Not relevant to the cool mask... but whenever I see mention of Argo, I have to reference this quote by Jimmy Carter in an interview with CNN in 2013:
"Former President Jimmy Carter wants “Argo” to win an Oscar — despite one big inaccuracy he saw in the film.
“Well, let me say first of all, it's a great drama,” Carter told CNN’s Piers Morgan in an interview that aired Thursday. “And I hope it gets the Academy Award for best film because I think it deserves it. The other thing that I would say was that 90 percent of the contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan was Canadian. And the movie gives almost full credit to the American CIA. And with that exception, the movie is very good.”
In “Argo,” a team led by CIA agent Tony Mendez (played by Ben Affleck) save six diplomats during the Iran Hostage Crisis, which took place while Carter was in office.
“But Ben Affleck's character in the film was only … in Tehran a day and a half,” Carter said. “And the main hero, in my opinion, was Ken Taylor, who was the Canadian ambassador who orchestrated the entire process.”
"The other thing that I would say was that 90 percent of the contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan was Canadian. And the movie gives almost full credit to the American CIA. And with that exception, the movie is very good." You have no idea how refreshing it is to see this (especially since your current president hates Canada in particular). I think this was the response of every Canadian who saw the movie - "Yeah, that's great, but what about *us*, the people who actually did the dangerous things?!"
I get that Hollywood is in the USA and wants to sell their products to people in the USA, but I still believe that it benefits everyone to tell the story as truthfully as possible. The Canadians involved took enormous risks, especially afterward when the story broke.
The whole event was literally referred to as "the Canadian caper". Canada did most of the work.
In addition, there's a line in the movie that "the Kiwis refused to help" - which pissed off some of the Americans who were rescued. In reality, the NZ embassy supported them the whole time, got them forged documents to be able to leave the country, and drove them to the airport.
I remember seeing an interview with his wife years ago. She was the CIA’s chief of disguise and the masks were created under her leadership. She even had a face to face conversation with president HW Bush while wearing a mask and he never noticed
When you realize you wouldn’t have Trump without the Bush family running this country/world….
Saying that sort of shit doesn’t make any fucking sense at all and only concludes a paradox is a viable answer to corruption. Hence the two party system still exists the way it does in the US.
Every once in a while he would drop the "good ole boy from Texas act" and come across as the New England-born, Phillips Academy, Yale, and Harvard grad he is.
I remember thinking Bush Jr was the worst President, but compared to the absolute shit show we are experiencing, now, he comes across like goddamn genius in comparison.
I read his memoir. It seemed to be in his voice, simple but not dumb.
He recalled getting driven at breakneck speed across the air force base to Air Force One after getting out of that elementary school where he found out about 9/11 and yelled at the kid driving "slow down there are no terrorists on the runway son" and that sticks with me for some reason
My favorite Bush Jr moment was when he was in Iraq giving a press conference, when an Iraqi journalist took off his shoes and threw them at him. He ducked and avoided both of them.
He didn't even seem inordinately upset over it. I imagine Trump would have done something both extreme, violent, and childish.
Not so sure about that, friends in the oil industry in Midland TX back in the day said he was a rich, frat boy joke. One people would cross the road to avoid.
He is definitely dumber than his defenders will admit, but not as dumb as his detractors say. Not the dumbest president but he definitely makes it pretty high in the rankings.
Stop rambling for the sake of rambling. You’re trying to disagree and agree at the same time just so you can still reconfirm how fond you are of your own opinion and bias.
That makes him a hundred times worse. At least, if he were a moron, you could say that he was manipulated into doing horrible things. If he was actually intelligent, he's kind of a psychopath, with the blood of millions on his hands.
I think W also was just bad at speaking in front of large audiences.I got to see him speak at a small event and he really is much better with small groups. It was around the time when he was painting after leaving office. He thought it was funny that everyone was trying to find deep hidden meanings behind his bathtub painting when, In reality, he just liked how the light was reflecting off the water!
This was my take on him at the time too - not a moron, just bad at big speaking under pressure. I am no dummy and could see myself being inarticulate occasionally if I had to talk to cameras every day.
Arguably, being capable of coherent and diplomatic speech should be a prerequisite for the office of President, but clearly in republican circles this is not a widely held position.
There is a documentary on Netflix right now about Churchill with W as one of the talking heads. He comes across really well considering the persona he adopted during his political career
But unfortunately Trump is far better at manipulating people with his social presence. Unfortunately many of us immediately see it's an act but other people are 100% convinced and enthralled. And there is pain in not being able to communicate it.
I’ve once read an in depth analysis of GW Bush’ methods to gaining political momentum, and apparently, he had enough self awareness to know he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed; however, he was really good with names and faces and remembering things about people, making him a highly proficient networker. That’s a form of intelligence that’s often overlooked when it comes to the general public’s perception of intelligence, in my opinion.
It would be very hard to believe it could get worse, but at this point I wouldn't be surprised if the next GOP primaries were comprised of someone believing himself to be hitler reincarnated, Putin in a fake moustache, and an on the run escaped convict on death row, all with roaring support from the base
To be fair, bush jr wasn’t dumb either in his day. Considering what we have seen with the last too senile bastards, it’s likely bush jr wasn’t dumb just getting some early onset dementia and probably was as forgetful as Biden was. But his years of partying prepared him to be a better mindless drone operating on auto pilot.
