourne. For the most part, careers in the intelligence community are very similar to those of a corporate nature.
shareI can guarantee you what Thrill said is true. I've got your 6 Thrill.
shareI was looking for someone like Thrillhouse8 to make a statement about Bond and Bourne. Everyone is swept away with movies and how glorious it looks to be swimming around the world in posh cars and jets. It's like the 'lowest rung' of everything. Just like how a driver or secretary can be the biggest leak, because they are the only ones who know minute details of a schedule...I'd have to make an argument with 'corporate nature'...The lowest funded Governments and the poorest Governments bank on spies for everything, because they simply don't have the money to wage wars...And what they do is this - Use them, hang them out to dry, make them beg in some circumstances (like even for food)...And care two hoots if one dies because they're too busy with money and power...The game is disgusting, the politicians worse and plenty of other unethical things they do just for the name of 'saving the country', whatever that means. It means nothing. Each soldier has to save their own life.
shareActually, most of the worlds intelligence agencies do the very same thing:
They all list an ad in the 'employment' section of the newspaper. Sorry to burst your bubble, but "scouting for talent' and such would make up a very small minority of admissions.
If you're genuinely interested in intelligence agency work then you should know that the reality of it is far different from the sensationalised version. Most intelligence work is actually just listening to and analysing gathered intelligence. The Pitt/ Redford/ Bond/ Etc... type of spies just aren't very common any more.
If that doesn't dissuade you, then keep a sharp eye on the newspapers, because they only list their employment ads once a year or once every two years. If you're lucky enough to find their ads and you're lucky enough to have your application accepted, then get prepared to join a LOT of people who want to prove that they are better candidates than you. Also, be prepared for multiple different phases of aptitude testing where undesirables are weeded out. Things like physical testing/ psychological screening/ various types of intelligence/ common-sense tests (sometimes called idiot-tests)/ etc...
If at any point, you either fail to live up to what they expect, or you are outperformed by other applicants, then say goodbye to what you hoped would be your new career, for up to two years, because they won't allow you to apply again for -usually- that long.
Of course, the easy way to get in, would be to transfer in. Either join the army/ police force, and then work very hard to get into military intelligence/ whatever the police equivalent of M.I. is, and then request a transfer. You still have to wait for an actual intake-period, but you start out ahead of the curve of most of the applicants.
Peace
-- Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most...
There are all manner of "spy" jobs.
You may already have been "interviewed", depending on where you've worked and what was done there. How do you "become" anything?
Some things can't be taught- only learned.
What I had in mind was boxing the compass.
Ok, some of you have no idea what your talking about, especially about the assassin things. While in office Ronald Reagan signed and executive order stating that it is illegal for the CIA to have any part in assassinations (including paying independent contractors) or killings (unless self defence). If anyone references a movie to contradict this well your an idiot because its a movie.
shareihid you are one of the those that does not know what you are talking about if you really believe that an executive order has anything to do with black priority.
shareIn times of conflict most spies tend to be locals, in the area where the spying takes place. In Cold War GDR for instance, the spy network consisted mostly of unhappy officials high up in the government hierarchy or military officers looking to defect to the 'land of the free'. Many of these people didn't do it for profit, they did it out of a personal want to see the socialist government fall. Most of these people never killed anyone either. Spies aren't supposed to be killing people. They got recruited mostly by approaching known NATO officials. Once a case officer feels that he isn't a double agent, the spy is set to work collecting information.
In more modern times, because of a lack of real established enemy states, the CIA's network has been greatly reduced when it comes to field agents. Most on the CIA's roster are analysts who work at Langley sifting through information from around the world. These analysts tend to be picked straight from graduating college batches who show promise in the relevant areas. People who work field ops tend to, like Mike Spann, killed at Qala-i-Jangi in 2001, be ex-military. Field ops in the modern CIA involves mostly open information gathering and building up of allies in warzones. For example prior to the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, CIA field operatives were dropped in with money to buy the loyalty of local warlords to help fight the Taliban, or in fact just to promise not to attack US forces. Penetrating large governments like the Soviets during the Cold War doesn't happen any more. This is in part because most of the United State's enemies are radical Islamic groups. These groups recruit from students who attend madrassahs for years gaining the trust of the higher ups, or from tribes who have lived together as family in remote parts of the Middle East and former Soviet Central Asia.
"In times of conflict most spies tend to be locals, in the area where the spying takes place."
Very good. Then, there are those such as Robert Hanssen, who are not only locals that are unhappy, but also possibly mentally unhinged.
