• The Moscow Rules

    From warmfuzzy@700:100/0 to All on Sat May 5 09:07:46 2018
    The Moscow Rules:

    "During the Cold War, Moscow was the world's most difficult operating environment for the CIA to conduct research operations. Innumerable Soviet surveillance specialists kept constant tabs on the CIA officers. To meet with
    a "source," officers had to first lose their surveillance, known as being "in the black" in spy parlance, otherwise they risked compromising the identities of their contacts. As the cat-and-mouse game of surveillance continued, the
    CIA developed a series of ad-hoc rules that they dubbed the Mocow Rules.
    These maxims contained the cumulative wisdom of the intelligence officers at the Moscow station inside the U.S. embassy. Here is a selection of the Moscow Rules (compiled by CIA technical officer Tony Mendez) that can be applied to workplaces and corporations of any size:

    - Assume nothing
    - Never go against your gut
    - Technology will always let you down
    - Everyone is potentially under the control of the opposition
    - Maintain a natural pace
    - Establish a distinctive and dynamic profile and pattern
    - Stay consistent over time
    - Know the opposition and its terrain intimately
    - Build in opportunity but use it sparingly
    - Don't haras the opposition
    - Pick the time and the place for action
    - Any operation can be aborted. If it feels wrong, it's wrong.
    - Keep your options open
    - Use misdirection, illusion, and deception
    - Hide small, operative motions in large, non-threatening motions
    - Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee
    - Once is an accident; twice is a coincidence; three times is an enemy action
    - There is no limit to a human being's ability to rationalize the truth

    [Melton, H. Keith, "The Spy's Guide: Office Espionage," 2003: Quirk Books


    The Moscow Rules (Alternate Version)

    - Asssume nothing
    - Never go against your gut
    - Everyone is potentially under opposition control
    - Go with the flow
    - Vary your pattern and stay within your profile
    - Lull them into a sense of complacency
    - Don't harass the opposition
    - Pick the time and place for action
    - Keep your options open

    [Earnest, Peter. "International Spy Museum Handbook of Practical Spying." Washington: National Geographic

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