A former CIA chief of disguise shows off a five-second mask (2020) [video] | Hacker News Reader

A former CIA chief of disguise shows off a five-second mask (2020) [video]

atlasobscura.com

73 pointschoult18 comments

I was really hoping to see someone put on the mask but the one featured in the video was made with one person’s facial topography in mind and so I assume they can’t just throw it on anyone.

Yeah, this feels like a very modern day exposé- lots of talking about a thing, some buried lede action, and eventually no payoff. Was this video created by a procedural SEO algorithm with a novel neural net approach? There's basically none of the promised content here.

> Was this video created by a procedural SEO algorithm with a novel neural net approach?

I’m leaning towards CIA PR campaign.

Was very disappointed too, I fully expected her to pull off a mask at the end and it would be Tom Cruise underneath :(

Especially since she called it 5 sec mask. It feels like exaggeration but who knows for sure.

I don't think I ever seen it is a movie, but you could theoretically put it on turning a corner do 180 and evade someone.

It’s be funny if everyone totally knew it was a mask, but it was the equivalent of Halloween in Russia so nobody said anything

If you liked this, WIRED has done several videos with Jonna Mendez:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JASUsVY5YJ8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUqeBMP8nEg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD841NmJbjM

The True Spies podcast also did an interesting episode with her: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-spies-espionage-i...

A Former CIA Chief of Disguise TALKS About a Five-Second Mask

It’s a recruitment video

Reminded me of the line from one of the MI movies. "CIA is like Halloween, a bunch of grown men in rubber masks playing trick or treat".

Which of course is ridiculous, given how IMF agents are constantly donning and removing their own rubber masks!

Alternatively, the phrase (as said by the NRO) "Doing God's work with other people's money" is quite apt.

This might be the most annoying cookie notice I’ve ever seen. I can’t reject cookies on the page, have to click through to another page, where I cannot even find the option to do so.

Shame on you Atlas Obscura, this should not even be legal. Does anybody know if this is in line with GDPR?

Some past threads:

How the CIA Trains Spies to Hide in Plain Sight - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18690409 - Dec 2018 (76 comments)

Former CIA Chief of Disguise Explains How Spies Use Disguises [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18291780 - Oct 2018 (82 comments)

I thought I remembered others...

If you're interested in this and a lot more disguises and trickery, the book you're looking for is "The Moscow Rules".

https://www.amazon.com/Moscow-Rules-Secret-Tactics-America/d...

Not sure disclosing all this helps their image, if people now understand they're capable of faking any sort of public appearance of anyone they need to.

I can't reject cookies on this page?

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