I spent a day with EX C.I.A. AGENTS

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Now, let's return to the world of former CIA agents. How often do CIA agents and officers go undercover and have you ever been in serious danger or nearly exposed? -My entire career was undercover. We had always used masks, stunt masks, like Hollywood. Then we had a category of masks that were very effective. Everyone had beards because that's how you hid the edge, but you could change anyone's ethnicity with gloves and you could turn men into women and women into men. We made an animated mask, which turned out very good. It's so good that they asked me to go to the White House and show it to the president, but I ended up with the face of a young woman who works for me.

This was the president, George H. W. Bush. I informed him. I said, now it's much better. I want to show you what we have. He was looking around my chair and I said, "Well, I'm wearing it, but here I'm going to take it off and show you." I started doing the Tom Cruise peel. Very cool. - You left everyone speechless at that moment. They had no idea how good your costumes had become at that point. -When we were in the Oval Office, there was a photographer wandering around the room. He was holding it up for him to see and they airbrushed the mask out of my hand, in the photo they sent me and it looks like I'm lecturing the president of the United States. -Did they have to airbrush it because that was evidence of how good the costume had become? -For many, many years it was classified that we could do that. -What is your most memorable CIA story? -There is a very bad drug trafficker in a country, that is not the United States. -Classified. -The government wants to get this drug trafficker off the streets.

Well, he's always surrounded by bodyguards with a lot of weapons. What happened is that he was very routine, that is, he did the same thing every day. He parked at this large intersection every day to enter one of his clubs. There were agency people. It's a big intersection that goes like this and they staged a fake car accident as soon as he got out of his car. The drug dealer and all his guys ran out into the street to see what was going on and then a bunch of other people jumped in from behind, put some hoods on their heads, got a head start and that drug dealer can't hurt people anymore. -Well then.

What got him into trouble was following routines, which is boring, and also not paying attention to his surroundings because he was distracted by the possibility of losing a human life. -That's exactly it. Be careful with distraction. -What is your strangest situation that you found in the CIA? -One is the time I thought they were going to steal my car. I was driving alone to work. I stopped at a traffic light and a man was crossing in front of me and he stopped because he saw that he was not covered. He started doing something very Harvey Weinstein in the middle of the road. -Seeing the face, something very taboo, which invites unwanted solicitations. -Then they came from all directions to see what was causing this.

Not what he was doing, but what I was doing to cause this. My car was being surrounded and I basically had to use my ambush training that the CIA had taught us. As if they can't capture you, you can always use your car as a weapon. That day I had to use my car to hit this guy and move, so as not to be surrounded and kidnapped. -You just knocked him down. -I didn't have to step on the ground. I only had to hit it a couple of times. -A couple of times you will go back and go back and forward a couple of times.

Was it like a...? He -he gave him the first blow, he fell. He was surprised. He says, "I can't believe you did that to me." -They are both in shock at that moment. -Because I didn't think about my training, it just started to work, thank God. He got back up and started. -You didn't have to back away, he gave you space to hit him again. -Yeah, I was like, "I'll hit you a second time. I'll run you over," and he was yelling in English and I was yelling in Arabic. I finally hit him a second time and then she saw how very, very serious he was and finally he pulled out of the way and I just ran the stop sign. -How many people surrounded your car when you were able to escape? -Several hundred. -Several hundred, there was a total mob. -Crew.

They are mobs. -At that time they also had role-playing games. -AK, AK-47, machine guns. It's good to laugh now in the moment, boy, ooh. -How dangerous would these missions be? -The Shiite insurgents were shooting rockets at us towards the green zone and they became very good at aiming at their targets. Fortunately, we had an early warning system. The siren sounded and kept going in, in, in. That gave you up to four seconds to enter a bunker. They would fire 3, 6, 9, 12 rockets at a time. You're like in the bunker, you're like praying and things are landing around you and the ground shakes when it lands near you and the sound of the explosion and the smell of burning things in the air and then the sweat because it's 130 degrees outside.

Just think about all these things. You say, "Well, you don't see that in the movies." -That's what's going through your mind at that moment. This is even worse than the movies make it seem. -It was like every afternoon. Why the afternoon? I don't know. They drank tea and then went to shoot rockets. -Yes, that's when everyone lets loose and is ready to fire some rockets. Have your beliefs or personal morals ever contradicted yourCIA missions? -The CIA in general never asked me to do anything that they found problematic from a moral, ethical or religious point of view.

