Explore Washington DC through the eyes of a spy | Hacker News Reader

Explore Washington DC through the eyes of a spy

secretmissiondc.com

139 pointswsces64 comments

In the late 1990s a friend of mine gave me a birthday gift: two tickets to Spy Drive. Now THAT was something that could only happen in DC.

Oleg Kalugin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleg_Kalugin) was a former head of the KGB at the Russian Embassy in DC in the 1980s. When Oleg returned to Russia, his criticism of the KGB led him to be stripped of his rank and eventually exiled to the USA to avoid serious recriminations in Russia. He was eventually tried in abstentia. It was in DC where he teamed up for a while with David Major, a retired spymaster for the FBI and former adversary, and together they did what could only be done in Washington DC: they ran a paid bus tour.

You heard that right. For $80, we'd get on the bus, and then these two former spymasters on opposite sides of the cold war would get up in the front of the bus with microphones and take us to various dead drops, mark locations, famous spy meeting locations, and so on, and tell stories the whole way, and joke about how one was gonna arrest the other. It was insane. It was glorious.

Both of them later were recruited to be on the advisory board of the Spy Museum, and it is my understanding that Oleg was very effective at acquiring a lot of stuff for the museum from the former KGB.

Edit: in case people don't believe me...

https://www.upi.com/News_Photos/view/upi/9cc8f17c411182bd874...

This is why I keep coming back to HN. I would never have come across this otherwise.

I've been to that museum and was most struck by the small section about Einstein informing the president at the time that the math meant nukes were possible and likely would exist in the short term. There's a lot of cool stuff in that museum, but that's the one that stuck with me. It's written with a typewriter and signed by Einstein, iirc.

It's rather famous. Written by Leo Szilard but signed by Einstein who later seemed to regret it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein%E2%80%93Szilard_lette...

I don't understand why it would be in the Spy Museum.

Cold War relevance, maybe?

As far as I remember, this letter started the race to nuclear weapons between the US and Nazi Germany. Lots of spycraft involved in that race.

Is this what happens to 007s if they actually live to retire age?

Pretty much - look at Frank Abignale the "Catch Me If You Can" con master. Even Mitnick fits the role. Once you've mastered a craft and somehow get out from under "the system" which punishes or has caused stress, well, education is fun. Story telling is how we grow. Oral histories and all that.

Normally these type of folks are not allowed to write about their experiences much due to there being potential collateral damage in print, but talking? Much smaller radius. Plus you get to size up your audience!

in the case of Frank, it might have all been storytelling

>but talking? Much smaller radius.

I don't think this adage is true now, or won't be for much longer. Fewer and fewer things are read, but everyone is watching videos now. That's the current trend at least. However, written text does have the potential for long out lasting whatever digital video/audio anything, so to that point I concede the original sentiment

Frank Abagnale exaggerated his exploits as a con man as a… con. You almost have to admire how ballsy that is.

True dedication to the craft

If you're listening to Frank Abagnale tell a story... well, just don't be the guy who raises his hand and asks "Did that really happen?"

To tag on to the others, the former 'chief of disguises' for the cia does interviews[1] all the time, I think also on the board for the Spy Museum (and featured quite a bit in it about both disguises and being a woman). Depending on their personality, why not play up the 'former cia/fbi/nsa' thing to educate/entertain/lend legitimacy to their business?

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUqeBMP8nEg

“See the best of Washington DC” -> sends you to Rosslyn. Those poor tourists…

Joking aside I love fun new excuses to explore the city, that’s a great theme for DC.

Is that a bad area?

Though I guess here in Barcelona tourists love crowding Raval which is also a really bad area full of narco flats.

It's not Washington, D.C. it's part of Arlington, VA

Not bad as in unsafe, just a bland block of high rise offices that’s dead at 6pm. It’s on public transit and close to good stuff, it’s just funny as you’d normally never send a tourist there on purpose.

I used to live there and there were plenty of tourists coming through to visit the Marine Corps memorial or Arlington Cemetery. I agree though that the neighborhood itself is extremely boring.

There's nothing interesting in Rosslyn itself, however it's probably the closest subway stop to Georgetown. You can easily walk across the Key Bridge, which is a really nice walk when the weather is good. There's lots to see in Georgetown, especially restaurants, and also a nice waterfront area.

You can also walk from Rosslyn to the Mt. Vernon trail, and to the nearby Roosevelt Island where there's some nice hiking trails and a big monument to Teddy Roosevelt in the middle where people like to sit and relax. There's fountains there, running at some times during the year. Then you can continue walking on the Mt. Vernon trail to Gravelly Point next to DCA airport and watch airplanes take off. If you want to keep walking, you can go to Old Town Alexandria, or even farther to Mount Vernon, but it's a lot better to use a bicycle for these treks.

