How accurate....?
How accurate is this......idea? I hate to sound ignorant but do we really have hired assassins? It would be a cool job though I am now too old for it.
But if I were in my early 20's.........
It is just Hollywood, the US does not do anything remotely close to that and would not use a woman to carry out assassinations if they did. CIA is not like the movies where they go on missions to kill people. Agents are generally not even taught how to use weapons or kill people aside from the ones going to the most dangerous places doing the most dangerous work. Most agents simply pose as someone visiting or doing some other job in another country and try to gather information about numerous things like politics, economics, manufacturing, dissatisfaction with leaders, corruption in governments, where money is going, etc. Much of their work has nothing to do with military capability or anything dangerous but more to do with politics and political influence and making friends and contacts.
shareWow! I never expected such a well written response. And very informative as well.
I thank you.
I generally agree with you about US intelligence agencies, but I can almost guarantee we have a few guys 'on call' in the event that we just absolutely have to do some dirty deeds. But it's not some special assassin's club like the Hollywood B.S. more like SEALs or somesuch with additional training and a C-130 on standby in case some dictator goes loco.
Most CIA employees aren't field agents at all, but analysts with desk jobs looking over phone records and satellite photos all day long. Kind of a boring job, but very necessary.
True- most CIA employees work at mundane tasks gathering intel. But that doesn't mean the agency doesn't have assassination teams to get rid of troublesome individuals. Why wouldn't they? Just remember- the CIA's predecessor during World War II was the OSS. And OSS agents received "special" training in the elimination of enemy personnel in occupied Europe. For you to state that the United States Government doesn't do anything remotely like that is ludicrous on its face. Why should it be any different now? How about all those clumsy, failed attempts to bump off Castro after he came to power? All governments employ that option to get rid of undesirables who they feel represent a threat of some kind. It's not limited to totalitarian states like Nazi Germany or Communist Russia. Don't you think British Intelligence and Israeli Intelligence have used trained assassins? Of course they have. And there's no reason why we wouldn't either. And how do you know we wouldn't use female assassins? Women can use their guile, resourcefulness, and their looks to get inside places where a man would have difficulty entering. A woman wouldn't arouse suspicion the way a male operative would. And they can be just as effective at killing as a man, if not more so.
shareThe US does not have well dressed slick James Bond like CIA assassins that go around killing people in the US or different countries, especially these PC days. When the US wants someone out of power or taken out we try to get others to do it so we don't get our hands too dirty. The US tried to get cubans by funding a coup or paying the Mafia to take out Castro in Cuba. We use our military or drones if we really need to take a group or individual out and that is mainly in a war zone, a CIA operative may give the location of the individual to be taken out but in most cases would not do it himself. If it ever came to light that CIA agents went around killing people these days there would be hell to pay and no country we deal with would stand for it. There was an uproar when CIA agents detained and removed suspected terrorists in other countries after 9/11, imagine if they went ahead and killed them. In the past mostly during wars we did use CIA and non military CIA type agencies for assassinations of enemies that remained elusive but not as much these days. CIA is mainly analyzing and studying intelligence and making contacts and sometimes trying to stir things up and not getting close to enemies without their knowledge and then killing them like seen in the movies. In a war zone CIA and other agencies agents closely tied to the military may go on operations and kill if necessary but it is pretty much always confined to a war zone and closely tied with the military and not like what you see in movies.
You can keep believing "Point of No Return" and "Alias" type shows and movies all you want, it is not realistic at all and does not happen, just like the CSI shows where agents are all good looking young trendy yuppies who carry guns, pursue and arrest suspects, and drive 70K Hummers and live in nice houses and apartments, completely unrealistic in every way. The CIA does not train all its recruits to kill people and go on missions to kill people.
Russia, Israel, and other countries do have a history of agencies and agents who have killed people at home and in other countries but much of that was in the past unless you are dealing with Israels conflicts in which agents usually relay information to the military where a strike is organized now.
From what I've read, I pretty much agree with everying 06986 says.
The CIA seems to have somewhat changed its focus a few times over the years. Taking on new rolls of inteligence gathering, giving former rolls to other agencies for better management.
In the same way, other agencies in the US military have evolved to activly gather inteligence and conduct overt action using civilians. The first US soldier killed in Afghanistan was ment to be employed by such an agency.
Like you would know beyond any shadow of doubt that we don't have agents trained for assassin gigs in the US government. It would be stupid to think otherwise. The movies may Hollywoodize the idea with James Bond in the UK, etc., but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
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"I... don't... see... any... method... at... all... sir."