MovieChat Forums > Body of Lies (2008) Discussion > Implanted transponders for CIA agents

Implanted transponders for CIA agents

posted 15 years ago by tricksoftrade02
6 replies | jump to latest

Disregarding the absurdity of having a young white male in such deep on the ground intel work for the C.I.A. in a Arab country, it seems to me that the CIA should have some contingency for an American CIA operatives becoming captives of a terrorist cell.

Implanted transponders of some sort would have solved the problem presented in the movie. Of course, such a program would be highly classified because of the possibility of the signal being intercepted/corrupted by terrorist cells or other countries intelligence agencies.

The technology should be available to activate it in special situations like the one in the movie and not have it transmit at all times. Ferris was holding the cell phone in the sky as a becon to his location, why not have the transponder inside him?

[–] junmengo 15 years ago

that was ridicoulous you can put a GPS device on you cat or dog, in case he get lost

and the CIA cant track down like the most important agent in the middle east?

aside that, i really enjoyed the movie

[–] wildcardgal 15 years ago

Actually, you CAN get your pets implanted with tracking chips. It's becoming very common in the US.

Let slip the Determined Kitten of Doom!

[–] junmengo 15 years ago

i'm sorry i mean

CAN

[–] trappershawn 15 years ago

I agree totally about the GPS transponder. When I first watched it with my wife, that's the first thing I said during that scene.

As for a white guy deep undercover in the middle east. This was one of those things that gets lost when they start changing things from the book. In the book, he speaks fluent arabic with a slightly egyptian accent as opposed to a "proper" classroom accent that would be a give away, also Hani has suspicions and does a full background search on Roger and finds out that his grandfather (I believe) was originally from Lebanon and moved to the U.S. around the time of the Depression and changed his name to a more "American" name to fit in.

The thing is, not all Arabs or Middle Easterners look the same. They don't all have dark skin and dark eyes. My wife is Jordanian, and most people think she's Italian. I've met several blond and fair haired Arabs, so with the right clothes, attitude, etc it's not hard to believe Roger would be passable.

[–] lemner 12 years ago

To my knowledge, the chips in pets are I.D. chips that are read with a scanner to see who they belong to. They are not GPS transponders, which would require a power source.

Semper Contendere Propter Amoram et Formam

[–] sht-4 12 years ago

White guys in deep cover in the middle east? happens all the time. You'd be surprised. You could be an oil man, a weapons dealer, a drug dealer, a sympathizer, something other than American(neutral European or south american), be in disguise, etc.

As far as transponders under the skin, there is a problem with that. Transponders are a double-edged sword. Sophisticated organizations know how to conduct electronic warfare and even if they can't read the signal, just knowing it is transmitting is enough to warrant cutting it out(or worse).

Most professional organizations have EW and RDF down a science. If you are emitting, you are basically telling the world everything it needs to know. Even poor terrorist organizations have decent EW counter measures to respond to bugs, transponders, gps transmitters, technical penetration, etc. Easy stuff to buy on the black market.