The Paris Assessment – Invisible Ink: On the CIA’s Inventive Writing Group
Aerial view of the Central Intelligence Company headquarters a while between 1990 and 2006. Pictures within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Pictures Division. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Final spring, a pal of a pal visited my workplace and invited me to Langley to talk to Invisible Ink, the CIA’s artistic writing group.
I requested Vivian (not her actual title) what she needed me to speak about.
She stated that the subject of the speak was totally as much as me.
I requested what degree the writers within the group have been.
She stated the group had writers of all ranges.
I requested what the talking price was.
She stated that so far as she knew, there was no talking price.
I dwelled a little bit on this level.
She confirmed that there was no talking price.
When a company has, say, financed the overthrow of the federal government of Guatemala, you’ll suppose there is perhaps a talking price. However I used to be informed that, in lieu of cost, the writing group would take me out to lunch within the govt eating room afterward. I’d even have my image taken in entrance of the CIA seal, and I might submit that image wherever I needed.
“So my go to wouldn’t be categorised?”
Vivian confirmed that I might inform anybody I needed. “Simply don’t inform them my title—or I’ll must kill you. Simply kidding!”
As I thought-about the invitation, I saved questioning why I’d been invited. I don’t write about CIA-adjacent matters, nor am I profitable sufficient a novelist that individuals exterior a small circle—one which I doubt consists of U.S. intelligence businesses—know my title. So the invite was a little bit of a thriller. This was the second-most frequent query that got here up once I informed author associates about it, topped solely by: “No talking price?” At first, I questioned whether or not the gig was a part of a recruitment technique. Nevertheless it doesn’t take an enormous intelligence equipment to know that I’m not intelligence materials, not least as a result of I’m knowledgeable author.
Subsequent I questioned if my go to might be used as soft-diplomacy propaganda. Look how innocent we’re! We let writers come to our headquarters and pose for photos. The CIA had veered into this kind of literary boosterism earlier than—supporting, for instance, the founding of the very journal for which I’m penning this piece. So it wasn’t out of the query. In 2021, I had turned down an invite from the federal government of Saudi Arabia for an all-expenses-paid journey to a writers’ retreat at al-‘Ulā, as I didn’t wish to be part of their arts and tradition whitewashing. However in the long run, I couldn’t consider a means that I’d be a helpful propaganda device for the CIA—until they anticipated me penning this essay (by which case, kudos CIA)—and so I stated sure.
***
On the agreed-upon morning a couple of weeks later, I left my residence in D.C. and drove into the haze of Canadian wildfire smoke that was floating over town. By the point I turned off the George Washington Parkway on the George Bush Middle for Intelligence exit, and on to a restricted utilization street, I used to be already nervous. I’m the form of one who weighs and measures my suitcases earlier than flying, lest I be scolded on the airport, and I don’t like driving down roads with indicators like EMPLOYEES ONLY and WILL BE ARRESTED.
On the gate intercom, I gave my title and social safety quantity—Vivian had gathered this data and extra forward of time, over a collection of cellphone calls, every from a unique cellphone quantity—and a police officer gave me a customer’s badge that was to be displayed on my individual always. He warned me that I used to be to be escorted always.
I met Vivian in so much between the primary gate and the second gate, the place her automotive was the one one parked. She gave me one other badge that appeared an identical to the primary. I left my cellphone in my automotive as instructed, and we acquired into Vivian’s automotive and drove to the second gate. That was when issues began not going as deliberate.
4 agitated law enforcement officials blocked our means.
“He can’t depart his automotive right here!” they yelled when Vivian rolled down her window.
“However I cleared this forward of time,” Vivian stated.
“He can’t depart his automotive right here. It’s a safety danger.”
“However how am I purported to escort him if we are able to’t drive collectively?”
“Ma’am,” one in every of them stated, “I simply do parking.”
It turned out that, like in lots of bureaucracies, the person elements that made up the CIA have been siloed, and there was no level in arguing about logical contradictions.
Vivian gave up and drove me again to my automotive, clearly harassed. I informed her it wasn’t an enormous deal—I’d simply comply with her.
The issue, she stated, was that we wouldn’t be capable of park in the identical lot. And I needed to be escorted always. And worker parking on the CIA was a large number. “It’ll take me without end simply to stroll to you.”
She resolved that she would merely park in VIP customer parking with me, and if she acquired a ticket, she acquired a ticket. “Simply comply with me.”
