{"id":17444,"date":"2013-12-18T05:30:57","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T10:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=17444"},"modified":"2013-12-17T19:36:23","modified_gmt":"2013-12-18T00:36:23","slug":"spycraft-and-christmas-presents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2013\/12\/spycraft-and-christmas-presents\/","title":{"rendered":"Spycraft and Christmas presents"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Target has hired former CIA operative Jonna Mendez as an online \u201cKid\u2019s Gift Detective<\/a>\u201d to help parents shop for their children and hide the presents. She was the \u201cchief of disguise\u201d with the agency, working in the Office of Technical Service, which she describes as having something like the function of Q in the James Bond movies.\u00a0 Her husband, Antonio, was the CIA agent in Iran played by Ben Affleck in the movie Argo<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I was not aware that children are particularly secretive when it comes to what they want for Christmas, to the point that parents need cloak and dagger tradecraft to get them to reveal that information.\u00a0 I guess the common element in being a spy and shopping for Christmas presents is a lot of sneaking around.\u00a0 See some of the tactics she recommends after the jump.<\/p>\n

\n

From CIA\u2019s former \u2018chief of disguise\u2019 has a new holiday job: \u2018Kids\u2019 Gift Detective\u2019 for Target. \u2013 The Washington Post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0Over the years, Mendez said, she applied basic CIA techniques to find out what her son wanted, shop discreetly and keep gifts hidden until Christmas morning. That led to some of the pointers she is giving parents, chocka\u00adblock with all the movie-spy jargon you might expect.<\/p>\n

To find out what kids really want, she recommends talking to people close to them \u2014 or \u201caccess agents\u201d \u2014 who hear ideas that parents may not. \u201cYour son\u2019s coach at school might know that he wants that Nerf blaster gun more than anything,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Another way to guess children\u2019s holiday wishes is to encourage \u201cclandestine communication\u201d with Santa Claus, she said. Ask them to write \u201cinvisible\u201d letters using milk or lemon juice so no one can read them. Parents can see the ink by warming up the letter, using nothing more than a hair dryer.<\/p>\n

The CIA also used secret ink, Mendez said. \u201cBut it was not milk or lemon juice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, to hide holiday gifts, Mendez suggests moving them to an \u201coff-site location\u201d (spy talk for \u201cnext door\u201d) or using \u201cconcealment devices\u201d (simply covering presents in brown wrapping paper and sticking on a mailing address). Mendez said she would simply mislabel her son\u2019s gift, placing his father\u2019s name on it instead.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Target has hired former CIA operative Jonna Mendez as an online \u201cKid\u2019s Gift Detective\u201d to help parents shop for their children and hide the presents. She was the \u201cchief of disguise\u201d with the agency, working in the Office of Technical Service, which she describes as having something like the function of Q in the James […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[397,2913,2914],"class_list":["post-17444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-holidays","tag-central-intelligence-agency","tag-christmas-shopping","tag-spies"],"yoast_head":"\nSpycraft and Christmas presents<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Target has hired former CIA operative Jonna Mendez as an online "Kid's Gift Detective" to help parents shop for their children and hide the presents. 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