
Inside the Starbucks at CIA HQ - philipdlang
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/at-cia-starbucks-even-the-baristas-are-covert/2014/09/27/5a04cd28-43f5-11e4-9a15-137aa0153527_story.html
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mindcrime
Meh... am I supposed to hate the CIA and the rest of the military-industrial-
espionage complex any less because of a cheery article about their Starbucks
store? If anything, I now think less of Starbucks as a company, for knowing
that they agreed to such a setup.

I mean, yeah, maybe I'm being overly sensitive and care too much about
torture, detention camps, pervasive surveillance, blatant disregard of the
Constitution, illegal experiments on unwitting victims, and the other myriad
crimes committed by these assholes, but this article does nothing to give me
the warm fuzzies.

~~~
bane
I don't think the CIA _wants_ to give you the warm fuzzies. After all, their
sole occupation at the end of the day is basically to destabilize and
overthrow governments.

~~~
rdtsc
They care about PR quite a bit. It could affect funding and could affect
appeal for new recruits.

No matter if they torture and assassinate people, it is important for them
that they are seen as protecting American ideals and all that. That sounds too
abstract sometimes, so a little story about "oh look they are cool people just
like you, drinking Starbucks" does that very well.

~~~
peteretep

        > They care about PR quite a bit
    

As evidence by the fact that this story definitely went via the CIA's PR
department

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chroma
Interesting article. The CIA sounds like a terrible place to work. No
smartphones, definitely no BYOD, and you can't talk to coworkers about your
projects. You don't even know if you have old friends who work at the same
place.

The benefits and pay are probably decent, but it seems like one could find a
better job in the private sector. I guess the restrictions weed out a lot of
people who aren't truly dedicated to the CIA's purpose.

~~~
bane
The tradeoff may be that you might get to work on some of the hardest problems
known.

At least harder than your average chat or photo sharing app.

~~~
mindcrime
_to work on some of the hardest problems known_

Like "how do we keep our torture camps secret?" and "what happens if we given
random people LSD or other psychoactive drugs?"

I'll pass, thanks.

~~~
bane
I didn't say "morally pure" did I?

~~~
mindcrime
Fair enough!

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tzs
> The baristas go through rigorous interviews and background checks and need
> to be escorted by agency “minders” to leave their work area

I would have expected the baristas to be actual CIA agents in training.
Barista is a job available all over the world. Starbucks itself has locations
in 65 countries, covering most of North and South America, most of Europe, and
most of Asia. They also have pretty good coverage in the Mideast and Arab
regions. Map here [1]. Being able to be planted in a coffee house as a barista
and pull that off without suspicion would be a useful skill for an undercover
agent trying to monitor what's going on in an area.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks#Locations](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks#Locations)

~~~
chrissnell
This is pure conjecture but I've served in the military and know how these
things work in the more security-sensitive areas of that organization: My
guess is that they are contractors, placed there by whatever corporation
handles the rest of their foodservice. They could be former military
servicemembers (cooks, quartermaster, etc) who have clean enough records and
credit to obtain the security clearance. I'd be willing to bet that they are
the most highly-paid baristas in the country.

~~~
CoachRufus87
they check your credit?

~~~
justrudd
Yep. If you have a lot of debt, it becomes a vector that a foreign
intelligence agency could use as an approach on you. Become your friend, find
out about that 20K in student loan debt you have, and then mention "Hey. You
know. If you were tell me whenever you hear about XYZ, I could help you out
with that debt".

 _edit_ : fixed spelling.

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r0h1n
>>“But giving any name at all was making people — you know, the undercover
agents — feel very uncomfortable. It just didn’t work for this location.”

>> There are no frequent-customer award cards, because officials fear the data
stored on the cards could be mined by marketers and fall into the wrong hands,
outing secret agents.

