CIA Sent Him Deep Undercover to Spy on Islamic Radicals. It Cost Him Everything | Hacker News Reader

CIA Sent Him Deep Undercover to Spy on Islamic Radicals. It Cost Him Everything

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44 pointswarrenm25 comments

I suspect that anyone headed into a deep cover situation ... you're rolling the dice in almost every way. There's no magic prep that makes any given individual immune to coming out of it far worse, or to avoid tragic results.

Complicating things further people who have access / opportunity to join a group like Al Qaeda, maybe already are at a disadvantage personally / psychologically as far as outcomes go.

A high school friend of mine in Modesto became a cop and ended up doing undercover work - small-time stuff, mostly dealing with biker gangs and meth dealers. Years later we met up and he told me the undercover work he did reminded him of the movie, "Donnie Brasco", because the movie showed how it becomes extremely difficult to separate your "undercover life" from your regular home life. For years after he retired, he had nightmares about bumping into someone he busted. He left Modesto, but still gets nervous whenever he hears a Harley cruising by him out on the road.

I suspect there's an overlap where if you're playing the part for enough hours of a day that it stops mattering psychologically that you're "playing the part".

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” ― Kurt Vonnegut

you do realise that you may be identifiable on HN by third parties, depending on what you publish?

https://archive.is/rZufj

not paywalled on my end

> And his transformation was impressive. He “looked like something out of Hollywood central casting,” recalls a former senior agency official: an Arabic-speaking Salafist with a “killer beard,” decked out in traditional garb, an all-American Midwestern white boy turned jihadist.

I've got to say, it's kinda surprising they'd send a white guy.

I know there are some white jihadists - but compared to sending someone less obvious it kinda seems like just as much danger, but much less chance of success?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzO78K4l4kI

I'm surprised they didn't manage to shoehorn in a Havana Syndrome plug.

"Nor have questions ceased about how the CIA ministers to — or disregards — the acute psychic strains sometimes faced by intelligence officers like him, or more broadly, about how it oversees the larger deep-cover corps of which he was a part."

Are we really concerned about the psychic abilities of our spies, or is this gross editing that should be psychological strains? Has MK-Ultra percolated throughout the spy agencies to the points spies are psychic now? I want more details on that please

The word has been used correctly, "psychic" doesn't just exclusively refer to paranormal mindreading stuff:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/psychic

Why do journalists like writing these endless articles about mental health?

Woe to the spooks; they should be treated better

This particular article was likely co-produced by the CIA itself as a sort of puff piece. "Look how awesome and brave our James Bond supersoldiers are. But also they struggle too!!!"

Random journos don't get this kind of access to multiple Agency personnel unless it's part of a PR campaign approved by higher ups.

This is absolutely a work of propaganda the CIA worked on.

Have you read the article? The CIA doesn't look good and if I got any point across it is that I wouldn't like to be in the situation.

The broader story here, which the article totally omits, is that the CIA is responsible for fueling and arming extremist groups such as ISIS as a means to take down "enemy regimes" in the region like Syria and Iran, in the wake of the largely failed military occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.

The subject of this article was probably involved in such nasty clandestine work, which could partly explain why he was so nihilistic/unhappy.

The human toll of the war on terror, on the domestic side, is a topic that remains under-explored.

Western society, and the US in particular, would benefit from greater introspection into the true costs of its policies.

Unexplored? Seems like every other movie, book or article about the recent wars is about trauma and PTSD. You can't get away from introspection! I'd much rather read something about the effect it had on the people living there.

I didn't use the word unexplored.

It's an aspect of undercover that makes the job much more difficult than a 007 type of spy. There's been plenty of movies made out of undercover agents trying to juggle their real life relationships while keeping it hidden from their undercover relationships. The real life relationships tend to not workout so well.

It's an interesting concept that a lot of people take for granted on the struggles it can cause.

Why does it bother you?

Imagine feeling bad for the CIA in this day and age. They deserve what they get.

I lament every day that my skills as a spy aren't put to the test. Whe nyou imagine spying, you think of james bond gunchases in your car. I definitely have proven my skills in the area, but this is NOT where a genius places his mind.

He places it into his langages and perfectioning the disguise. A spy has many outfits. A spy doesn't shop at the gap.

Ultimately an ingagement like this would cost me nothing. To the government it would be everything. Spying aint cheep. $1k and hour, plus the expenses. Desent spy gear, oh I must.

Part of the problems is the alphebet agents switched the low budget, "bargin bin" spys. The last jumook I spoken too barely understand the words of english let alone parsiki. He'll never get inside a local. I get welcome the home. Warm bread and pastry from scratch.

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