Last week, in a stunning departure from protocol, the head of Mossad – Israel’s national intelligence agency – singled out his female field agents for praise. “Women have a distinct advantage in secret warfare because of their ability to multitask,” He also added that women are “better at playing a role” and superior to men when it comes to “suppressing their ego in order to attain the goal.” “Women are gifted at deciphering situations. Contrary to stereotypes, you see that women’s abilities are superior to men in terms of understanding the territory, reading situations, spatial awareness. When they’re good, they’re very good.” One of the CIA’s best-kept secrets Lindsay Moran worked for the CIA for five years. She tells that one of the CIA’s best-kept secrets is that their most talented spies are women. “The women in my training class and those with whom I later served were always the top recruiters of foreign agents – which is the bread and butter of the secret service.” People Skills Being able to make friends easily, to read people – determine their motivations and vulnerabilities. “When we received training about how to ‘spot and assess’ potential sources, it came naturally to the women. I felt like I’d been doing it my whole life,” Lindsay explains. Contrary to popular belief that you need to be physically fit to outmaneuver the enemy, it’s actually the ability to read the danger potential of a person or situation – in other words, having the smarts, which is the key to survival on the ground. “Women are already attuned to the security of their environment. We are always on the lookout for suspicious characters, people who might be following us, dangerous situations. We’ve compensated for being the physically ‘weaker sex’ by developing these street smarts.” Women are better listeners Handling an agent requires listening to their concerns or complaints. “Many of the men in my training class had to be instructed on how to listen or on how to elicit information. It came naturally to us women,” Lindsay explains. Women spies have a built in ‘cover story’ According to Lindsay, women always have the advantage in creating a reasonable sounding excuse for why they might be meeting with a man in a parked car, hotel room or dark restaurant on the edge of town. “The standard cover story is we’re having an affair. It’s plausible under any circumstances and in any part of the world.” |
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