What I had in mind was boxing the compass.share
My sister and I were both targeted for recruitment by intelligence agencies. The NSA tried to recruit her because of her computer skills. She graduated as one of the few women at RPI in the early 90s, and she had a lot of skills involving haptics (specifically she did stuff with users being operate computers and write and draw pictures using slight body movements and stuff in massage chairs without needing a monitor (kind of like a brail computer). Apparently they were fascinated by this. It started with a couple letters encouraging her to apply for a sort of standard computer operator type job, but then as her graduation neared she started getting calls and all that.
I graduated with a history master's specializing in martime history on my thesis and that sort of thing, and I started getting calls from the Office of Naval Intelligence in the US Navy. I wasn't exactly thrilled with the Iraq war starting at the time so I told the guy thanks but no thanks. He kept hounding me though and calling my house and made my parents furious because they thought i was thinking about joining the navy and yeah it was a big debacle...
Office of Naval Intelligence?
I would've taken the job, it's not like you're gonna be dropped in downtown Baghdad patrolling in a Humvee.
I'd figure it'd be your job to gather intel on foreign navies, particularly the Iranian Navy. Maybe go after pirates off the Somalian coast, etc.
But the pay wouldn't be very stellar, I'd imagine
"Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today"
- James Dean
I had this american English teacher (I'm from Mexico) who I think is a CIA agent. In the beginning of every course runs a little game that he calls "Johnny's got in his pocket". It's about remembering words in a specific order, he keeps a record of the highest scores. He even runned a little IQ test, I mean, it was a 3-question test, but, still. I suspect he's recruiting.
In his various stories he mentioned that he worked in law enforcement agencies back in the US and once told us about his experience in Viet Nam. Also, he has a friend (who happened to be my teacher) that once told me that he did some military intelligence in Germany for the US Army.
Maybe I let my imagination fly... anyway, I wasn´t recruited lol but, if my guess is right, I just blew their cover ñ_ñ
Those teachers are going to kill you now. Probably.
shareArmy Green Berets are taking the position that CIA officers once held in the field. There was a National Geographic special where the operative work they were doing involved rallying the people in smaller villages of Afghanistan against the Taliban.
If you don't feel like going the Special Forces route, a lot of what the CIA looks for is intelligence related. Get a bachelors in international business and you've basically created an overseas cover for yourself. The ability to be fluid in the field is highly important also though. That's why they prefer military background, less training on what to look for when you're undercover and also recognition of how a foreign police/military force will come after you should you be exposed.
Lastly, physical fitness plays a part. I'm not sure how big of one though, it depends how deep you're really looking to get undercover.
is it true that..CIA personals have a odurless fart..!!
shareNo, but similarly to a ventriloquist, they are able to "throw" theirs. Resulting in many innocent dogs getting a smack with a newspaper. Very crafty.
What I had in mind was boxing the compass.share
is that a talent they are born with or is it something they are trained in ..?? Very Crafty indeed..!!
shareIt's easy to learn. You just roll the paper up a bit, and -smacko- right on the flank. It's not the hitting, it's the sound of the paper and the location- right where another animal would attack -that gives the most noble hound quite a discomfiture.
What I had in mind was boxing the compass.share
Not well known to the genersl public but the Spleen from Mystery Men was the "Carlos Hathcock" of clandestine fart attacks. He was so legendary that he is still used as a consultant. He cant do field ops any more because as everyone knows, that as we get older you cant trust a fart. The depends are just to difficult to hide under skinny jeans. What a shame
shareReminds me of an old joke:
Whats invisible and smells like carrots ?
Silent bunny farts...
I don't know but I do know this: I know a man who was a CIA agent and he told me this is the closest movie to reality that he has ever seen. He knows. No joke.
I did know a person who had a CIA application. It was 13 pages long! They want to know everything in the world about you.
go back to lego, fack sakes
shareThe CIA, like any good head hunters (although in their case, it may be more accurate) recruits from many locations.
That's assuming that the agencies we know about actually do the "spying" ..
there is a belief system that FBI, CIA, and NSA are all politics and police
more than "espionage" and it is "unknown" organizations that do all
the real "dirty work"
As for becoming a CIA operative, I was "this close" to being recruited
when I was still in school as I have a penchant for foreign languages,
and was interviewed for my skills. I opted not to pursue government work.
People who get into the agency and show certain skills may be brought
into more risky operations.
Military agents as well are just one of the many ways they
find people.