Comments on: Avoiding Suspicion At The US Embassy https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/ We're back on a default theme because comments broke on my custom one and I don't have the energy to figure out why Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:11:34 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.1 By: Davie https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-154462 Tue, 30 Mar 2010 09:17:36 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-154462 Wow. That is truly spectacular bad luck. Do these things happen to you on a regular basis?

]]> By: H https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-145799 Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:37:46 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-145799 Great post, more like that one please, including where you had to use parkour and an elastic band to get out of paying for your round in the Flying Swan.

]]> By: Dante https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-137937 Sat, 27 Feb 2010 07:37:27 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-137937 @Dr Disaster Ouch, luckily I went to school before the world went crazy paranoid about that sort of thing. Unless by high school you mean you’re American, in which case I guess they were always crazy over there.

]]> By: TooNu https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-137708 Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:00:19 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-137708 That was a brilliant post Tom :)

]]> By: Dr. Disaster https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-137617 Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:01:38 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-137617 @Dante — I got suspended from high school for exactly the same thing. A one and a half inch blade!

]]> By: Dante https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-137283 Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:30:41 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-137283 On a tangentially related note, I used to carry a penknife on my keyring for opening bottles, unscrewing thinks and it’s myriad other uses. This came to a stop after I forgot to disconnect it after being called for Jury duty.

]]> By: Ludo https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-137273 Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:16:39 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-137273 Seconded, those pictures are awesome.

And the embassy story is hilarious. I had no idea they were so strict.

]]> By: Dante https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-137252 Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:40:30 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-137252 You know I read this the other day, and it didn’t even register that it was punctuated with those amazing pictures of 40s London. Man, I wish the world still looked like that.

]]> By: Pod! https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-137019 Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:58:50 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-137019 >Out Reach: The question we all want answered. Was the USB stick still there when you got back?

FYI Tom, this is actually what I came to ask. Please take this into account re: your demographics. I’d like to use more USB-stick based blog posts in future, please.

]]> By: cixelsyD https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-136992 Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:04:43 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-136992 They’re replacing the embassy. They’d prefer to have it blown up, saves them the cost of demolishing it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/8533123.stm

Hope no one drops it.

]]> By: Plasto Joe https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-136961 Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:01:06 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-136961 Your next assignment is to experiment with different groups of three random items to see which will get you questioned in a back room.

]]> By: Devenger https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-136923 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:57:24 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-136923 Yep, I’m surprised they didn’t just set upon you with wrenches when you entered their building.

Still, that’d be the ultimate spy play: ‘SPAH SAPPIN’ MAH EMBASSY!’, ‘EMBASSY DOWN!’, and the subsequent class change (suddenly London is full of Pyros setting passers-by and dark corners on fire). And all that under the guise of a games journalist.

]]> By: EGTF https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-136878 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:42:32 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-136878 Last time I went to the embassy I was set alight by several flamethrowers. Must be run by a bunch of noobs these days, not knowing how to spy check.

Unrelated, but I once saw someone with a usb stick hidden in the handle of their umbrella. If only I knew back then to suggest agent paper cup hat as a more pratical and cheaper way to be an espionage maestro.

]]> By: Bret https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-136823 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:46:01 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-136823 Could have sworn it was Deeper Thoughts, the sequel.

They’re both excellent, but for what little it’s worth, Google agrees with me.

]]> By: Dan https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-136797 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:02:54 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-136797 Oh yeah Bret, it was “Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey.”

]]> By: Dr. Disaster https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-136773 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:24:59 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-136773 The American’s guide to whether that British guy is a spy:

1. Is he drinking a shaken martini?
If yes, he is a spy! (But he is on your side.)

2. Did he order red wine with fish?
If yes, he is a spy! (And not really British.)

3. Did he leave a USB stick in a dead-drop outside an anonymous office near the U.S. embassy?
If yes, quit being paranoid, he obviously works in that office and is coming back to get the USB stick later.

]]> By: Bret https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-136743 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:39:42 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-136743 Dan, I think that was from the book “Deeper Thoughts”. Good collection of one page observations of that nature.

]]> By: Jaz https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-136547 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:48:01 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-136547 (Sorry for, breathless, commas)

]]> By: Jaz https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-136546 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:46:52 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-136546 Wow, they just looked really carefully at my MP3 player and so on, I had about ten things, including a DS and an ancient phone. Fuck knows what was on my notepad.

]]> By: Will P https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-136525 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:08:15 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-136525 I had my visa renewed and had almost the exact same problems – though I just chucked the USB and didn’t have a Hitler moustache.

]]> By: MartinJ https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-136465 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:18:36 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-136465 I made a picture specifically for this occasion. Click my nick for some Tom-Spy!

]]> By: Lack_26 https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-136431 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:21:31 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-136431 Truly a master of stealth and disguise, they fell for your cover as ‘Tom Francis of PCGamer’ instead of realising your true identity, ‘international agent extraordinaire’.

Also, the dead drop was clearly a brilliant idea, but I’m disappointed that you didn’t play it safe and garrotte the man sitting on your drop, just in-case he had rumbled it and was waiting to clock the agent who shows up.

]]> By: Pentadact https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-136426 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:08:51 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-136426 Oh yeah, Epilogue! When I got back to the office that afternoon, I thought I’d just discreetly scoop up the USB stick on my way in. But I happened to arrive back at the start of lunch, so the lobby was swarming and there was a guy actually sitting on the flowerbed wall directly in front of where I’d stashed it.

For a moment I entertained the notion that he might have just stolen it, and was now scoping out the area to look for spies who might have been after this obviously sensitive dead drop. But either way, I couldn’t think of any sane way to explain why I needed to reach past him and overturn the paper cup in the mud behind. I just walked past, played a bit of StarCraft 2, then slipped out later to recover it.

It was safe and dry. Fine work, agent paper cup hat!

]]> By: Out Reach https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-136420 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 07:54:55 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-136420 The question we all want answered. Was the USB stick still there when you got back?

]]> By: Dan https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-136380 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 06:52:34 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-136380 Please admit that the stick-on Hitler moustache was for your personal use.

Also this reminds me of a musing I heard once: “I think a really good gift to give the president would be a milk chocolate pistol, but he’d probably be really busy if you saw him, so it would be best to run up and give it to him quickly.”

]]> By: Jason L https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-136356 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 06:21:07 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-136356 He knows the commander because he’s his pal.

]]> By: Bret https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-136305 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:48:03 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-136305 So, you failed to use your Deus Ex training to get the visa from a random hobo at a basketball court and or pepper spray everyone?

For shame.

]]> By: bbot https://www.pentadact.com/2010-02-25-beneath-suspicion/#comment-136197 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:24:16 +0000 http://www.pentadact.com/?p=1589#comment-136197 I started this post expected some good American-bashing, and instead it was all about how you’re super paranoid.

UNSUBSCRIBED.

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