Antonio J. Méndez · 310 pages
Rating: (10.1K votes)
“The trick is that you have to believe the lie and believe it so much that the lie becomes the truth.”
“Intelligence is only as good as the consumer's ability to believe and utilize it.”
“One of the main lessons I had learned is that exfiltrations are almost ninety percent logistics - just making sure everything is lined up as it needs to be.”
“Allan Dulles said it best: "Any intelligence service worth its salt can make the other fellow's currency." In other words, every nation needs to have its own airtight security measures, while at the same time be actively working in secret to reverse engineer those of the enemy faster than they can invent them.”
“I liked to put young and old in the same room, because they would certainly have different takes on the same problem.”
“Exfiltrations are like abortions," I said. "You don't need one unless something's gone wrong. If you need one, don't try to do it yourself. We can give you a nice, clean job.”
“Every intelligence agency is ultimately judged on its ability to successfully rescue people and bring them out of harm's way, which is essentially what an exfiltration is.”
“A challenge is something you stop wanting once you acquire it. I can’t know if you’re a challenge yet until I make you mine.”
“I spent a long time thinking in bed. It’s strange how when so much is taken from you, you start to think about the otherworldly. Adam and myself would never have entertained thoughts of angels, or said prayers when we were riding high. I put the card with the feather on my bedside table and stared at it for a long time before I fell asleep.”
“Even then she wore the look of certain fanatics who think of themselves as leaders without once having gained the respect of a single human being.”
“If there's one area of me that the devil's got a hold of, it's my tongue.”
“had brought Stalin credibility and influence, in the counsels of governments and on the streets.”
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