Does song 'Secret Agent Man' depict reallity or is it fiction? Want to know if I should pursue, what about

Question

std risks? hospilizaton plans? etc. with such an occupation?

Answer 1

Forget it. Field operatives are recruited from the native populace. it is too hard to train someone to act as if they have lived somewhere for years.

People who work for the CIA directly at Langley are

Analysts, who basically collate and process information gathered by agents, looking for both intelligence, and disinformation, or

Handlers / recruiters / controllers of agents in place overseas.

They specialize in picking people ripe for recruitment and turning them through various means, and then using them up, until they are no longer needed.

Risks? Death, execution, and torture, if you are caught. Most agents in place operate with deniability. You say "Hey, I work for the CIA! Trade me!" The CIA will say, no, he's lying, he's some nosy journalist.

To everyone in the outside world, you are whatever your day / cover job is. Reporter, Journalist, scholar, etc. You make a few calls, you get some money, or other consideration.

There is always the suspicion that someone within your organization is a mole, and certainly, these exist. Moles can get you killed, if the opposition decides to use them.

Some operations are set up just to deceive the enemy, and people running them are not told, in advance.

Other operations are run without authorization, by rogue agents or handlers.

Still others are run without tacit approval, and are covert in nature. Anyone caught in these is a write-off.

Over time, a person engaged in this line of work in the field, loses all sense of who they originally were, since they've had to practice their "tale" of their cover identities more than dozens of times, and need to be able to assume any number of them at will.

There is also the possibility that spies work under a false flag, i.e, they try to join the CIA, and end up working for a mole for some other service inside the CIA.

It is not a career to engage in lightly, certainly. The pressure to perform is enormous, and the pay is not all that glamorous.

Having any kind of a normal relationship or friends you can trust is difficult to impossible for a field agent type. Any number of people you'd imagine are close friends and neighbors could be agents of a foreign power that know you, and are trying to turn you, or any number of things. You will be watched.

You might be ordered to do all sorts of things that you'd never normally want to do, for the sake of the mission.

Before even considering doing this, don't just go to their website, read up on past operations from different nations, and study it all carefully.

Answer 2

Secret Agent Man is the theme song about a TV spy drama of the '60's, by the same name.
There are people who work in covert intelligence work for their country's government, but I doubt if std's and hospitalization plans are a primary concern for those who are in such work. For more info you could look at the recruiting standards on the website of your country's intelligence agency or agencies. From your spelling I would guess that you are in the USA, so check the FBI and CIA websites. If you are not in the USA check the relevant agency of your country.

Answer 3

For serious inquiries about this line of work, you should go to the CIA website and read their recruiting standards. The song "Secret Agent Man" is a total fiction.

Answer 4

I'd say it's fiction. It was the theme song to a TV show of the same name. You could consult James Bond, John Steed, or even Maxwell Smart for their thoughts on the risks and plans.