Now I worked with a couple of people who had no morals and were trying to do things that weren't right. There were very difficult times when my husband and I had to make the decision not to do something a boss had told him to do. -Maybe not on a systemic level like the CIA, but more on a personal level where someone tells you to do something that fits their personal desires? -Yes, I was going to leave it well and I was changing my intelligence. I was rewriting what really happened in the meeting and my husband was there and said, "That's not what happened." -Any position that can give someone power and the ability to acquire more power, there will be corruption.

I feel like that's just a fact, no matter what area, what kind of person, what field, what part of the world. -That is absolutely true. -Now that you are out of the CIA, do you still feel the need to be on guard and alert and watch over your shoulder at all times or have you been able to separate yourself from that part of your life? -It's so natural now that you just do it, it doesn't require much effort. My address is nowhere like you couldn't find my house if you tried. Just because I don't own my house.

It is an LLC that is wrapped up in a trust. My address is not on the document. I'm still making sure my privacy is taken care of. -Is that why there are no windows behind you to be seen with your location very clear behind you outside the window? -I have a good friend of mine who is an FBI agent and he was going to come visit me once, and I said: "I don't give my address to anyone." He said, "I can find you." He checked everything and couldn't find my address. He finally called me when he was near my city and I said, "Okay, this is how you get to my house." -You drive for three minutes, you see the tree on the right, when you have counted the tree with the three apples, you know you have come far. -You precisely read the email. -The only thing you can stop reading is reading other people, simply because you deal with so many people who lie, fabricate and embellish so many bad sources.

The worst thing about the human condition, I don't trust people very easily. I assume everyone is lying to me until I can prove otherwise. -Guilty until proven innocent. Have there been any shocking takeaways or conclusions you've had since leaving the CIA? -How many spies there are in the United States, Chinese spies are everywhere. They are in our government and our universities. China is our greatest adversary. They are the ones who are flooding more spies into the United States than anyone else. Then of course there is Russia, Cuba is very good at what they do, especially Cuban women.

If you ever run into a Cuban woman, be careful. They'll slit your throat in the blink of an eye. I'm not kidding. -Oh. You hear it said that any Cuban woman who is looking and doesn't cut her throat, maybe will. -If they worked for the Cuban government, if they are Cuban spies. -Are there conspiracy theories circulating out there that are closer to the truth than most people might think? -The only thing that comes to mind because much of the conspiracy there is, of course, totally crazy. I can tell you what the deep state really is. Again, not super sexy.

They are not presidential appointees, they are not government appointees. It is the career employees and various government agencies who choose their agency, whatever it is, who are trying to change things because they hate what is happening. Whatever political party he is affiliated with, he is trying to screw them over. It's not some big conspiracy theory where there are guys meeting in a basement and a bunch of billionaires because the billionaires don't hide it. They finance what they want. That's no secret, but when everyone thinks there's a secret society and government they like, they gather back in the basement. -Yes, it's painted to be like the Illuminati or something like that. -They are there, meaning they have been in the same position for so long, they are not political employees who are going to be fired easily and therefore allowing them to "get away with it." -In the era of almost every website or application that we interact with on a daily basis, gaining access to our personal data and being able to use it, however they want, is there anything that you use in your daily life that helps ensure?

Does your privacy and data remain secure? -I have a flip phone. I have another smartphone. -Retro. -Yes, I have never sent a text message in my life. Don't text me. -It's not a rare find, man. Someone who knows how to use a webcam, but has never shipped one... It's like a combination you don't think exists. -I use a VPN, a virtual private network every time I am on the Internet so that it encrypts everything. -That's our sponsor. That's our sponsor for today's video. -Wonderful, you are doing the right thing. -Wow, what a great transition. Is there any advice you learned at the CIA that you use in your head in everyday life? -I just do, you know, little things like, and this isn't tech stuff, but making sure they don't follow me home.

If you want to know if you are being followed, go around the block, if that car is still behind you, you are being followed. -It is easy. -It is called surveillance detection route. -In other words, a circle. -If you are a spy, let's say you go to a meeting. You're not going to just get in your car from your apartment and go straight to McDonald's, if that's the meaning, you're going to go to Starbucks and you're going to buy a Walmart, then you're going to go to Home Depot, then you're going to go to the meeting.

