Everybody calls everybody a spy, secretly, in Russia, and everybody is under surveillance. You never feel safe.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Since real spies are so good, you never really know what actual spying is. But I do think spying is a lot more dangerous than we are led to believe.
Today's difference between Russia and the United States is that in Russia everybody takes everybody else for a spy, and in the United States everybody takes everybody else for a criminal.
Most of the secrets the CIA has are about people, not machines and systems, so I didn't feel comfortable with disclosures that I thought could endanger anyone.
Suspicionless surveillance does not become okay simply because it's only victimizing 95% of the world instead of 100%.
I hear that from so many different governments, people coming to me and saying, 'You should be careful'. But I don't want to go around with bodyguards.
At least in Russia, you cannot just go and tap into someone's phone conversation without a warrant issued by court. That's more or less the way a civilized society should go about fighting terrorism.
There's still a lot of things you can legitimately do to make America safe through electronic surveillance.
Once you've lived the inside-out world of espionage, you never shed it. It's a mentality, a double standard of existence.
It's an old adage that the way to be safe is never to be secure... Each one of us requires the spur of insecurity to force us to do our best.
I have no spy stories to tell, because I saw no spies. Nor did I understand, at that time, any opposition between American and Russian national interest.