One of my favorite memories in DC is on Roosevelt island. My friend bought like 20 laser tag sets and had a computer, antenna and whatever other gear needed to setup your own laser tag. We played right there on the island next to the statue. There was a circular area, lots of bushes, what I imagine was a little water feature/moat without any water circling it. Don't think we saw anyone there outside our group.

Hey there

I thought Roosevelt Island is in New York?

Edit: Lol, I see Washinton DC has got one too.

Walking to Mt Vernon is in the “marathon” category. Bikes advised, unless you do ultra or something.

Yeah, walking from Rosslyn to Mt Vernon would take a really long time. Walking to Old Town Alexandria, however, is pretty doable for a day, though you'd probably want to take the subway back home afterwards.

There was a time when Rosslyn was a great stop, even if it was for just one reason, the Newseum.

...back when the Newseum was there anyway, before their poorly-decided move to DC and subsequent closure.

No, it's a pretty nice area. But it's not in DC.

> Explore the Georgetown and Rosslyn areas of Washington DC

For starters it is in Virginia and not Washington DC as indicated by the website.

It’s where the Iwo Jima memorial is so pretty common to send a tourist there.

You can also pick up the mount vernon trail in Roslyn along with the Custis trail if you bike.

They’re trying to make it more of a spot and do weekly free concerts in the park there these days.

I hope one of the "secret spots" is the Quarterdeck.

Technically the Iwo Jima memorial is just outside Rosslyn. Most tourists access it via the Arlington Cemetery metro rather than the Rosslyn metro stop since usually it is a combined visit to the memorial and to the cemetery. Most tourists likely never cross the street into Rosslyn.

I feel like if I sign up for a spy tour I'd rather see the Deep Throat garage than Ben's Chili Bowl.

If it ends at Ben’s Chili bowl I’m done. That place is delicious

Electronic Arts tried something like this once. It was called "Majestic". [1] It was sort of a mass-market conspiracy LARP. Unfortunately, it was launched just before 9/11/2001.

[1] https://obscuritory.com/other/majestic/

Maybe the first ARG? Absolutely blew my mind as a kid. No install disk in the box. Just a sheet of instructions, a URL, and a form to fill in your email address, pager number, and ICQ number, and then you wait for the game to find you. Way ahead of its time.

If anybody can help me get back my ICQ # of 4860610 that'd be dope.

Gah I miss those connections. Facebook ruined my marriage. ICQ helped me learn to appreciate different people.

https://crzysdrs.net/dv/victim/275-our-new-office-passtime-i...

https://crzysdrs.net/dv/victim/283-messing-with-people-who-p...

> What if the weather is bad?

You're a spy. Suck it up, and take a lesson from the USPS.

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."

That quote actually belongs to these folks originally,

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Express

It originally belongs to Herodotus: τοὺς οὔτε νιφετός, οὐκ ὄμβρος, οὐ καῦμα, οὐ νὺξ ἔργει μὴ οὐ κατανύσαι τὸν προκείμενον αὐτῷ δρόμον τὴν ταχίστην.

Even better, I stand corrected.

ευχαριστώ πολύ

This reminds me of the Accomplice brand of immersive theater that’s been active in New York and other cities for years now. It’s part walking tour, part play, part mystery, part scavenger hunt. The best part is trying to figure out whether the people you come across are actually part of the play/tour or not—getting it wrong has led to some funny reactions.

https://www.accomplicetheshow.com/

The FAQ is missing a critical question: “will you be arrested for playing a spy in DC?” ;)

It would be funny if this was actually orchestrated by a foreign power as a way of collecting real intel.

"Break into the oval office and take a photo of any documents you find there. Upload your photos to advance to the next level"

Or.. a way to throw up a ton of noise around interesting targets.

Having hundreds of people showing up in various places, doing semi-suspicious things, generally getting in the way, etc is a good way to flood, annoy, and bury observers. Having the same people show up among each of the locations gives good cover for someone else to blend in.

If it's a foreign power, this will probably cost them a fraction of what it will cost observer nations.

I can see the Yelp reviews now: `That White House escape room was really too hard, though +1 for the “Guard”’s guns that gave me the impression they were firing real bullets! Don’t try if you are out of shape — a lot of running is required!

Now I m stuck in the “prison” part of the game and haven’t been able to figure out how to get out and advance to the next level.

