# Has anyone ever met a spy? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 7, 2016, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186 "2016-03-07T06:33:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186/1 "2016-03-07T06:33:01Z")
This goes along with the recent thread about having top secret access. Have you ever been in a situation where you felt a coworker or someone else was a spy for either a foreign government or another business trying to steal secrets? ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186/2 "2016-03-07T06:54:35Z")
My sisters are convinced my father was a spy. He was a project director for a US agency doing ag outreach work in Vietnam, the Ivory Coast, the Sudan / Sahel region and elsewhere. He could have been given his skillset and background (Decorated Army Major, Cornell Doctorate, fluent French speaker , but I think he was doing exactly what his job description said. We did seem to hit a lot of the commie hot spots in our travels. We did get kicked out of Khartoum at the point of a tank barrel by the Sudanese communists in 1967-68, but so did all the Americans. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186/3 "2016-03-07T07:05:57Z")
Yes. As a university graduate I interviewed with ASIO. They turned up at my house when I was the only one at home, cool as cuecumbers, and they interviewed me. I also had four later interviews and psych profiles, IQ tests etc. administed by agents and psychologists. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186/4 "2016-03-07T07:39:43Z")
Obviously I was weeded out. šŸ˜› ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186/5 "2016-03-07T10:52:35Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > Yes. As a university graduate I interviewed with ASIO. They turned up at my house when I was the only one at home, cool as cuecumbers, and they interviewed me. I also had four later interviews and psych profiles, IQ tests etc. administed by agents and psychologists. Ok, I looked it up. ASIO is the Australian version of the CIA. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186/6 "2016-03-07T10:57:01Z")
Well, I have met/know a couple of people who ā€˜work forā€™ spy agencies in a couple of different countries. Both are too cagey to admit they actually ā€˜spyā€™. At the same time, itā€™s never very clear what exactly they actually ā€˜doā€™ for those agencies. So, Iā€™m going with, maybe. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186/7 "2016-03-07T11:10:42Z")
Yeah, back in 1994 my boss was retired CIA. All he ever told me was that they recruited him out of the army and at CIA he was a librarian down in several embassies in Central America. I never really got beyond ā€˜Hmmmā€¦ā€™. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21825_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186/8 "2016-03-07T11:21:29Z")
Aw, cā€™mon, if weā€™ve learned anything from from TV, itā€™s that spies are \*always \*ā€œgreeting card salesmen.ā€ Considering some of the places Iā€™ve worked over the years, I expect Iā€™ve met a couple, but I didnā€™t ask and they didnā€™t say. In my first engineering job, a coworker was sure I was a spy for the Naval Investigative Service (which I believe morphed into NCIS) because he overheard me telling someone that I used to be in the Navy. Iā€™m not sure how he made the leap to spy, but he was an odd duck anyway. I have a cousin who liked to have people think he was a spy with NSA when, in reality, he was an accountant who had nothing to do with intelligence or investigations - he just managed their accounts in-house. ---
**Author:** ![Chihuahua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@Chihuahua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chihuahua)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186/9 "2016-03-07T11:31:16Z")
Iā€™m seeing a lot of confusion over what constitutes a spy. OP is describing the source or informant who actually reports to the handler, while some of the responses here assume any intel agency employee qualifies, whether they actually handle sources or not. ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186/10 "2016-03-07T13:15:32Z")
thinking about it, I realise that I know several people who sort of fit that definition. One was a guy I knew at grad school who admitted having carried out a few missions for the CIA in Nepal in his early 20s. Another had worked for the South African government carrying out mercenary jobs in Africa and Asia. And a current colleague had worked in Africa for the French Foreign Legion and is always very cagey when pressed for details. The last two were not spies exactly, but did the sort of stuff you might expect a spy to doā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186/11 "2016-03-07T13:38:02Z")
A truly excellent spy would be unidentifiable. So, I think I meet them all the time. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186/12 "2016-03-07T13:53:24Z")
Knew a 1% biker who turned out to be an undercover cop sent to infiltrate; closest Iā€™ve ever come. This was ages ago and I found out when there was a massive arrest of club members based on the things he had learned and seen. I never flew colors for anyone and didnā€™t have any dog in any of it but something always struck me wrong about him - he was almost too perfectly an example of the stereotype. Didnā€™t think he was a spy; just thought he was freaking nuts. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186/13 "2016-03-07T14:27:57Z")
Yes. One active (in the 1980s), one old CIA guy, one guy who I think was once an intelligence agent but I have no proof, and of course, I could have met many and not known it. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186/14 "2016-03-07T14:38:36Z")
My husband was born overseas because his father was working for the CIA. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186/15 "2016-03-07T14:45:07Z")
My late uncle spent a lot of time in the Middle East as a teacher and was in Iran shortly before the Shah was expelled in the 1970s. Some of his sisters, my aunts but not my mom, were convinced that he was involved in covert operations. If you asked him, heā€™d just laugh. But I suppose heā€™d do that whether he was actually a spy or not. One of my friends was dating and almost married a guy who worked for the CIA, but I have no idea what kind of work he did. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186/16 "2016-03-07T14:46:56Z")
Pretty sure someone in my family is CIA. Thereā€™s just too many ā€œcoincidencesā€. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186/17 "2016-03-07T14:51:34Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > Obviously I was weeded out. šŸ˜› They found out about your posting on the 'Dope. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186/18 "2016-03-07T16:02:52Z")
He wasnā€™t exactly a spy, but he was a courier who carried intormation from actual Cuban spies to the Cuban consulate in Montreal. He was also a grad student in math at McGill. He was expelled from Canada and ended up as math professor at the U. of Havana. I knew him and I was interviewed and the interview shown on TV. The reporter asked me if I had ever seen strange characters in the halls of our building. Anyone who has ever seen a bunch of mathematicians and students will understand how silly that question is. I answered that there were strange looking characters (including heavily bearded me) around the halls all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186/19 "2016-03-07T16:36:01Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > They found out about your posting on the 'Dope. :dubious: No, this was 25 years ago. The only dope back then was me. I didnā€™t really want the job anyway, I just wanted to see the interview process. I saw it, and it was fun. šŸ†’ ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186/20 "2016-03-07T16:40:31Z")
Iā€™m about 95% positive that my HS girlfriendā€™s dad was a spy. He used to go on mysterious trips to mysterious places ā€œdoing history researchā€, while working for the CIA. Oddly, he never took any family members with him, not even my GFā€™s older brother who was a real life history buff. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-met-a-spy/748186.md?page=2)