I was really proud to serve my country and it was simply part of it. I see your point, but I didn’t see it as weird. Yeah, it’s just that most of us working mothers don’t go from packing lunch to chasing down rogue nuclear weapons. You’re such trying to survive and get through it. I realize that the career is a little bit odd, but I don’t want to overplay that because millions of working mothers are trying to figure out balance. Sometimes of course, I’d have to take my kids into the office, and I’d toss some animal crackers and some cheap little toy, just to give me 20 minutes to write something or make phone calls. I was fortunate in that when my twins were born my parents were close by so they helped out a lot when I had to travel. But you’ve done that too - been a mother and a spy. Going back to those recent TV shows about spies, lately I’ve noticed that a lot of them are mothers. And hopefully you have something to offer to this person so that they are listening very carefully to what you have to say. It takes years and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yeah, I can think of a couple instances, but the training that goes into operations officers is incredible. Were there times when you’d be meeting and looking right into the eyes of somebody and think, “This guy would kill me if he could.” You’re not this lone wolf out there trying to figure it out all on your own. If I was meeting with a terror suspect, I had surveillance on that meeting, and it was generally in a quiet but public space. (People think) it’s a lone wolf thing and it’s not. And here’s the other huge fallacy that you see in how operations are depicted generally. That’s what my mother always wants to know. How dangerous was it? Did you ever feel real physical danger during your CIA career? I know what happened to some, I don’t know what happened to others. I just lost my career, but there were a lot of people whose lives and families were in jeopardy. Many of those scientists were killed or they disappeared or they went to Iran. I was deeply disturbed by those that we promised to and could not help. Yeah, and to this day, that causes me great sorrow. When you were blown, some of them must have been endangered as well? I felt very exposed, to say the least.Īnd what about that whole network of recruits you’d cultivated. Until we moved to New Mexico where we are now, we were living in Washington, D.C., and our front door was a few steps from the street. The media maelstrom was incredible and went on for several years. Because there are so many disturbed people in the world. So when your identity was leaked to the press and that blew your cover and ended your career. And regardless if they’re nice people or not, you have made a pact with them to protect them because sometimes the consequences are pretty dire. In many cases, you develop a real friendship, a real relationship with them. Oh absolutely, they’re human beings after all. Would you ever like them or feel sympathy for them? One of the things that’s always struck me as just particularly difficult for case workers is getting attached to your recruits. That you were doing something worthwhile. It felt - not all the time - but it felt many times like it was meaningful. And what that means is essentially making sure the bad guys - whether they’re terrorists or rogue nation states - do not get a nuclear capability. What I can tell you is that my expertise began to develop and coalesce around counter-nuclear proliferation. What can you tell us about what you actually did in the field? No, it really doesn’t work because there’s too many emotions involved. and most other Western intelligence services do not use the so-called "honeypot" (strategy of) seduction. She spoke about her book, her experience and the media portrayals of spy work with "To The Best Of Our Knowledge" producer and host Anne Strainchamps:Īnne Strainchamps: In many popular depictions of female spies, they’re seen seducing somebody for intelligence. Last year, she released her second spy-thriller novel, "Burned," written in part to combat popular myths about female spies. Wilson spent years recruiting and developing a network of intelligence agents before she was publicly outed by senior members of the second Bush administration in 2003.Īnd although she no longer jetsets around the world for the CIA, she hasn’t left the spy game entirely. It’s an image popular culture has reinforced for decades in James Bond films and in shows like "Covert Affairs" or "Alias." But it turns out that actual female spies are nothing like their on-screen counterparts.Īccording to former CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, real spy work is far more mundane, comprised mostly of research and other tasks that require time and patience. For a lot of people, the idea of a female spy resembles something akin to Mata Hari or La Femme Nikita - a beautiful seductress who uses her sexuality to acquire state secrets and beguile men.
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