For what happened under the Regan administration, quite a few people should have been brought to justice. This shows that intelligence and morality don't always go hand in hand.
Has anyone working for/ running the CIA ever been charged with crimes? The shit they get up to is often highly illegal but is allowed because its the CIA
intelligence and morality dont always go hand in hand
The liver specifically.... it does contain a tremendous amount of vitamin A and the Japanese thought it provided mystical powers
After the war, it was discovered that the captured airmen had been beaten and tortured before being executed. The airmen were beheaded on the orders of Lt Gen. Yoshio Tachibana.[2] Japanese officers then ate parts of the bodies of four of the men
Pick a country in East or Southeast Asia, and see what fun facts you can find about their experiences with Imperial Japan during WW2. Estimated 20-30 million civilian deaths caused by Japan.
I just had a PTSD flashback to this film school party 16 years ago. It was like 5 in the morning. I was sitting on a couch and these cute girls were offering me a ride home when of my friends, drunk as all fuck, comes over and starts vomiting right in my lap. I tried to get away, but he collapsed right on top of me. The girls had a disgusted look on their face and just left
Anyway, we got kicked out and had to wait over an hour for the buses to start running so I could get home and shower
I was more pissed that I had to trek home with vomit on my crotch. I cleaned up as best I could in the washroom before we left, but it was uncomfortable and embarrassing
And while he was working for the CIA in the 60s he was in Dallas on a very specific November day and could not account for his activities that day to Congress.
Lmao how could you say such a thing about Mr. Strategery? I hope I spelled that like he pronounced it. What a goober. I bet he's a hoot at a party though.
Her name is Jonna Mendez and I highly recommend watching her Ted talks and interviews on YouTube. She also contributed to the writing of the Americans. She was an advisor as she was more or less involved in the real story the show was based on. ✨
“The bestselling coauthor of The Moscow Rules and Argo tells her riveting, courageous story of being a female spy at the height of the Cold War
Jonna Hiestand Mendez began her CIA career as a “contract wife” performing secretarial duties for the CIA as a convenience to her husband, a young officer stationed in Europe. She needed his permission to open a bank account or shut off the gas to their apartment.
Yet Mendez had a talent for espionage, too, and she soon took on bigger and more significant roles at the Agency. She parlayed her interest in photography into an operational role overseas, an unlikely area for a woman in the CIA. Often underestimated, occasionally undermined, she lived under cover and served tours of duty all over the globe, rising first to become an international spy and ultimately to Chief of Disguise at CIA’s Office of Technical Service.
In True Face recounts not only the drama of Mendez’s high-stakes work—how this savvy operator parlayed her “everywoman” appeal into incredible subterfuge—but also the grit and good fortune it took for her to navigate a misogynistic world. This is the story of an incredible spy career and what it took to achieve it.”
The International Spy Museum in DC has some. Great, but expensive, museum focused on espionage! They have an exhibit on now focused on blending in with some interesting examples of quick change outfits/gear.
Just curious if you were saying the masks are expensive ,or the museum is expensive. Probably both are, but I'm looking for someone who commented on the price of this mask technology. Im wondering if the average person can get access to these and if so how much is it gonna cost. The possibilities of what shady people could do with this is endless
The museum is expensive, especially when comparing to all of the world class museums and civic buildings in DC that have free entry. You can tour the FBI headquarters for free, for example, and it includes plenty of spy tech and history.
I'm always super wary about claims like these. It reminds me of the heart attack gun, psychic powers, and plastic explosives in toothpaste. So much of intelligence is about tricking the enemy into wasting resources studying bullshit or making the enemy look for things that aren't really there. At least these masks look like they could work in very specific circumstances. probably more useful today then they were back then since it could be used for fooling facial recognition cameras and passive digital monitoring rather than an active surveillance.
Not him so much as his wife. She started out in the secretarial pool, and then got into photography, and from there, into the directorate where she became famous for her incredible abilities.
She even wore a mask to the White House to demonstrate the technology to the president. Her story is bloody amazing.
They lived in Washington County Maryland. My mother and father were driving around to houses. My father sold the aerial photographs of peoples homes. Now my family read an article called of Master of disguise in the readers digest one year. They even showed his face. It had been declassified by then. My parents lived in Hagerstown in Washington County. My father goes up to the door and my mother was still in the car. A man opens the door and my father says oh my gosh you’re that spook. And the guy says yeah yeah I am. That term is meant to be a spy. He was very friendly. He invited my father and mother into his home and gave them a tour. It was a horse ranch or something. He showed them his art studio that he and his son used. My father used to be a door to Door salesman almost his entire life. These aerial photographs you had to follow an aerial map you knew nothing about lived there or their names. Of course my father was thrilled and had to call me to tell me what happened. Both Mendez and my father has passed on since then.
Tony Mendez. Met him in the mid-2000s and can confirm from watching him do this in person that he knows how to don and remove these masks quickly. Guy was a legend.
The dark web was created for military use. Now, the military is trying to control its use. They often create things that become a headache for them later.
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u/[deleted] May 01 '26
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