Covert Activities Quotes

By the late '70s I had come to question the point of a great deal of what we were doing, in terms of the CIA's overall charter.

An Egyptian newspaper once publicly identified me as the C.I.A. station chief in Cairo. It seemed so stupid at the time. I was only 24, a little young to be a station chief, and, of course, I was never with the C.I.A.

In examining the CIA's past and present use of the U.S. media, the Committee finds two reasons for concern. The first is the potential, inherent in covert media operations, for manipulating or incidentally misleading the American public.

I spent close to a decade as an undercover officer in the CIA and have spent most of my adult life collecting intelligence and protecting sources and methods.

An intelligence service is the ideal vehicle for a conspiracy [against its own government]. Its members can travel about at home and abroad under secret orders, and no questions are asked. Every scrap of paper in the files, its membership, its expenditure of funds, its contacts, even enemy contacts, are state secrets.

Turns out, you can take the girl out of the spy school, but you can never take the spy school out of the girl.

"What?" He cut a grin at Kat when he saw the impressed look on her face. "Corporate espionage is my second greatest passion." "With your first being..." Kat prompted. "Gelato," Hale said, and turned back to the group.

We planted bugs, microphones, in premises which interested us in the West. We weren't too successful - I would have said unfortunately in former years, but I don't care anymore now.

...also took for granted that secret services were the only real measure of a nations political health, the only real expression of its subconscious.

The great strength of our Order lies in its concealment; let it never appear in any place in its own name but always covered by another name and another occupation. None is fitter than the three lower degrees of Freemasonry; the public is accustomed to it, expects little from it and therefore takes little notice of it.

Real gs move in silence like lasagna.

Doing things in secret that you are ashamed for others to know is practical atheism. God's knowing doesn't count?

If you are completely transparent, then you have no intelligence service.

I think it was the sense that Turn is a spy thriller, and that's a genre that really fascinates me, in general.

I’m really starting to like all this spy work,” Vee said. “When my normal life gets boring, all I have to do is sidle up next to you.

Against the background of this luminous and sparkling stage Bond stood in the sunshine and felt his mission to be incongruous and remote and his dark profession an affront to his fellow actors.

Spying has always gone on since ancient times.

It doesn't take long to become aware of the presence of the CIA in Laos.

Thrilling, illuminating, heart-pounding. Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy reads like a crackling espionage novel and resonates as only the most compelling history can. Abbott brings to vivid life four extraordinary and audacious women, and runs glorious roughshod over all our traditional notions of the role of women in the Civil War.

If we have to be cat burglars, I'm going to see what' to steal in the fridge." We're trying to find evidence she's the poisoner. Just a thought before you start putting random things in your mouth." Ruth shrugged and walked past Val.

Spontaneous operations performed by individuals and cells here and there over the whole world, without connections between them, have put the local and international intelligence apparatus in a state of confusion, as arresting the members of aborted cells does not influence the operational activities of others who are not connected with them.

Even if you're an adult you still have secrets and scandals following you.

Everyone has something to hide. And if they couldn't hide it the world would be in a lot worse mess than it is.

I read a lot of books for information, like doctor books, spy books. . . .

I delivered a clear and forceful message that although we recognize Russia's intelligence gathering will sometimes take place even if we don't like it, there's a difference between that than either meddling with elections or going after private organizations or commercial entities, and that we're monitoring it carefully, and we will respond appropriately if and when we see this happening.