What? CIA agents don't like a real-name policy or their coffee consumption
being mined by marketers? Who'da thought.

~~~
thret
This reminds me of the Seinfeld joke:

Jerry: This isn't a good time.

Telemarketer: When would be a good time to call back, sir?

Jerry: I have an idea, why don't you give me your home number and I'll call
you back later?

Telemarketer: Umm, we're not allowed to do that.

Jerry: Oh, I guess because you don't want strangers calling you at home.

Telemarketer: Umm, no.

Jerry: Well, now you know how I feel.

[hangs up phone]

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qewrffewqwfqew
Not a spook, but it bugs me also when I'm asked to give my name to identify an
order.

I have an unusual name that people find difficult to pronounce and spell.
Meanwhile, there are five Matts behind me who have each ordered different
things. All six of us have to keep visual attention on the service area so we
can identify our stuff when it comes out, because I won't know whose name
they're trying to call and latte-Matt has been assigned the same identifier as
sandwich-Matt.

It bugs me even more that stores adopt this as a mark of "friendliness". It's
not friendly, it's presumptuous, rude and inconvenient. I'll happily chat to
the staff and exchange names when it's quiet, but don't make them try and
learn mine when they're flat out doing their job. Just give me a number, or
call out what I ordered - both practices vendors have been following
successfully for thousands of years.

~~~
beachstartup
i'm sorry but it sounds like you're making things up. if your name is hard to
spell or pronounce, why give them your real name?

these kinds of social constructs are meant to be gamed, not taken at face
value. i know people who give baffling names to baristas just for the fun of
it.

also, every starbucks i've ever been to say the name you give them, and the
order description when they call out for pickup.

MIKE DOUBLE ICED AMERICANO. JOHN SOY CAPPUCCINO. LINDSAY FRAPPUCCINO WITH
CARAMEL.

~~~
SyneRyder
At the cafes in Australia they rarely call out the order description, only the
name, repeatedly until someone collects their order. Which often tempts me to
give my name as "Bueller"...

I used to give an easier name to baristas (even though it turns out 75% of
baristas can't spell "Colin" either), but once I signed up for a loyalty card
it caused issues that my "Starbucks name" didn't match the one on my loyalty
card, so I mostly use my real name now. Nowadays the baristas at my local have
memorized my real name & my order, so it's no longer an issue.

~~~
JacobAldridge
I always give my beautiful wife's name as it's much easier to spell and yell
than mine, and slightly less common. It's amazing how many brains seem to
process 'Jacob' as either 'Jason' or 'Joseph'.

But I am always tempted to give my name as Primrose Everdeen [1]

[1] [http://hungergamesfandom.net/tag/i-volunteer-as-
tribute/](http://hungergamesfandom.net/tag/i-volunteer-as-tribute/)

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mkhpalm
So the moral of the story is secret agents get uncomfortable when a barista
asks to put their name on a cup? These people sound super easy to spot in a
crowd.

~~~
wtracy
Well, they get uncomfortable being asked for their name _in a context where
they are already known to be doing covert work for the CIA_. If it was a
normal Starbucks where nobody in the room knew about their day job, they
probably wouldn't care.

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rustyconover
I wonder if it is cash only. Credit card transactions would also be revealing
to interested parties. If there ever was a time for the "Company" to pick up
the tab, this would be one just to prevent the data leak to the outside world.

~~~
dsl
It's not cash only, but the few credit card terminals I used had warnings next
to them to the effect of "be sure of which card you are using." I discovered
the easiest thing to do was use cash.

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omegaham
I imagine that a similar process happens for pretty much all mundane jobs in
sensitive locations. Sure, people think about the process to recruit high-
level personnel for CIA and NSA positions... but what about the janitors,
truck drivers, plumbers, and warehouse personnel?

I imagine that these people are paid pretty well for their positions, as
they're not being paid for their skills; they're being paid for
trustworthiness.

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waterlesscloud
"...[CIA employees]can’t fiddle with their smartphones during downtime. For
security, they have to leave them in their cars."

Pay no attention to the guy just outside the fence remotely rooting them all.
Heh.

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nandhp
Isn't Starbucks Store #1 at Pike Place in Seattle? That seems like it would be
suspicious; wouldn't it be better to borrow the store number of the one inside
the Safeway or something?

~~~
owlish
According to the article, the receipt just says "Store Number 1", nothing
about Starbucks.

~~~
nandhp
Yes, but one guess where a receipt for a "Grande Mocha (Decaf, Soy, No Whip)"
might come from.

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jc123
Surprised Starbucks got more points than the CIA museum
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8370849](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8370849)

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thomasmarriott
an intelligence agency. that specializes in proxies. failing sutton's law. who
would've guessed..

wait for it..'thanks, your ORDER NUMBER is #'

ta-da!

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JacobAldridge
At CIA Starbucks, not even the advertorial is called out by name.

