In this episode of 'Intelligence Matters,' host Michael Morell speaks with Alex Finley, a former CIA officer in the Directorate of Operations. Finley describes how CIA officers often use humor in unique ways to cope with high-stress assignments.
ALEX FINLEY: Thank you for having me.
I was there as a reporter when the Bill Clinton scandal with his intern broke. And yeah, I started to realize, 'Maybe this isn't the right place for me.' And I was still leaning more towards sort of national security type of stuff. And that actually is the theme of my first book, 'Victor in the Rubble.' And part of that also grew out of my frustration with the war on terror. You know, a number of people, of course, have written about their experiences in that. I was extremely low level. Like you said, I joined in 2003. So I was a very low level, sort of a cog in the wheel for all of this.
And I find that satire can really highlight some interesting realities that we can't necessarily get to if we're trying to be very serious, or we see them in a different light if we sort of highlight them in a funny way. MICHAEL MORELL: Did you consider yourself or do you consider yourself a funny person? Can you make people laugh? Is that something you always had as a kid and growing up?
So I've gone through drafts and drafts of things where I know there's a joke in there somewhere, but I can't quite get it. And you just have to keep working at it a gazillion times. But I think the best sort of lesson that I've learned over the past ten years of writing is just: don't censor yourself, get everything out on the page and and then you can fix it and make it better.
I also think one of the things that I noticed, and I still notice today when I get together with former agency people or friends who are still there, we talk different once we're all together, because we don't have to cover up a lot of the things that we have to cover up in our real lives. ALEX FINLEY: Absolutely. And in fact, the first book, 'Victor in the Rubble,' is a lot about that. There's a lot of poking fun at the bureaucracy, a lot of poking fun at sort of the day-to-day job of it.
ALEX FINLEY: I have a very good friend from college who is now an extremely successful film writer and TV writer. And one of the things that he taught me back when we were working in theater together in college is there is absolutely nothing that cannot be made fun of. And I do truly believe that. MICHAEL MORELL: Okay, Alex, let's turn to Victor and your third novel, 'Victor In Trouble.' Could you give us a short, spoiler-free synopsis of the book?
The second one is called, 'Victor in the Jungle,' and looks at the perils and the pitfalls of populism in a South American country with a narco trafficking dictator. MICHAEL MORELL: Right. And then what about another series, another new character? Is that in the offing? MICHAEL MORELL: But I guess people should know these aren't traditional gingerbread houses. These are gingerbread houses that are kind of unique to the CIA. So think of bin Laden's Abbottabad compound, but in gingerbread.
ALEX FINLEY: Yes. So Wilcox grew out of 20 years of the War on Terror. Let's say - he's the chief of station who has only spent his career so far in war zones. And then finds himself in a European capital where intelligence operations and tradecraft is much more complex. He can't just buy people off like you can do in so many other places. And you're dealing with very sophisticated host countries who - their own services are very sophisticated.
MICHAEL MORELL: You know, it it also sounds a little bit - and I speak from experience, here - of senior agency officers visiting CIA stations and giving a talk in what's called an"all hands," right? Where everybody shows up in the hallway and the senior person is up front and they give a talk and they they sort of say things like this, right? That,"You guys are the greatest intelligence service in the history of the country," sort of thing.
MICHAEL MORELL: Okay, here's another one. The deputy chief of station is so bland that the other characters don't notice her unless she's holding a highlighter. Where'd that come from? Okay, here's another one. I love this. So Patrick, who's a counterterrorism analyst, is conflicted when the president declares an end - and I'm going to quote this again - an"end to the total war on terror."
MICHAEL MORELL: You know, I shouldn't tell this story, but I was in the men's room once and this was right during a phase of the actual peace process between the Israelis and Palestinians. And there were some analysts in there who were lamenting the peace process because of what their job is. And the analysts, of course, have a responsibility to brief him every day. But they have trouble getting his attention and they have trouble getting him to understand things. So there's a sort of a running theme in the book of the analysts looking for ways to get his attention and to pass on to him this information that he, as president of the United States, needs to know.
ALEX FINLEY: I'm sure. I'm sure. But he's like that in those those little details. Right. Those are very funny, absurd details. That's a satire right there. ALEX FINLEY: Yeah. That grew out of a lot of the things - there are a lot of bureaucratic regulations, right? So, like, to get a desk, the desk has to be at your grade level. You know, you can't have a GS- 15 desk if you're a GS-12.
ALEX FINLEY: Sure. So, growing actually out of, 'Victor in Trouble.' So one of the characters, which you didn't ask me about, so I'll tell about him - there is an oligarch in 'Victor in Trouble.' Because the oligarchs, of course, played an integral role in Putin's destabilization activities. So I started highlighting the different yachts that were here in Barcelona and it got a lot of traction. And then one day I was down at the port and by chance one of - Roman Abramovich's several yachts, called Solaris, was out running sea trials. It had been in one of the shipyards here. They're doing refit or some kind of repair work or whatever and was doing sea trials. And I started tweeting about it and saying, 'You are watching it prepare to flee sanctions.
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