Surveillance and Surveillance Detection: A CIA Insider's Guide

Introduction

THE JOB OF EVERY CIA OPERATIONS officer is to recruit spies to steal secrets. It’s really as simple as that. Every ops officer gets promoted, or fails, based on his ability to do this one thing. It’s harder than it sounds. My CIA instructors told me on my very first day of ops training that I had to convince a target that I was his best friend to the point that he was willing to commit espionage for me. In some cases, he was committing treason for me. The stakes were that high. If we got caught, I would likely be expelled from whatever country I happened to be in. But my agent, the guy I had recruited, could spend the rest of his life in prison. In some parts of the world he could be executed. So I had to do my part to make sure that I was never, ever followed to or from a meeting. And I had to train the source, what the CIA calls the agent, to do the same.

Surveillance and surveillance detection are an art form. After learning how to recruit spies to steal secrets, CIA operations officers learn surveillance detection because they are the two most important skills a person can have. Your life, safety, and security—and that of your agent—rely on your ability to safely get to and from a meeting.

The point of surveillance detection is to determine whether or not you are being followed by employing an increasingly sophisticated route, coupled with normal stops that a person would make in the course of running errands. Why? Because you want your surveillants to conclude, This guy isn’t doing anything unusual. He stopped to pick up his dry cleaning, he stopped to buy a bottle of wine, and he stopped by buy a shower curtain. We won’t waste time on him anymore. We’ll move on to the next person.

That’s in the world of intelligence. But if you’re an average citizen going about your normal business, maybe you want to know if a potential mugger is following you. Perhaps you want to know if your spouse has hired a private investigator to follow you. Perhaps the cops, or an insurance investigator, are checking you out for some reason. Whatever it is, you have the right to know about your surroundings and about who may mean you harm. That’s what this book will teach you to do.

As I said, this is a skill that can be learned. You have to be calm, non-alerting, as we used to say at the CIA, and not raise suspicion. Fictional jewel thief A. J. Raffles explained to his less-experienced co-conspirator about surveillance: "But I felt him following me when I made tracks; though, of course, I didn’t turn around to see. Why not? says the co-conspirator. My dear Bunny, says Raffles, It’s the very worst thing you can do. As long as you look unsuspecting, they keep their distance, and so long as they keep their distance you stand a chance. Once you show that you know you’re being followed, it’s fight or flight for all you’re worth. I never even looked around. And mind you never do the same."

With that said, you must always be aware of your surroundings. You must always pay attention. You must always be prepared for the worst.

Toward the end of my CIA career, I was assigned to a dangerous Third World country. Terrorist groups controlled the countryside and had a significant presence in many of the country’s largest cities. Foreigners were killed there with some regularity. One day I left my small hotel to drive to the office. Just like every other day, I left at a different time and took a different route so as not to establish a pattern. I was about a quarter of a mile away when I noticed a guy on a motorcycle, wearing a red helmet, and trying very hard to stay in my blind spot. What bothered me the most was the helmet. I don’t know where anybody would even buy a helmet in this country, and certainly, he was the only person I ever saw wearing one. He broke away from me about a quarter mile from my office. I was worried, but not panicked. Was it a coincidence that a helmeted motorcyclist had followed me to work? I wasn’t sure yet.

I worked a normal day, which in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks was fourteen hours. It was dark when I left the office. I only got about a quarter mile when I saw him again. He was wearing the red helmet and he was parked under a tree, waiting for me. I was frightened, but I still thought that it could be a strange coincidence. So I took a completely illogical route back to the hotel. I made several right-hand turns, forcing me to make several lefts. I overshot the neighborhood the hotel was in, forcing me to double back. And all that time, the motorcycle was on me. He broke off and drove away as I approached the hotel.

This was the very definition of surveillance: Multiple sightings at time and distance. I had seen the motorcyclist more than once, at different times of the day, and at different places. I was under surveillance. The question now was whether the surveillance was hostile or friendly, such as the local police or intelligence service just checking me out.

