Living Abroad As A CIA Spy

How many CIA spies live abroad?

I don't know how many CIA spies live abroad. The CIA is very sensitive about those matters and would never devote that information.

What type of allowance is given to CIA spies living abroad?

When I was working as a CIA spy, I never had the CIA tell me that something cost too much money. That is, if I was trying to recruit an agent or run an operation or had to travel somewhere, I never had the CIA tell me: "We can't do that, there's not enough money." So, the CIA's overall budget is classified, although I think it's common knowledge that it's very large . But I will say that in conducting operations the money was not an object.

How does a CIA spy living abroad keep in touch with friends and family?

When you're living abroad, you want to live your cover, so you would keep in touch with friends and family as normally as you possible can. I would write emails home or letters home or talk on the phone. Since nobody knew that I was working for the CIA, it was very easy to just sort of talk about my life overseas as a diplomat, and I never referred to anything that I was doing for the CIA.

How is a CIA spy like James Bond?

Sadly, being a CIA spy is not very much like being James Bond. You don't get all the cool gadgets. You don't have all the dapper clothes. The disguises are kind of woefully unflattering. So it's very different, and I think that's one of the biggest surprises to people who join the CIA expecting it to be like a James Bond movie. You spend a lot of your time writing up reports. You spend a lot of time sitting in cars with unsavory characters. But you don't spend a lot of time scaling walls and gambling and drinking highballs.

What are the perks to being a CIA spy living abroad?

The perks of being a spy living abroad are similar to the perks of being any American living abroad. Usually you can live comfortably, because most of the countries, and particularly the countries that the CIA is really interested in, have a lower standard of living than we have in the United States. So, as an American, even on a typical government salary, you're able to live quite well.

Who are the best types of CIA spies?

the best types of CIA spies are people who have an abundance of energy, who have very good social skills, are able to assimilate into a foreign culture and enjoy living in a foreign culture. They're also the people who are able to view relationships in a cold and calculating fashion. It's difficult to be a spy when you really start to feel for the people that you've recruited as foreign agents, because there's going to come a time when that relationship is terminated, and you as the CIA spy will have to look at that in a cold and calculating way and say, "This person is no longer useful to us and so we're no longer going to employ them, and I'm no longer going to keep in touch with them."

When are CIA spies sent to other countries?

CIA spies are sent to other countries when they have completed their training and there is suitable fit between the spy and a particular country, which depends on factors such as fluency in the countries language, having lived there in the past or there is good cover reason for them to be there. Usually a CIA has certain areas of interest, that is areas of utmost interest to Washington policy makers and these are the areas that the CIA wants to focus respective to their intelligence gathering. Generally, CIA agents are posted all over to have a pulse of all things happening in the world.

How can a CIA spy living abroad avoid confrontation?

One way that a spy living abroad can avoid confrontation is to kind of make himself or herself appear as boring and innocuous as possible. This is something that's difficult for a lot of CIA spies because - not surprisingly - a lot of people who are drawn to the profession tend to be risk takers, sometimes flamboyant, sometimes have very strong personalities, and you kind of have to strike a balance as a spy. You want to be likable, you want foreigners to like you and want to spend time with you - but at the same time you don't want them to be more interested in you than you're interested in them. They really need to be the focus of the relationship.

Why does the CIA have such a bad reputation with the rest of the world?

I think the CIA has a bad reputation with the rest of the world because of the CIA's history. In the past, there was not a lot of congressional oversight of the CIA. Nobody really knew what the CIA was doing, and it has now come to light that there were assassination attempts and a lot of meddling in foreign governments such as the staging of coups, and supporting rebels. These are the kinds of things that the CIA has done that has not endeared it to foreign governments or foreign nationals.

Does a CIA spy live like James Bond?

A CIA spy does not live like James Bond, sadly, for most people who join the CIA expecting that. It's a far less flashy lifestyle. You usually don't get a really cool car and a gold weapon, or anything exciting like that.

Do CIA spies date foreigners when living abroad?

Spies do date foreigners when living abroad. There are a number of rules that the CIA has governing how it's employees can date foreigners, and foremost, you have to report any romantic relationship with a foreigner to the CIA itself, so that they can vet that individual and make sure that that individual is not actually a foreign spy himself or herself.