How to make a CIA spy, and other anecdotes

And the hilariously incompetent, such as the OSS operative whose cover was so far blown that when he dropped into his favorite restaurant, the band played “Boo! Boo! I’m a Spy.”

Interesting, new-to-me tidbits on what goes into making CIA spies, what they actually do in the field, and how the practitioners of spy craft have changed over the years. The bad news: spies recruitment doesn’t exactly work like in Spies Like Us. The good news: the CIA and its spying is closer to “just as bad/inept as you’d think” than “as diabolical as a James Bond villain”.

Adam Keys @therealadam