If you see the same car, the same people everywhere, then you know you should abort and not go to the meeting. -You had to learn a lot about how to detect lies while you were in the CIA, do you have any advice for people who observe about how to detect a lie or how to lie better? -Establish what your baseline is. You have to be able to have a good, very nonchalant conversation with them before you move on to the tough questions. Then, when you ask them what you think might be problematic or might be an area where they lie, you'll see if their body language changes.

Create energy. And then that energy has to spill out of your body in some way, shape, or form. You will see them react. If I suddenly feel totally comfortable, suddenly I get like this, that's an indicator. -It's a natural human response when you're lying for the most part, for most people, because of that stress, that energy of needing to escape in some way, or try to escape in some way. -Your posture will change. They will continue to move in their seats. If a man wears a collar, I have dealt with so many sources like this, who started lying to me and started pulling on the collar as if he was choking them.

In our line of work, we call it the hangman's noose. -They know when it's happening. Well, they don't know when it's happening, their body knows what's happening. There you have it, some tips to detect when someone is lying to you or know how to lie better. Andy wants to know how accurate the theory is that the CIA and FBI can spy on us through our webcams at any time. -If they wanted to, they could, but they don't. The agency only operates abroad. This is not about spying on American citizens. The FBI is the one that if you are doing something bad they will spy on you, but it is possible. -You better cover yourself.

Just get a little piece of tape. Put your webcam on. It is not so difficult. -Mine is right here. As soon as we're done, mine is back on top, a piece of duct tape. -Even CIA agents use a piece of duct tape. You can too. -See? This is my piece of tape right here. -What do you think of the way CIA agents and officers are portrayed in movies and television shows? -Most shows show that physical activity and kicking and hitting people and running and all kinds of things drive fast cars. Most of the time, what we play is a psychological game.

I think it's hard to represent on film what our real lives are like, and day in and day out, keeping our cover up and how much time we spend behind a computer. Those are the things you can't see. -Much of your time is

spent

like the rest of us with the blue screen shining in your eyes and burning your retinas. -That's right. -Why do you think the CIA is historically so dominated by men? -It's a good question, because I will tell you that women are the best spies. -Why is that? -Because they blend in, no one expects them.

If you're in a foreign country, everyone thinks that every American man who gets off a plane works for the CIA. Women can get away with it and extract more because people let their guard down or trust them more. -It is the year 2002. I start training. We had a mentor, one mentor for every two students during that professional training. My colleague's name is Adam. He and I were paired with a retired gentleman who was like a CIA superstar and couldn't look at me. -Just because you are a woman. -For two months, I would walk into our little student office and talk to Adam and then Adam quit training, so imagine how awkward he became. -Oh boy.

I had to interact with you at this point. -My mentor came in and he was all collapsed and he actually said: "Michelle, I don't really know what to say, but I don't know what to do with you." -That sounds like a personal problem, much more than something that has to do with you. -He said: "I'm just not used to women participating in operations and you tell me you want to go to the Middle East and do counterterrorism. Look at you. You're smiling. You're friendly. You're cute. Like you'd never be able to do this work". -Of course it has to do with your appearance and how pretty you are. -Instead they put me in a different job.

They say, "Let your husband do that other job." 2002. - Wow. Do you think it has improved a lot at this point? -I think it's probably gotten better, but I feel like a lot of this is probably window dressing. There are a lot of ingrained attitudes about women, about what they are capable of doing in difficult places like the Middle East. I feel like I've proven that's not the case. It's your intellect that matters. It's your experience that matters. What matters is your linguistic abilities. That's why you want to be judged. You don't want to be judged by your gender, but by what you bring to the table. -Alright.

You have five seconds to shout or promote whatever you want directly into the camera. -This latest book,

That was great. Thank you so much. -After spending the day with these former CIA agents. I have come to understand that as much as people embellish their field of work, these agents have truly sacrificed a part of themselves for their previous work and for the perceived security of their country. See you later, bye guys. -Press like. -Did any of that have any effect on your emotional well-being? -What are those things called emotions that you talked about again? -Emotions had never heard of them. -Now you're going to like putting me in a hole here. -Your emotions are like a light switch. -Yes, in a way you are like a chameleon.

That's a simple way of saying it. -That's a skill I wish I could have.

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