tradecraft
Watches as Intelligence & Diplomatic Currency: ...
New disclosures show how gifted timepieces remain tools of intelligence for CIA and DIA, but can they keep them?
Watches as Intelligence & Diplomatic Currency: The 2024 Gift Report
New disclosures show how gifted timepieces remain tools of intelligence for CIA and DIA, but can they keep them?
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Santa The Spymaster: What Watch Would He Actual...
In this special holiday Dispatch, we’ll have some fun and unseriously recommend a few timepieces providing legitimate utility to the big man from the North Pole. If any of you...
Santa The Spymaster: What Watch Would He Actually Wear?
In this special holiday Dispatch, we’ll have some fun and unseriously recommend a few timepieces providing legitimate utility to the big man from the North Pole. If any of you disagree with our picks or have suggestions of your own, let the holiday spirit flow through you right into the...
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Watches of Disinformation: How Timepieces are W...
When perception becomes reality, a watch can be used to manipulate belief, manufacture outrage, and reshape political narratives. At Watches of Espionage, we often analyze a domestic or foreign leader's...
Watches of Disinformation: How Timepieces are Weaponized in the Post-Truth Era
When perception becomes reality, a watch can be used to manipulate belief, manufacture outrage, and reshape political narratives. At Watches of Espionage, we often analyze a domestic or foreign leader's watch to gain insight into that individual or current events. In the modern and politically charged media landscape, a watch...
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Is It Safe To Keep Your Rolex In A Hotel Safe?
Using Hotel Safes As A CIA Case Officer & In Daily Life During my second tour as a CIA Case Officer, I received a short message from a HQS office...
Is It Safe To Keep Your Rolex In A Hotel Safe?
Using Hotel Safes As A CIA Case Officer & In Daily Life During my second tour as a CIA Case Officer, I received a short message from a HQS office I had never heard of. The individual inquired about an upcoming vacation (R&R) I planned to take with Mrs. W.O.E....
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Dear Mr. Vice President, Please Take Off Your A...
An Open Letter To JD Vance From A Former CIA Officer On The Counterintelligence Risks Of Smartwatches Mr. Vice President, Congratulations on your ascendancy to the Vice President of the...
Dear Mr. Vice President, Please Take Off Your Apple Watch
An Open Letter To JD Vance From A Former CIA Officer On The Counterintelligence Risks Of Smartwatches Mr. Vice President, Congratulations on your ascendancy to the Vice President of the United States of America. While we are an apolitical platform, we wish you nothing but success, the country depends on...
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W.O.E. YouTube: CIA Officer Analyzes The Watche...
For CIA Leadership Analysts seeking to learn everything they can about a world leader, even something as seemingly insignificant as a wristwatch can play a role in assembling a complete...
W.O.E. YouTube: CIA Officer Analyzes The Watches Of World Leaders
For CIA Leadership Analysts seeking to learn everything they can about a world leader, even something as seemingly insignificant as a wristwatch can play a role in assembling a complete profile to be shared with key decision-makers including the president. Whether it’s Kim Jong Un’s IWC, Putin’s insane luxury watch...
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W.O.E. YouTube: Avoiding Criminal Rolex Gangs
Global watch crime is an enterprise worth an estimated 1.9 billion dollars in 2024. Almost daily, watches from Rolex, Richard Mille, and Patek Philippe are stolen—sometimes violently—from the wrist of...
W.O.E. YouTube: Avoiding Criminal Rolex Gangs
Global watch crime is an enterprise worth an estimated 1.9 billion dollars in 2024. Almost daily, watches from Rolex, Richard Mille, and Patek Philippe are stolen—sometimes violently—from the wrist of a tourist or businessman. But what can you do about it? In the newest episode of W.O.E. TV, we’ll discuss...
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CIA Officers Receiving Expensive Gifts - Omega,...
Director William Burns Received An Omega Watch From A Foreign Government, Can He Keep It? Last week the State Department published a list of gifts provided by foreign governments to...
CIA Officers Receiving Expensive Gifts - Omega, Rolex, & A Beretta Pistol
Director William Burns Received An Omega Watch From A Foreign Government, Can He Keep It? Last week the State Department published a list of gifts provided by foreign governments to US government officials, including the Office of the President, the Department of Defense, and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The...
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W.O.E. YouTube: A Mystery Death In Oslo
Is Jennifer Fairgate's Watch A Clue? In 1995, an unidentified woman was found dead under mysterious circumstances in a luxurious Oslo hotel. Was “Jennifer Fairgate” an assassin, spy, or a...
W.O.E. YouTube: A Mystery Death In Oslo
Is Jennifer Fairgate's Watch A Clue? In 1995, an unidentified woman was found dead under mysterious circumstances in a luxurious Oslo hotel. Was “Jennifer Fairgate” an assassin, spy, or a troubled woman looking to disappear? Her watch, a Citizen Aqualand, could be the clue to solving a complex puzzle that...
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W.O.E. CIA Reading List Part 2 - CIA & Traditio...
Top Picks From A CIA Case Officer’s Bookshelf One of the most common requests we receive is for a reading list on intelligence, special operations, and national security. While this...
