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Do This If You’re Being Followed | Former KGB Agent Jack Barsky
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that's the first thing they told me in
Moscow you never do that's a giveaway
they cannot lose sight of you okay
somebody needs to see you at all times
because the moment you're clear you
could be doing something and they're not
aware of it now one caveat for today the
CIA know how to make faces faces that
look like real people now what you focus
on now is two
things let's get into to some of your
operational training on tradecraft so um
can you explain I I guess a good good
one to start with is um surveillance
detection routes or
sdrs yeah there was a actually in Berlin
surveillance detection was was
horrendous I
got the the person that I worked with by
the name of Nikolai he didn't have good
training you know he he gave me some
ideas you know you got to walk around in
the city and you can't turn around like
this but you could walk towards a
display window of an department store so
you can see who is following you that's
the first thing they told me in Moscow
you never do because that's a that's a
giveaway So you you're supposed to when
you do surveillance detection you're
supposed to do something that uh you
wander around in in a city take public
transportation go in and out of
buildings and
walk there cannot be any motion any any
action that could be considered proof
that you're an agent so it has to be
normal even though it's not normal to
wander around in the city for like 3
hours go from here to there to there to
there but it's not proof there there's
indirect proof that this guy is like
checking on on himself but it it can't
can't hold up in the in in the court of
law so you would not be arrested by
knowing or guessing that you on a
survance ATT
route okay so uh and the training the
was superb in Moscow I I I was my my
mentor my my coach was the guy who was
in charge of
that uh that
department in the first directorate
that's
Espionage and uh he showed me some you
know he showed me around and he said
what to do and what not to do and the
first thing he said you don't don't ever
do that walking towards the
window uh and he gave me some hints he
he also was a master in something I he
didn't teach me but he he took in
misdirection uh and that wasn't
surveillance d
uh Discovery uh uh he he told me just
follow me from a little distance like
like 30 ft and watch what I'm doing and
so he was walking around a little bit
and said nothing then he went we went
backwards there was an A A flower bed
elevated and he had put a cartridge he
stuck a cartridge into the soil
there I must have looked that way for
some reason he was a magician so but
that wasn't part of the training so uh
no also what what they what we try what
they tried to teach me is uh uh
surveillance protction by vehicle so
they I actually they I learned how to
drive in
Moscow but in heavy traffic and I'm
paying attention who might be following
you that's too dangerous we we we
stopped it so it was on foot public
transportation escalators elevators uh
uh my favorite places
uh were big
stores apartment stores where you can go
this way and that way and turn around
because you know it's it's halfhazard
you know and you don't have to buy
anything uh Museum of Natural History
very few people in there uh a lot of
hallways with not too many people but
you can also walk in and out this way
that way and uh my absolutely favorite
spot where where it never failed that I
would see somebody following me so I'm
going down so I had to know the city
really well I wouldn't I knew every
subway stop I mean I knew the city
better than most people who who were
born and raised there uh and that's that
wasn't the rule when I came to New York
same thing I I that the city was my
playground
so I'm walking
down a road that's downhill and it's
curving to the left and at the top at
the bottom of that uh that Hill there
was a phone
booth and if you wanted to make make a
phone call you have to walk in and turn
that way because the phone was pointing
in the other
direction and so the bottom line was uh
if you and and I had in those days I
had a an
incredible memory for
faces that was my advantage over the
team usually the team was uh 8 to 10
people following you with uh Elite
change because you know if if one guy
is they cannot lose sight of you okay
somebody needs to be needs to see you at
all times because the moment you you're
clear you could be doing something and
they're not aware of it you could even
just be a chalk Mark or something like
that so there was always like whether I
was in an elevator or or in a store or
in the
subway
uh there has had to be somebody close by
waiting for for a bus at a bus stop so
and I was always scan scanning the
people and uh if I saw the same P the
same face twice I knew that I was being
followed the the the tougher challenge
was to determine that you were not being
followed because you had to you couldn't
prove a negative right but over time I
had confidence in knowing that that I
would detect the uh the uh surveillance
and uh we there were about I forgot 6
seven eight uh exercises where I
was uh you know competing with a team
you know my my Handler my liazon would
would show up at the apartment any given
morning and said time to
check and let's say it was six at the
end uh when we were all done and I was
to declared to be fully prepared the
score was six to nothing in my favor and
the the guy who was my mentor there he
said I was one of the best students
which helped me later on to determine
whether I was being followed by the FBI
and or the
KGB because when they when
they and we W going to get to that when
they thought I was being followed I
determined that not to be true cuzz I
was very
very uh certain in my ability to to
detect uh um surveillance now one card
for
today the CIA and I don't know if other
intelligence agencies uh know how to
make
faces faes that look like real people uh
there's a uh there was a couple in the
CIA uh
the husband is not with us anymore but I
met the wife Jonah
Mendes and
she at then was at a conference she
showed pictures of herself as a black
male and that face can be put on uh in a
couple of minutes and it's
indistinguishable from a human face now
what you focus on
now is two things
gate at very difficult to change and
Footwear it's it's harder to you know
everything else you know what you wear
that you can change it real quick but
you know shoes but people forget about
that so so there's still the ability to
do this and then there's the other thing
there's uh surveillance cameras all over
the place uh and with the Advent of
AI you can actually scan all of that
material before you couldn't there's
tooo much but with AI if and if you have
access to the footage which may be a
problem too you know it's there stores
that have surveillance cameras you can't
force them to hand this over so there's
still a way to defeat surveillance but
it's not as good as it used to
be what's up guys thank you so much for
taking the time to watch the interview
if you got anything out of this video at
all please like the video leave me a com
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I'm really really excited about so
please subscribe to the channel so you
don't miss any of them but that's it
thank you for your support I really
appreciate it and hope to see you again
soon
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