The next morning, I woke up at 5:00 a.m., well before sunrise. I poked my head out the front door of the hotel and looked up and down the street, seeing nothing. I checked under my car for bombs and GPS devices, again seeing nothing. I got in the car by 5:30, pulled out of the gated hotel property, and made a right, heading into a residential neighborhood, rather than a left toward the highway that would have taken me directly to the office. And there he was again.

I worked hard to remain calm. Trying to lose him would have alerted him to the fact that I knew he was following me. I had to make him feel comfortable. I had to make him think that I believed it was normal for a helmeted motorcyclist to be following me to work for days at a time and at 5:30 in the morning. I took an odd route to the office again and, again, he broke off about a quarter of a mile before my destination.

I was practically panicked. I had to assume that the surveillance was hostile, that the driver meant me harm. I waited an hour for the security officer to get to work. When he did, I went straight to his office. I’m under surveillance, I said. I’m positive. I recounted to him the three sightings, the locations, and the times. He agreed that I had a problem and said we needed to talk to the chief right away.

The chief arrived an hour later and, trying to control my panic, I repeated the story to him. He listened with concern and finally said, Well, you know what you have to do. I did. I would sign out a gun from Security. If I see him again, I’m going to kill him, was my response.

That afternoon, I had a meeting with members of the host country’s intelligence service. It was a routine meeting of paper exchanges and information sharing. On the way out, I had a thought. I turned and said, General, let me ask you a question. Are you following me? He said no and asked why. I told him, "I’m under surveillance. I’m positive that I’m under surveillance. And if it’s not you or your men following me, I have to assume that it’s hostile. If I see him again, I’m going to kill him. There won’t be any warnings."

I never saw him again. I had to assume that my foreign friends were curious to see how I was spending my time when I wasn’t liaising with them. And they chose somebody to follow me who was terrible at surveillance. I actually saved the guy’s life by asking that off-handed question. As frightening as the experience was, it made me realize that I was good at surveillance detection. Very good.

I became a surveillance detection instructor when I returned to CIA Headquarters at the end of my tour, teaching young CIA officers yet to be stationed overseas how to stay safe and alive by spotting surveillance. And when I left the CIA, I created and taught surveillance and surveillance detection classes at the university level. As I said earlier, there are real-life applications for this kind of skill outside of the CIA.

This book will walk you through the steps of surveillance and surveillance detection, including how to craft a sophisticated surveillance detection route, how to identify appropriate surveillance detection route (SDR) stops, and how to conduct yourself in a non-alerting fashion. It will teach you to be secure in the knowledge that you are not (or are) being followed. It’ll teach you how to construct a professional SDR and how to conduct surveillance on your own.

We will use maps and Google Earth images to plan the perfect route in advance. And we’ll mix things up with alternate modes of transportation. Remember, the goal is to get from Point A to Point B safely and securely, being so boring and routine while you’re doing it that the cops/bad guys/private investigators/jealous spouses and others lose interest and move on.

CHAPTER 1

What Are Surveillance and Surveillance Detection?

THE DEFINITION OF SURVEILLANCE IS EASY. It’s multiple sightings at time and distance. That means that you have seen a person or people following you, or watching you, more than once, at different times, and at different places. It could be on the way to work and on the way home from work. It could be while you’re out shopping or going to the gym. It could be in church or at the mall. Surveillance detection is simply the act of spotting that surveillance. You do that by employing an increasingly sophisticated route, coupled with normal stops that a person would make in the course of running errands.

So what are the surveillants looking for? Why would they be interested in you? The first thing a professional surveillant will look for is demeanor. Do you look suspicious? Are you looking over your shoulder to see if you’re being followed? What does your body language look like? Are you walking more quickly than anybody else? Are you speeding or driving aggressively? Are you changing clothes in the middle of an SDR? Believe it or not, this can sometimes be a good idea, particularly if you’re trying to lose surveillance. But under normal circumstances, nobody goes into a store wearing a blue shirt and jeans and comes out wearing a red shirt and khakis. Destination also matters. In the intelligence world, a surveillant is interested to know if you’re going to