Jonna Mendez on 'The Moscow Rules'
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 28 July 2019
⏱️ 52 minutes
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Summary
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Central Intelligence Agency had a major problem. The streets of Moscow were a virtually impossible operating environment due to heavy KGB surveillance and other operational difficulties. Through a series of trial and error, and a whole lot of ingenuity, along came the "Moscow rules," a series of technical advancements in the area of disguise and communications technology, and some different operating tradecraft that allowed CIA case officers to get the information they needed from Soviet sources to help the Cold War stay cold.
Jonna Mendez is a former CIA Chief of Disguise, who is also a specialist in clandestine photography. Her 27-year career, for which she earned the CIA's Intelligence Commendation Medal, included operational disguise responsibilities in the most hostile theaters of the Cold War, including Moscow, and also took her into the Oval Office. She is the co-author, with her late husband Tony Mendez, of "The Moscow Rules: The Secret CIA Tactics that Helped America Win the Cold War." David Priess spoke with Jonna about the experiences that she and her husband had at CIA, evolving the Moscow Rules, and applying these new disguises and technologies in the service of national security.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:14.7 | That's patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:18.2 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:34.0 | We were all under surveillance, real serious surveillance. |
| 0:38.0 | They were behind us. |
| 0:39.6 | They were in front of us. |
| 0:40.6 | They were whether you were in a car, whether you were walking down the street. |
| 0:44.0 | If you were in your apartment, they were in the walls. |
| 0:46.6 | And if you were in your embassy, they were among you because the four nationals that worked |
| 0:52.1 | with us in the embassies were all considered to be KGB. |
| 0:55.9 | I'm David Priese and this is the LawFair podcast July 28, 2019. |
| 1:02.2 | In the 1950s and 1960s, the Central Intelligence Agency had a major problem. |
| 1:07.9 | The streets of Moscow were a virtually impossible operating environment due to heavy KGB surveillance |
| 1:14.2 | and other operational difficulties. |
| 1:16.8 | Through a series of trial and error and a whole lot of ingenuity along came the Moscow |
| 1:21.1 | rules, a series of technical advancements in the area of disguise and communications technology |
| 1:27.8 | and some different operating trade craft that allowed the CIA case officers to get the |
| 1:32.8 | information they needed from Soviet sources to help the Cold War stay cold and not develop |
| 1:39.2 | into global thermonuclear conflict. |
| 1:41.9 | John Amendes is a former Central Intelligence Agency chief of disguise who is also a specialist |
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