What Does A CIA Spy Carry Everyday?

Andy Bustamante welcome to the show man dude I'm super stoked to be here uh it's been awesome catching up before and off camera so I'm really happy to do it now on camera me too me too so we're just gonna do a warm-up round just a little bit about you for this segment you are a former CA operative you've worked all over the world everyday carry is a big topic on this channel it always has been and so what I'm wanting to know is what is the everyday spy carry on them every day yeah you know when it comes to everyday carry there's a lot of misconceptions about spies and EDC because a spy's job is to be covert a spy's job is to blend in so anything that we carry on us has to be something that blends in that doesn't draw attention and that withstands something that we call cover scrutiny because if somebody stops us if a police officer stops us or if a child bumps into us or if we get hit by a car and an ambulance comes to help us we have to fit within our cover identity so what we carry on us is a big part of what identifies your true affiliation your true identity so if you can imagine a spy getting hit by like a motorcycle in Vietnam that's a normal occurrence like getting hit by a traffic in Vietnam is pretty common if an ambulance rolls up to you and you're carrying a Glock or you're carrying a hidden knife and especially if it's got some kind of seal on it that Associates you with you know uh US government or US military all of a sudden you don't look like whatever your cover Legend was business person uh traveling tourist whatever it might be so our everyday carry is very very different from that of the average person so a couple things one we always wear shoes with laces it sounds silly but we always wear shoes with laces because you've got to always be ready to beat feet whether you're trying to run away or run towards something laced shoes are far superior to sandals to slip-ons to to anything else right we also always carry a hundred dollars US dollars depending on where we are in the world most places in the world 100 US dollars gets you pretty much anywhere you need to go really a hundred dollars a hundred US Dollars gets you pretty much anywhere you need to go and 80 of the of the of the world have you used that before oh yeah absolutely I've gotten myself yeah so so I've gotten myself across rivers and across National borders in Southeast Asia because I had U.S currency in five and ten dollar denominations just wave over a fishing vessel be like hey I need to get to that side of the river that side of the river is the difference between being in you know Thailand or being in Burma sometimes and they don't really care they don't to have a five dollar U.S bill that's the equivalent of 50 of 150 Thai currency of you know and that's and that's 150 pieces of Thai currency if it was Thai currency the fact that it's a U.S dollar bill actually brings more value than if it was the currency of the local country because now they have the US dollar or U.S bill along with it right a minted U.S bill I would totally agree with that what about First World countries First World countries gets a little bit trickier because in a first world country you know you're Germany's your polands your Romania's it's a little bit tough because they are built around the Euro sometimes the Euro has more value than a US dollar but there's still an element of the fact that the US dollar has been the chief currency of the world so they still are happy to take US Dollars they're still happy to take US currency and they're also still happy to uh to take cash for services because again unlike the United States the United States is a legalistic country like as much as people complain about corruption and deceit and whatever else in the United States it does not compare at all to what exists in Europe right prostitution is legal in Germany you can get basically anything you want in the caucuses or even as far as Romania and Romania is a NATO country you can Grease the skids anywhere into any political office into any business deal into any manufacturing deal with with US dollars with currency you can you can whether you want to call it a bribe or whether you want to call it a service fee whatever you want to call it there's a lot of flexibility in certain morals that here in the United States we've legalized or we've legalistically legalistically constrained so that's why a hundred dollars in U.S currency is absolutely on my everyday carry list interesting I totally agree with you I've I've done it as well but um but in First World countries a hundred dollars is I've personally found to be a little bit harder to bribe with it's so that's what I'm asking country specific do you okay do you up the do you up the dollar amount when you're in First World countries yes so I'll move it up to more like if I know that I'm going specifically if I know I'm going to Europe that number turn that number doubles it becomes 200 US dollars right and what really happens is it becomes a hundred us and 100 in local currency okay but they'll still be and that's Untouchable money that's not the spending money that's the money that gets stuck into like an extra crevice in the wallet and then I actually put my ATM money on top of that so you're 60 80 70 euros whatever it's going to be that you get through the day with but your emergency because EDC is about emergency really yeah it's about being there when you need it so that to that hundred us and 100 local currency or 200 local currency Europe is good because Euros are accepted everywhere for the most part but this I mean it sucks it sucks to get stuck in in a euro a European country where Euros are not used as the main currency and then they don't know whether the euro is real or not but they do trust the US dollar there's just there's all sorts of stuff that gets sticky in the United States even in the United States a first world country 100 US dollars is actually quite effective that's more than enough to get uh to get a cabbie to take you somewhere for cash that's more than enough to get a driver to at least give you a ride somewhere like you can do that's if you wave down somebody outside of a freaking Costco or a Walmart and you give them a hundred dollars in cash dude they'll take you pretty much anywhere yeah right Uber drivers drive 16 or 30 miles to get paid 16 like it's it's you never underestimate the value of Cash Plus cash specifically is untraceable credit cards leave a trail venmo leaves a trail there's there's digital pixie dust on everything but cash is still something that you can use so that nobody can track it so that makes you safe but it also makes whoever helps you safe because neither of you can be linked together and neither of you can be linked back to the transaction speaking of currency do you carry anything else with currency like for an example when I was working at the agency I purchased a Rolex because Rolex is universal everybody knows what it is it's always on you and so it's real easy to here you go so what I'll actually do so the days the problem with material Goods is that material Goods like a Rolex require two steps before it can be liquidated so you might give somebody a Rolex but then they've got to actually go and pawn it trade it sell it whatever else and sometimes you need a favor that isn't a Rolex favor right so what I would actually recommend is instead use especially if you're not in a covert capacity get an