How real is the Showtime series "Homeland?"
Вставка
- Опубліковано 19 тра 2016
- Actor Mandy Patinkin, who plays CIA European Division Chief Saul Berenson on the Showtime series "Homeland," narrates the documentary "48 Hours' Presents: The Spymasters: CIA in the Crosshairs." He compares the real CIA to the made up one on TV.
Saul my fAvorite on this show
What does it feel like to be a double agent?
During my time with CIA, I handled two double agents (that I am aware of and, perhaps, one or more others that I was unaware of -- that's the nature of double agents). A typical scenario would be an operative for an enemy intel service (e.g., the KGB) who has been secretly recruited by the CIA to work "in place", in other words to continue his employment with the Russians (rather than defect) and, at the same time, without the knowledge of his organization (you hope), provide classified intelligence to our side on an ongoing basis. In essence, this spy now has two masters and, although his salary just went way up, the danger and stress in his life has also effectively doubled. Before, he was just committing espionage -- illegal in every country in the world. Now, he is committing espionage AND treason. Consequently, the shelf life of the average double agent tends to be limited.
How long was your Secrecy Agreement?
Some only last a few weeks and some manage to juggle their "double" life for years. On average though, most are done (one way or the other) within six months. As far as double agents "always" being discovered, I disagree. The very best (and luckiest) can get away with it indefinitely. One well-known example is Oleg Gordievsky, a high-ranking KBG officer who spent a decade as a valuable double agent for the West. He is now enjoying retirement (at taxpayer expense) in the English countryside.
Did you ever knew some “tripel agents”, meaning he pretends to work as a double agent for the foreign government but in reality he notified his intelligence agency about this, and is feeding false information?
No. It wouldn’t take long for the agency being scammed to figure out that their agent was feeding them bad intel.
What is the pay for such agents?
Pay is based on the quantity and quality of the intel that the double provides.
I presume you definitely had at least a Top Secret clearance. You had to be an Operations Officer. I think Top Secret had life time Secrecy Agreements. How long was your Secrecy Agreement?
You’re right, guy- CIA secrecy agreements don’t expire until you do.
Would being paid by a foreign agency make it easier to be discovered? I guess the question I am really asking is do intelligence agencies monitor the finances of their agents/employees to insure the will not compromise anything?
The answer is yes, spending is often monitored and often double agents are compromised (caught) due to their indiscreet spending habits. As the handler of a double agent, you constantly caution him/her to be smart about new purchases but there is only so much you can do. After all, it was probably the money you offered that got them to agree to your offer to spy for you. You can't really force them not to spend it.
Does it mean the double agent is killed or is just exposed and goes off grid?
In most instances, exposed => Treason => death penalty in most places, right? YES!
(Brad Robinson · Former CIA operative now a private investigator with The Millennium Group.)
Do CIA officers ever work in groups, or do they work alone?
Unlike most other Federal Agents, CIA officers are never assigned permanent partners. An operative abroad works alone. He will have a supervisor and various other colleagues that he sees on a daily basis but, when he walks out the door, he is on his own.
Naturally, working solo comes with greater risks than working in pairs or in groups. The CIA officer has no one to watch his back so he learns to become very self-sufficient (and a bit paranoid).
There are temporary exceptions to this rule. Some compIex operations (i.e., specific, short-term missions) require multiple officers. I’ve worked with teams ranging in size from two operatives to a dozen or more.
A CIA facility overseas is referred to as a station (if it’s located inside a U.S. embassy) or a base (if it’s located inside a U.S. consulate). Generally 99% of the CIA personnel posted to that country will have an office (or at least a desk) inside the station. All planning, report writing, etc., takes place within the secure confines of the station but the actual spying takes place on the street.
Keep in mind that the primary function of a CIA officer overseas is to recruit and handle (meet with) his sources (also known as agents or assets). The officer debriefs these assets to collect clandestine intelligence. These meetings are almost invariably one-on-one. They aren’t interrogations (so no need for the “good cop-bad cop” routine); they are debriefings. The source knows (at least generally) who the officer represents. He is cooperative and is usually being paid for his cooperation. A bond, of sorts (we call it “rapport”), is built between the two and this personal relationship, which can continue for months or years, is critical to getting the most out of the source.
(Brad Robinson Private Investigations · Former CIA operative now a private investigator with The Millennium Group.)
What do CIA employees actually do? What do Walmart employees actually do? The vast majority are not working a cash register. What do Walmart employees actually do? The vast majority are not working a cash register. How about Microsoft employees? Or ExxonMobil employees? Do you think all General Motors employees are bolting on bumpers?
Similarly, Central Intelligence Agency employees (there are many thousands of them, by the way) don’t all “do” the same work. Some are spies. Some are analysts. Some are attorneys. Some are secretaries. Some are scientists. Some are accountants. Some are communications specialists. Some serve food in the cafeteria. Along with hundreds of other job descriptions. CIA headquarters in Langley, VA is like a small, domed city. This is where most of the Agency’s people work. But there are other, smaller CIA facilities in the greater Washington, DC area and elsewhere across the U.S. The CIA also has, by virtue of its charter, locations in most foreign countries. So, among myriad other factors, geographic location will play a role in one’s typical workday.
The official mission of CIA is to strengthen national security and foreign policy objectives through the clandestine collection of human intelligence and Covert Action. So, in a very broad sense I suppose you could say that all its employees are, directly or indirectly, supporting that directive. But in terms of actual, day-to-day workload, a paper-pusher who never leaves the confines of his headquarters cubicle has very little in common with an undercover operative on the streets of Baghdad or Moscow.
