Spycraft - Melton [297]
22 For images and a description of a concealment desk see: Melton, CIA Special Weapons and Equipment, 113.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
1 A target staying at a little-used hotel might be surveilled from OP’s setup temporarily to monitor the hotel’s entrances. Covert video cameras could be concealed in parked cars outside each hotel entrance and feed “live video” to the watcher team set up in an adjacent hotel. Conversely, a “long-term” stationary OP might be established for the purpose of photographing all individuals entering and leaving a radical mosque that is a known transit point for new recruits departing Europe for terrorist training in the Middle East.
2 There are two types of telephoto lenses, refractive and reflex mirror (catadioptric). Refractive lenses (as in a telescope) are usually much larger than “mirror” lenses which have a system of mirrors and lenses to fold up the optical path causing the light passing through the instrument to do so in a zigzag fashion and greatly reduce the physical size and length of the unit. The compactness of a mirror lens is often desirable for surveillance photography. “Fast” lenses have larger areas of glass to gather more light, but are more difficult to conceal. “Slow” lenses are easier to hide, but require longer exposure times to take acceptable images and are vulnerable to vibration. See: Raymond P. Siljander, Fundamentals of Physical Surveillance: A Guide for Uniformed and Plainclothes Personnel (Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas, 1977), 182.
3 Telephoto lenses amplify any vibrations present and require firm support of the lens and camera assembly. The longer the lens on the camera, however, the more difficult it is to use and the more likely is a loss of image quality. Inclement weather, dust, and haze can significantly degrade the quality of the image. See: Siljander, Fundamentals of Physical Surveillance, 195.
4 Each doubling of film speed represents a doubling in the film’s sensitivity to light. “Push processing” allows film to be exposed at higher than rated ASA levels and developed using special processes to artificially “push” the ASA sensitivity to match exposure levels. It is possible to “push process” a commercially available ASA 6400 film to ASA 12800, ASA 25600, or even higher and still take an acceptable photograph of a target to produce a positive identification.
5 A conventional strobe flash unit covered with a Kodak Wratten 87C filter emits light in the infrared spectrum at wavelengths from 750 to 900 millimicrons. For an example of clandestine infrared photography using this technique see: Melton, CIA Special Weapons and Equipment, 37.
6 Melton, CIA Special Weapons and Equipment, 71.
7 Pheromones, chemicals secreted by an animal, especially an insect, are used as aids for surveillance tracking.
8 A well-known “spy shop” in New York City in the 1980s advertised repackaged, commercial-grade products, using unsubstantiated claims of technical capability that bordered on the unbelievable, such as: “Tell if any phone call anywhere in the world is bugged or recorded using this all-in-one briefcase counterspy kit!” Even more amazing was its “graduated” concept of pricing that produced catalogs and pricelists in English, Spanish, and Arabic. The same equipment was in all catalogs, only the prices changed; the prices in Spanish were double those in the English, and the Arabic version was four times higher!
9 Contractors and employees who have successfully undergone background investigations are provided with varying levels of security clearances in order to be able to work with the CIA.
10 In 1827, Sir Charles Wheatstone coined the phrase “microphone.” See: inventors.about.com/od/mstartinventions/a/microphone.htm. When sound waves contact a microphone, they cause the thin flexible internal diaphragm to vibrate. These vibrations are converted into an electrical signal,