I acquired in my automotive and adopted her to the gate. I watched from behind the wheel as she drove as much as the gate, talked to one of many law enforcement officials, and drove off previous the gate at clip, very a lot not being adopted by me.
I pulled as much as the gate, and an aggressive police officer questioned me about why I had two badges.
“Didn’t it appear unusual to you to get a second badge if you’d simply acquired your first one?”
“I’ve by no means been right here earlier than,” I stated. “Every thing appears unusual to me.”
A distinct cop informed him to provide it a relaxation, handed me a 3rd badge, and requested if I wanted instructions to VIP parking. I’ve a horrible sense of route—I as soon as acquired misplaced at Costco for thus lengthy that they needed to name my mother over the PA; I used to be fifteen—and Google Maps isn’t a lot use at Langley.
The great cop stated that I wanted to show proper and comply with the street till the sixth left. There I’d see a line of squad vehicles and a gate, the place my badge would swipe me in.
“Should you see a helicopter, you’ve gone too far,” he stated. “Simply loop again round. Don’t make a U-turn.”
After I later informed Vivian in regards to the imply cop and the good one, she stated, “They’re all the time doing that good cop–dangerous cop factor.”
“For parking?”
“For all the things!”
I discovered the VIP parking on my first strive. I held my badge out to the scanner. The gate rose! I drove in. And drove. And drove. And drove. In circles, as a result of all of the areas within the small VIP lot have been taken. I couldn’t depart the car parking zone—I wasn’t purported to be unescorted wherever on campus, however at the least in customer parking my presence was considerably explainable—so I saved circling the lot, accumulating sweat. Lastly, somebody left. I parked, acquired out, took a breath of ashy air, and questioned what to do subsequent. I used to be relieved to see Vivian’s automotive caught on the VIP gate, negotiating with the voice on the intercom.
“They gained’t let me into VIP parking,” she defined as I acquired into her automotive. “They stated it’s a safety danger.”
We turned again onto the principle street and drove for a bit. After which, after a bend, there appeared an abundance of parked vehicles. Vehicles upon vehicles upon vehicles. I’d by no means seen a car parking zone this huge, exterior {of professional} sporting occasions. The quadrants have been labeled by colour, the rows by letter; we weaved by row after row of Virginia plates, from Blue D all the best way as much as Purple V with out discovering a spot.
I requested Vivian how many individuals labored on the CIA.
“Possibly two million?” She smiled and confessed that she had no thought, regardless that I used to be made to grasp that she had been on the CIA, and within the writing group, for plenty of years.
As we snaked by line after line of vehicles, Vivian informed me that if you happen to labored right here and needed to keep away from a twenty-minute stroll out of your automotive, you needed to be on the workplace by 7 A.M. I questioned if this was intentional—a strategy to encourage lengthy hours, just like the tech firms that supply workers free dinners within the cafeterias that don’t open till 6:30 P.M. Or if it was the results of enlargement necessitated by the post-9/11 surveillance state and the recognition of telephones that report our each motion. As Kerry Howley notes in Bottoms Up and the Satan Laughs: A Journey By way of the Deep State, now we have created and saved extra information within the twenty-first century than in the remainder of human historical past mixed. If the federal government desires to seek out coherent tales in all that information, I assumed as I appeared on the vastness of the lot, somebody has to comb by it.
At first, we couldn’t discover the convention room. Like me, Vivian wasn’t allowed to carry her cellphone into the principle constructing, however even when she had, I don’t know who she would’ve known as for instructions. CIA officers usually don’t know their coworkers’ final names. (The Starbucks at Langley is the one Starbucks the place baristas aren’t allowed to ask on your title.) So I’m with out photographs or notes, however strolling by the principle constructing at Langley, is, in my reminiscence, like strolling by an airport terminal in a significant metropolis, crossed with a hospital, crossed with an American mall, crossed with an Jap European college. It’s huge and gleaming and chilly and brutal, abruptly. There was a corridor of presidential portraits with notes from commanders in chief to the Secret Service, all of them written in elegant fountain pen, aside from Donald Trump’s, which was written in Sharpie and stated “I’M SO PROUD OF YOU!”
We lastly discovered the convention room, by a facet door within the CIA Museum. It was unclear who this museum was for, but it surely was not a foul museum, stuffed with objects of curiosity: items of the Berlin Wall, tie-clip cameras, Soviet bugging gadgets, et cetera, displayed in glass circumstances. Six folks have been seated on the convention desk contained in the convention room, which was windowless and had an enormous CIA seal on the wall.
