Towards the end of ZDT the CIA Director sits down with Maya at lunch and when Maya says "You recruited me out of high school," he asks "Do you know why we did that?" She responds along the lines of I don't think I'm allowed to answer that. Why would she not be allowed to answer that?
shareYou'd have to ask someone in the CIA.
shareBut if they told me, wouldn't they have to kill me?
shareNo, you'd just need proper clearance.
shareWhile I cannot rule out the possibility that your responses are dryly putting me on, for the sake of discussion I'll take it that you are serious. If so, the implication is that the movie, while purporting to give us a window into CIA operations, holds back in this instance(and maybe others that didn't pique my interest). Why? This matter seems trivial compared to what is in the rest of the movie. But wait..... could it be that a supersecret subdivision has been evaluating all newborns and identifying a teeny group who have the genetic makeup to "have a flair for it." The infants are covertly fed a special spyness enhancing set of supplements and then harvested as they leave the shelter of high school. There are, of course, lots of variant and alternative scenarios. I suppose instead of the probably hopeless pursuit of an answer from a CIA insider I can just try to find out how to contact the screenwriter. But I just thought I might have the luck to hear some speculation if not the real poop on the imdb message board. And, yes, I do enjoy speculation no matter how far-fetched as well as the facts.
shareI believe the line is not realistic. The scene is not realistic. It would be hard to fathom that the D/CIA would have an open conversation with a CIA employee of her nature in a insecure environment like the building cafeteria. Just being seen with her in the open could allow someone to gleen intelligence.
Now for the speculation under the premise that she was serious about her response:
-She would have to be insinuating that CIA recruitment is classified and that her answering the director would be revealing something classified.
The problem with that is that CIA recruitment is not classified. The type of CIA employee that she is, is part of the 'Clandestine Service' but it is hardly a super secret type operative. She is a Targeting Officer, a type of analyst, one who assesses intelligence.
You're taking a dump and they call GQ do you pinch it off or finish your business?
It's a scene I like, especially for the acting. But maybe I've been misinterpreting Jessica Chastain's discomfort; perhaps what's making her uncomfortable is not just the attention paid to her by the D/CIA, but her awareness that this shouldn't be happening. I recall that when Leon Panetta was appointed D/CIA much was made of the fact that he really wasn't "of the CIA." Perhaps in the scene the Gandolfini D/CIA doesn't realize he's violating an unwritten CIA expectation. // The intelligence I would glean from your 2nd paragraph is that there could be classified information that should not be shared with the (appointed) D/CIA(though in the scene Gandolfini seems to know the answer to his question - which is, of course, that she was given those heightened spyness supplements).
shareAs far as sharing classified info, in this case it doesn't matter the clearance level of the recipient or lack thereof. So say you and I have Top Secret clearance we go into a mcdonalds and I share something classified with you. Its not just about the recipient, it the where and the what. I cannot talk about this info in an uncontrolled environment and it is also not for me to justify what is able to be shared with you. So its the Director nothing changes, say we are at his house for BBQ we don't talk shop outside the normal constraints of briefing in the confines of eyes and ears only controllable environments.
The fact that D/CIA would most certainly know he shouldn't be doing this, is what makes it unrealistic. The fact that Leon Panetta was not a career CIA employee is in fact a bonus depending on who you talk to. Only 2 DCIs in the last 40 years have been career CIA, Goss and Gates. Its beneficial when the DCI/DCIA is wired into Capitol Hill and the White House. This gives them great insight into how to approach congress for all manner of interaction from funding to hearings. Gates for instance had really hard times with Clinton and Congress. Goss of course had problems with Congress on a huge scale.
You're taking a dump and they call GQ do you pinch it off or finish your business?
Ok, let's go a different direction, though first we'd have to accept that the D/CIA sitting down with Maya in the cafeteria doesn't give away too much info(after all intelligence can probably be gleaned from just about anything, even something as mundane as why a dog doesn't bark in the night). You've already let me know that CIA recruiting isn't classified, so the D/CIA isn't, to his knowledge, opening up a classified subject. Maya, having been through the recruitment, knows that the D/CIA isn't aware of the double secret classified program, Zero Dark Alien Probe, in which those potential recruits who've taken their spyness enhancing supplements are then beamed up to a CIA-friendly UFO( I know, they don't exist....sure) for advanced assessment as to their spyworthyness. The D/CIA handles this response with aplomb but later goes to the Mark Strong character and asked WTF is she referring to, and all hell breaks loose. More realistic?
Btw, since you seem to be "of the CIA" (how's that for gleaning intelligence), let me recommend an interesting and very topical article from a recent edition of the New York Review of Books http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/mar/05/scientist-spy-genius-bruno-pontecorvo/
Funny. I came to this site wondering the same thing. Silly me thought she was giving him an upfront answer saying she was recruited in HS. I need to watch this again for signs her answer really means her recruitment situation was classified. I've often wondered what the CIA looks for in their recruits. What college majors they prefer (Linguistics, forensics, theater?). Are there height/weight/age restrictions?
shareA lot has changed in the last 20 years. Prior to that you would need a degree from a highly competitive school. CIA has become more flexible. While I could conceive of a HS grad getting a job (being "recruited") I don't think it's likely, especially one that is only 18 ie. directly out of HS.
She is a lot like you, the dangerous type...
I took her to mean that the answer is politically incorrect. I don't think it would be kosher to say out loud "You recruited me out of high school so that you could brainwash me before an anti-American college program could brainwash me."
shareThis has come up with interviews of former cia asked about the film.
Certain people with extreme high demand low supply language skills or extreme high language acquisition aptitude (testing is done with a three day test by using an entirely artificial language) as well as other innate skills can in a some case of recruitment be recruited while they apply to school, and for example offered scholarships not different than ROTC.
And recruitment out of high school is exactly what ROTC, West Point, the Naval Academy do ALL the time, and is what CIA does in some small number of cases certain talents the CIA might specifically need.
What if she had high language acquisition skills, And/or say had a dad or mom who had had a government posting in Pakistan or the Middle East and spent six or seven years there as a child and knew those languages natively?