Like Carrie and Saul: How to Travel as a Spy
We are sorry to amend the plan to the gentlemen of Langley but what the fourteen page document Surviving Secondary It is nothing that we do not know after having seen a lot of cinema and having read Graham Greene. We will also amend it to wikileaks because, although reading it has been more entertaining than soaking up a Sunday supplement, it does not say anything extravagant. A lot of common sense is what we have found in the CIA.
However, we have come to a conclusion: This document is useful to all of us. If we follow their recommendations we will go unnoticed, we will avoid being stopped at the security control and we will arrive at our destination sooner. We are all Carrie.
Aware of our social role, we are ready to list what we should not do, whether we are spies or not; that this is the grace of the spies, that we can all be and that perhaps, dear readers, some of you are while your neighbors think you are commercial directors of a furniture company or students of a doctorate in Biochemistry.
Before continuing: there is an expression that makes the CIA very nervous: secondary screening . This is that second control that some people sometimes carry out at airports. It may involve a more thorough examination of the baggage, an interrogation or a more thorough scan. In any case: we must flee from secondary screening. With it, the chances of being discovered increase and problems can begin. Let's repeat out loud (well, not too loud, we'll draw attention and we're spies): no to secondary screening.
Always keep a 'low profile'
Here are some of these tips:
1. WHEREVER YOU GO... Here is the first obvious. In Iran the beard (for them) helps. In Japan we will avoid physical contact carpetovetónico. Let's be polite. Education goes unnoticed.
two. SOBRIETY. Do not go directly to the airport from the last bar or from the dinner of former COU colleagues. Don't go gaupasa because you may not articulate your words well, your hands will shake, you yawn a lot and the authorities will shy away. Security officers don't love a cold sweat . The CIA emphasizes is be sober . We understand that not only in travel.
3. TECHNOLOGY: LESS IS MORE. Be careful with being loaded with gadgets. We can go a few hours without hearing and seeing Sia's 'Elastic Heart' with Shia: iPhones, iPods require a registration and a profile, something that complicates the cover. It is also not advisable to carry an arsenal of brand new mobiles. They will have to be justified.
A mobile for everything, to organize, document and remember your trips
Four. DRESS FOR THE OCCASION. This advice applies to all walks of life, but if you're a CIA spy in transit at an airport, even more so. let's remember Homeland , a series from which we have learned so much. Saul dresses as he corresponds to an official of the North American government : dark shirts and pants and a briefcase neither new nor old, quite the contrary. He could be anyone. Carrie maximizes her intention to be transparent. There is a conscious lack of fantasy and personal touch in her uniform: dark pants and jacket and shoulder strap. She is nobody and she can be anybody. It is not about yawning and dying of boredom when deciding the clothes with which we travel, but doing it dressed as tunos or Disney characters will arouse suspicion. We dress according to who we are. And the CIA had to come and tell us.
5. THE LUGGAGE. watch out for him . If we arrive at the dreaded secondary screening and upon opening the suitcase they find ten maps of Islamabad, they are going to ask us questions and we are going to have to answer them. Also if they see that we have three trunks and we are only going to be at our destination for four days. We are not Kim, Kanye and North West. Luggage, like clothing, must be consistent with our cover and our history.
Avoid being overweight and having to dress in 4 layers at the airport
6. CAN YOU COME WITH ME? If we are unlucky enough to be stopped for a second exam and they ask us questions, we should not be nervous. The normal thing is that, if we are pros, in minutes, we are at Duty Free trying on perfumes. At that time we must obey and, if possible, speak the language of our passport. The opposite will also scale them. We must answer simply and without giving explanations that are not asked of us. The most important thing is not to blow the cover. We are spies, we have to tell each other quietly... If we say it out loud, everything will have gone to waste.
7. THE HISTORY. This is the most important point of all. The story, and the CIA is very clear, is the alpha and omega of the spy . They all have a cover. You have to be consistent and defend it until the end, you have to learn it, assimilate it and our contacts at the destination must support it. If we are not spies we will have it easy: we just have to tell the truth.
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