The public seems to have this view of CIA as an army of globetrotting secret agents supported by a handful of administrative types back home. In a sense, it’s just the opposite. For every operations officer there are many (100? 200?) other professionals doing the grunt work. I don’t mean that to sound dismissive - some of that “grunt” work (intel analysis, code-breaking) is every bit as important as the actual, street-level spying done by the relatively small cadre of operatives. Even the less glamorous positions are vital to the overall objective. Although you’ll never see it in a James Bond film, you can’t have spying without payroll specialists and healthcare administrators.
(Brad Robinson Private Investigations · Former CIA operative now a private investigator with The Millennium Group.)
Instead of becoming an Operations Officer, how does one become a CIA Agent?
Assuming you understand the terms “Operations Officer” and “Agent” correctly (which would be rare and refreshing, since almost everyone gets this wrong), the idea of the average person aspiring to become an agent (aka source) for the CIA is pretty far-fetched. For an American, it’s essentially impossible - the CIA isn’t supposed to recruit U.S. citizens as agents.
In reality, here’s how it nearly always works: The CIA operations officer (aka Case Officer) targets, cultivates, and ultimately recruits individuals (government officials, foreign diplomats, etc.) who he knows or strongly suspects have, by virtue of their jobs, knowledge that would be of value to U.S. policy makers. In other words, the CIA approaches the prospective agent, not the other way around.
The concept of one (again, a non-American) simply volunteering to work as an agent for CIA isn’t entirely out of the question. These are generally referred to as “walk-ins” (though the more timid ones may initially be write-ins or phone-ins). A walk-in is, as the name suggests, someone who walks in, uninvited and unannounced, to a U.S. facility where they believe they can offer their services to a representative of the CIA. This usually takes place outside the U.S. at an American embassy or consulate, though it also happens at U.S. military bases abroad.
I would estimate that 98% of walk-ins are given an interview of ten minutes or less (my personal record is 90 seconds) and then shown the door. The reason: most outsiders who want to volunteer their services either have mental issues or they lack access to intelligence (not the IQ kind of intelligence, though many lack that as well). In a nutshell, for the CIA to have ANY interest in you as a possible agent, you MUST have current, ongoing access to information of interest to the American government (i.e., secrets). In other words, “I think I could maybe get some secrets for you somehow”, is not going to cut it. Nor will the idea that the CIA will recognize your hidden potential as a spy, train you and then somehow maneuver you into a position where you will eventually become a useful agent. Even if you have Jason Bourne-like skills and are “highly motivated” this is simply not how it works with agent recruitment. On the other hand, if you are your country’s Defense Minister’s mistress or you’re a researcher at the Wuhan Virology Lab, you may qualify for an exciting and high-paying side hustle as a CIA agent.
(Brad Robinson, Former CIA operative now a private investigator with The Millennium Group.
Has anyone ever been followed by spies? What was your experience?
Yes, I have. For the eleven years that I was posted in Europe as an undercover operative, I was surveilled (followed) by a variety of foreign intel services (spies) on a regular basis. It pretty much goes with the job. As a diplomat (that was my cover) at any U.S. embassy, you are, from day one, automatically under suspicion by both the host service (the spy agency of the country you are working in) and the various third country intel services (at that time, primarily the KGB and their East European proxies) who aggressively target Americans (and especially CIA officers, who they know often utilize diplomatic cover) worldwide. Being under surveillance (and not just physical surveillance - they would actively attempt to bug our apartments, tap our phones, read our mail, etc.) is, at best, unnerving. Fortunately, 95% of the time, I was not operational, meaning I was not actually performing an observable act of espionage. Part of the job of a spy who is undercover is to openly do the things that a normal person (in my case, a normal diplomat) would do. I would attend diplomatic receptions, meet openly with my (non-clandestine) contacts for 3-martini lunches, sit in on briefings at the Foreign Office (what we call the Department of State), play tennis, go to dinner parties, etc. In short, I would try to bore my surveillance team to death. That accomplishes a couple of things.
It reduces the amount of time the bad guys spend on my tail. Any service only has so much manpower at their disposal and the less suspicious you appear, the more likely they are to focus their teams on someone else.
It lulls surveillance into complacency. That way, on the days when they ARE following me, they are only half-way tuned in, expecting nothing of interest to happen.
As noted above, the vast majority of the time, you are not doing anything that is potentially compromising (i.e., likely to get you snatched up, deported or worse). It’s that 5% of the time when you actually ARE committing espionage that surveillance becomes more than just an irritation. Now it is a hardcore game of Spy vs. Spy and the consequences of losing that competition are very serious.
(Brad Robinson Private Investigations · Former CIA operative now a private investigator with The Millennium Group.)
No body asked you
Homeland inspired me to read the books of each of the actual former US Govt intel real players, and so appreciate that they wrote their books. It reset my understanding, and I continue to love ex CIA smart US Govt officials' books, they write so clearly, much worth reading. We need good smart, the best, people in US Govt intel agencies, period. All sub branches, all their stories, am so glad they have written so many books in recent years, explaining their reality in their jobs.
Here's the actual homeland season 7 episode 1. Enjoy.
ua-cam.com/video/0PX9aafs_UE/v-deo.html
Ok
Very
bomeland is a bad joke