W.O.E. CIA Reading List Part 2 - CIA & Traditional Espionage
Top Picks From A CIA Case Officer’s Bookshelf One of the most common requests we receive is for a reading list on intelligence, special operations, and national security. While this is somewhat outside our scope of Watches of Espionage, we are encouraged by this question because it demonstrates a desire...
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Pink Panthers - The Ultimate Luxury Watch & Dia...
A Balkan-Based Criminal Syndicate Leverages Intelligence Tradecraft To Steal Luxury Watches & Diamonds In Bond-Style Heists. Luxury jewel crime occurs on a spectrum and Ocean’s Eleven-style heists are generally figments...
Pink Panthers - The Ultimate Luxury Watch & Diamond Thieves
A Balkan-Based Criminal Syndicate Leverages Intelligence Tradecraft To Steal Luxury Watches & Diamonds In Bond-Style Heists. Luxury jewel crime occurs on a spectrum and Ocean’s Eleven-style heists are generally figments of Hollywood screenwriters’ imaginations. However, one notable example exists: the “Pink Panthers,” a network of Balkan-based jewel thieves that operated...
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Bribes & Operational Gifts - The Role Of Timep...
Using Watches To Make Friends, Exert Influence, & Recruit Spies The job of a CIA Case Officer (C/O), or Operations Officer, is to recruit spies and steal secrets. The core...
Bribes & Operational Gifts - The Role Of Timepieces In Clandestine Operations
Using Watches To Make Friends, Exert Influence, & Recruit Spies The job of a CIA Case Officer (C/O), or Operations Officer, is to recruit spies and steal secrets. The core competency of a C/O is building relationships with individuals (targets) and ultimately recruiting them to provide Foreign Intelligence on their...
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Inside The Watch Culture Of CIA Paramilitary Of...
A Watch Given To A CIA Paramilitary Officer After a successful joint operation in the late 2010s, a European intelligence service presented a CIA Paramilitary Officer with a gift, a...
Inside The Watch Culture Of CIA Paramilitary Officers
A Watch Given To A CIA Paramilitary Officer After a successful joint operation in the late 2010s, a European intelligence service presented a CIA Paramilitary Officer with a gift, a U-Boat timepiece to commemorate operational success. Like most accomplishments in the world of espionage, the ceremony (if you can call...
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A Mystery Death in Oslo, an Intelligence Op Gon...
An unidentified woman was found dead in a luxury Oslo hotel. Was “Jennifer Fairgate” an assassin, spy or a troubled woman looking to disappear? Her timepiece is a clue to...
A Mystery Death in Oslo, an Intelligence Op Gone Wrong?
An unidentified woman was found dead in a luxury Oslo hotel. Was “Jennifer Fairgate” an assassin, spy or a troubled woman looking to disappear? Her timepiece is a clue to solving a complex puzzle that reads like a Hollywood thriller. 3 June 1995, Oslo Plaza Hotel, Room 2805 The woman’s...
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CIA Timepiece Analysis: President Putin and Tuc...
Last week, former Fox News talk show host Tucker Carlson interviewed former KGB officer and current Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. While much of the coverage surrounded the controversy...
CIA Timepiece Analysis: President Putin and Tucker Carlson
Last week, former Fox News talk show host Tucker Carlson interviewed former KGB officer and current Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. While much of the coverage surrounded the controversy of Tucker himself, we will focus on what we know best: the watches present at the meeting in the Kremlin. ...
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The Real Spy Gadget Watches of the CIA, KGB, MI...
The Real Spy (Gadget) Watches of the CIA, Soviet KGB, Turkish MIT and German Intelligence While Hollywood's depiction of lasers, knockout gas, and grappling hooks disguised as Rolex Submariners and...
The Real Spy Gadget Watches of the CIA, KGB, MIT and German Intelligence
The Real Spy (Gadget) Watches of the CIA, Soviet KGB, Turkish MIT and German Intelligence While Hollywood's depiction of lasers, knockout gas, and grappling hooks disguised as Rolex Submariners and Omega Seamasters is entertaining, it’s largely all a fantastical product of a screenwriter's imagination. In fact, at CIA I was...
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Watches as Tools of Money Laundering and Illici...
Luxury timepieces are one of the most effective mediums to move illicit funds around the globe and a tool to integrate those ill-gotten gains into the financial system. Transnational criminal...
Watches as Tools of Money Laundering and Illicit Finance
Luxury timepieces are one of the most effective mediums to move illicit funds around the globe and a tool to integrate those ill-gotten gains into the financial system. Transnational criminal networks, terrorists, narcotraffickers and corrupt politicians have used watches to launder money as a part of global illicit finance. The...
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A Question of Time: The Time Pencil Explosive F...
In intelligence operations, time matters. While our Dispatch articles traditionally focus on watches, today we look at another tool to measure time, the time pencil. It’s a short time fuze...
A Question of Time: The Time Pencil Explosive Fuze in World War II
In intelligence operations, time matters. While our Dispatch articles traditionally focus on watches, today we look at another tool to measure time, the time pencil. It’s a short time fuze detonator used for explosive charges in covert operations in World War II. We have profiled watches of the Glorious Amateurs...
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