Only two stars because it’s really too hard for normal people.’

Free Fitbits to all active duty U.S. military personnel....

And 'Special' TikTok app

"This test is so outside the box, I can't-- I mean WON'T even tell you what you are looking for."

"Congratulations, you managed to complete this absolutely meaningless test."

https://i1.theportalwiki.net/img/e/e9/GLaDOS_mp_coop_radarro...

You might be interested in the novel Deep State by Walter Jon Williams.

The protagonist runs massive games set in the real world. In the preceding book she exploited her players to solve the murder of one of her co-founders. Now she's recruited by the CIA to use a game as a cover for a coup.

(The title predates the use of Deep State to describe the US government. The term was originally used to describe the Turkish government, where there's an actually plausible academic case it exists)

https://docs.google.com/forms/u/0/d/e/1FAIpQLSc_IxgLSADvSYIY...

This looks like great fun! Not a fan of guided tours, so this could be a cool alternative.

I’ve done a couple of these they’re good fun and a nice way to explore, we often tie one in to a city break. https://www.treasuretrails.co.uk/

This is a genuine question: I don't really see how it's possible for spies to exist in the modern day. Our world is far too technologically advanced for espionage to work anymore right?

Can someone correct me if I'm wrong.

>This is a genuine question: I don't really see how it's possible for spies to exist in the modern day. Our world is far too technologically advanced for espionage to work anymore right?

>Can someone correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't have any special knowledge, but a DDG search for "espionage cases recent" returned a large number of results. Here's a sampling:

https://news.clearancejobs.com/2020/12/30/the-top-5-u-s-espi...

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2022-11-16/chinese-n...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/14/us/politics/navy-nuclear-...

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-cia-officer-arrested-a...

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-nsa-employee-arrested-...

https://apnews.com/article/sweden-government-stockholm-57182...

https://news.clearancejobs.com/2021/12/27/top-5-u-s-espionag...

I'd note that none of these include any US/Western spies. If you're inclined to believe it (I have no idea one way or another), Evan Gershkovich[0] is another spy.

[0] https://abc7chicago.com/evan-gershkovich-in-court-wall-stree...

You may well be right that it's impossible "for spies to exist in the modern day" but various governments don't seem to hold that view.

Now you've got me curious. What's so different about now that would make espionage unworkable? I'd think espionage would be much easier due to technological advances, not harder.

I'd be quite interested to hear your thoughts if you don't mind expanding on your comment. Thanks!

Edit: I meant to also say that given the number of cases that are being prosecuted, it seems likely that many more folks are engaged in espionage who haven't been discovered or who have been discovered and are being used as a conduit for disinformation. Again, I have no special knowledge about that, but (at least to me) it makes sense that there would be more, possibly many more.

People still believe earth is flat, Trump won, govt employees in Pentagon using TikTok, Trump refusing to use secured phone initially, QAnon, etc and you are asking if espionage is possible in this modern world. Your phone itself is a spy. A "spy" can literally inject virus and siphon so much data. Also espionage is not done MI, JB style. Most real world espionage is so dormant and slow, mostly observing and collecting information and passing on.

I understand how that might seem the case, however the reality is quite the opposite. Intelligence work in general is mostly not about finding out some coke-recipe tier secrets, but rather verifying and giving confidence levels to things we already know.

n world of technology, where the problem is no longer the lack of information, but rather the abundance of it, such work is more important than ever.

Curation is valuable in all option-rich environments, be it libraries, hardware stores or intelligence gathering.

Ok, having analysts definitely still makes sense to me. It should be a few years before AI can do what we can as humans, or at the very least, people will still be able to meaningfully make an impact for a while.

I guess what I mean is the whole dead drop, casing the scene out, James Bond era of spying.

Firewalls, air gaps, and authentication are still quite effective. Having a person who authenticates through those on your behalf, and exfiltrates information by hand, is still valuable. Not to mention the information and work that is intentionally kept in-person.

To see the value of spying, see two recent news cycles:

The 21-year-old National Guardsman who leaked a bunch of sensitive info for forum cred (thereby causing a lot of headaches for the U.S. presidential administration). Just imagine that info going to a foreign govt instead.

The court case in which Google got admonished for taking any sensitive info off of chat, and auto deleting history. A spy in those offline conversations could still report on what was said.

I wonder how things change when you reliably are able to read and write to the brain in a wireless manner.

"Offline" and "in-person" won't mean the same things anymore.

>Take your time, progress at your own pace...

Which Agency is recruiting?

The Last Starspy

Jejune institute vibes

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