“Sorry we’re late!” Vivian introduced.
“Strip search?” one of many males joked.
“Parking,” I stated.
A collective groan. The goddamned parking.
I started by asking what folks have been writing. Surprisingly, not one of the CIA writers have been writing spy novels. They have been engaged on brief tales. Self-published dystopian sci-fi. A presidential biography. Upmarket fiction. A private weblog, which I used to be informed to take a look at if I ever needed a very good muffin recipe. The writing group was organized round what gave the impression of a listserv asserting periodic conferences to no matter members have been accessible that day. Solely about half the folks within the room appeared to know each other.
I talked a little bit bit about writing beginnings and dealing by false begins. I learn the primary web page of my newest novel, defined why I’d set the primary scene within the U.S. when the remainder of the novel takes place in Ukraine, and went by all of the false begins I’d taken to get the place I used to be going. One officer raised their hand and requested about establishing voice in first versus third individual. One other requested about revision methods. One other in regards to the shift from writing alone to working with an editor. It was the least exceptional Q&A I’ve ever been part of.
I had a little bit time to kill earlier than our lunch reservation—seating time within the govt eating room was not versatile—so Vivian took me to the reward store.
Given that nearly nobody’s allowed inside Langley and the individuals who work for the CIA aren’t purported to promote it, it was, like with the museum, a little bit of a thriller who the reward store was for. The cabinets have been stocked with T-shirts (Central Intelligence Company), mugs (Central Intelligence Company), and novelty barbecue sauce (Prime Secret Recipe!). There was additionally a Pleasure Month show (Central Intelligence Company in rainbow). I purchased a Pleasure Month pen for 4 {dollars}.
***
The eating room was lengthy and largely empty—apparently a safety factor—with white tablecloths and a protracted wall of home windows searching on the swampy greenery of northern Virginia. Or I used to be informed that it usually appeared out at greenery. At this time it appeared out at wildfire smoke. The menu was primarily cafeteria meals—regular American fare. I ordered a burger with candy potato fries and a Coke from a businesslike waitress in a white costume shirt.
The CIA officer seated subsequent to me requested if I assumed it was price getting a literary agent. I stated sure, and he or she appeared skeptical.
“In my different work,” she defined, “I can get film folks connected.”
I nonetheless do not know what she meant.
Whereas we waited for our meals, the author of dystopian sci-fi confirmed that if you happen to work for the CIA, attorneys must vet something you publish. However they have been extra lenient than I’d’ve guessed. She stated that one in every of her novels had helped change how the company considered fiction versus nonfiction. Whereas studying her novel, the attorneys determined that simply because a personality in a novel says one thing doesn’t imply that the writer essentially agrees, so there needs to be extra leeway for CIA fiction writers. (Which suggests CIA attorneys are extra nuanced literary critics than half of Goodreads.)
Clearly you possibly can’t share categorised data, I used to be informed. You may’t violate the Hatch Act, displaying your political affiliation, and also you’re additionally not purported to violate the Washington Put up rule, which was: Would the CIA be embarrassed if this have been in tomorrow’s Washington Put up? (This appeared trickiest to find out.)
One other officer talked about that, because the CIA has folks doing issues overseas that might be thought-about doubtful, you needed to be delicate about that. I requested what they meant after they stated doubtful, which resulted in a change of subject. I requested in the event that they knew of any points with somebody making an attempt to publish one thing that they couldn’t get authorized. One of many older writers stated that she had heard of an officer who had tried to publish a memoir that mentioned his expertise of racism within the CIA and was informed he couldn’t till he retired.
After lunch—everybody paid on the register, in money, and Vivian paid for me—Vivian walked me out to my automotive.
“It was fascinating to study what you all can and might’t write about,” I stated to Vivian. “I didn’t notice you had a lot freedom to jot down about your jobs.”
We handed by the safety turnstile and walked over a large CIA seal, which I acknowledged from a number of motion pictures, painted on the marble ground.
“The very last thing on the planet I’d wish to write about is that this place,” Vivian stated on the door. “I can’t think about something extra boring.”
Johannes Lichtman’s debut novel, Such Good Work, was a Nationwide Ebook Basis 5 Beneath 35 honoree. His second novel, Calling Ukraine, is offered in hardcover and shall be printed in paperback in April.