international credit card right this is one of the things that I tell people all the time find yourself a a chase a USA Bank even an American Express because you're going to pay 250 a year to have that American Express but you could be anywhere in the world and run that thing through an ATM and have instant local currency so now if you need a 50 favor you run the Cur you run the credit card you got a 50 favor you need a 500 favor you run the credit card you got a 500 favorite you need a five thousand dollar favor you run the credit card you got a five thousand dollar favor you know what I mean I do it's so much easier it it's traceable because it puts your credit card in that machine but that's it nobody knows what it was for after that okay interesting so I would say laced shoes everyday carry International credit card everyday carry 100 U.S if you're if you're in a third world or developing country 200 U.S if you're in the United States or if you're in a first world country and then uh the only thing we carry on top of that or the only thing I would recommend carrying on top of that is a literal uh uh what's the word I'm looking for whenever you weatherize a piece of paper help me out here laminated thank you a laminated shortlist of the seven most important phone numbers to you right mother-in-law mother father-in-law son daughter sisters whatever it might be because if you're incapacitated that weatherproof piece of paper that laminated piece of paper is something EMTs can use police can use people can reference if you're busted up in the face you can point and people can find the phone number that you need if your phone dies if your phone is stolen right people don't steal a piece of laminated paper and you can carry it in your wallet you can carry it in your freaking sock you can carry it in your chest pocket you can carry it anywhere you want to and not have to worry about sweat rain or anything else those are the kind those are the four things that we're trying to carry all the time because it doesn't matter what covert capacity you're in if you're incapacitated attacked mugged taken in for questioning none of those four things break your cover you you withstand cover scrutiny in any country that you're in you can you can withstand cover scrutiny with those four items interesting what about well actually I got another question so being a serious spy if you can talk about it what is the coolest piece of gear that you've carried from the science and technology department over there man there is some really cool Tech that they come up with the the mo the majority of the tech that they come up with is still heavily classified um so we can't really talk much about it uh what I would say in general terms is one of my favorite things they have a way of making it so that you can open pretty much any hotel room door with the same key card nice so like the you're supposed to use it you're supposed to use it so that you can get into somebody else's hotel room but man we all love that piece of equipment for ourselves because it's just kind of like so it doesn't matter where you're staying you just it's a piece of plastic so I don't even care about losing my my local hotel card is just scan this thing pretty much anywhere I need to go another guy didn't open door nice nice I'm not saying that yet but now I'm gonna go look and try to find one what about here at home do you carry a firearm so in the United States what I actually I don't carry a firearm myself on me every day what I carry around my what I carry near to person is a baton okay so I carry batons I carry uh uh actual audio alarms and I I teach my family to carry the same thing those are those are tools that I prefer because they're they're less likely to ever accidentally discharge when I've got children around when I've got a family around I've got my children's friends around to store and and secure a weapon makes it so that you can't actually reach that weapon when the worst things happen so what I prefer is a weapon I can always reach a baton the only way you hurt somebody with a baton especially if it's a collapsible baton you have to extend it and then strike my my kids neighborhood son can step up pick it up off the ground and hand it to me and say what's this and nobody's nervous about that right it's like picking up a pipe or picking up a flashlight and saying what's this but if your seven-year-old neighbor's son walks in and picks up your your Glock you're gonna be like freaking out right that's not a story anybody wants to share same thing with an audio alarm I also like audio alarms because it's really easy to teach even like a three-year-old how to use an audio alarm you clip the thing to their backpack when they go to daycare you clip a thing into their backpack when you go for a walk in a public place and you show them that if they ever get scared if anything bad happens they just pull a cord and the whole alarm goes off and you got 180 decibels calling everyone's attention to that child right so now if there's a molester or a kidnapper or somebody who's Shady once that person hears the alarm go off they're gone they don't want the attention of everybody in the local vicinity looking at them right yeah so for me I find that audio alarms and batons are far superior again to the lifestyle I lead because I don't want to have to I don't want to be two steps away from a firearm when I need it if you don't have children or if you have older children that are trained around Firearms a whole different story interesting I like that alarm idea I'm going to use when my son gets older oh yeah well I don't know if you'd ever considered carrying a firearm but I got a buddy Jason over at Sig I told him you were coming on here oh man and uh he wanted me to to show you this thing I'm interested to hear your your opinion on it oh look at this guy so that is unloaded yeah so that's the p365 macro with uh it's got an Optics cut in there go ahead what do you think this is a beautiful piece it feels good too yeah yeah it's got a nice it's nice and compact on it yep yep it's got a good grip to hold with this is nice this is a nice piece so there's a business card in there so just take that with you reach out to Jason I think he's got something he wants to send you might look very similar to that okay but um yeah would you carry that I would consider carrying something like this especially if I was carrying it um on business or if I was somewhere without my children nearby right if I was going somewhere solo because this is this is all the best parts of Sig right what I what I've always liked about Sig is that its balance is right right the quality and craftsmanship is really high they generally tend to be kind of uh mistake for giving right so if you don't clean it as often as you should if you uh if you get it dirty if you drop it right they don't they tend to be a very a very solid piece yeah and that's something I've always really enjoyed about Sig yeah so yeah this is something I would definitely consider carrying all right well get in touch with Jason thank you Jason but all right let's get to the show

Channel: Shawn Ryan Show

Views: 1,488,065

Keywords: vigilance elite, shawn ryan, shawn ryan show, the shawn ryan show, shawn ryan podcast, podcast, srs, storytelling, podcast show, podcast clips, cia, spy, cia spy, everyday carry, edc, self defense, preparedness, sig sauer, tools, tradecraft, navyseal, navyseals, operations, spec ops

Id: 5iDrisQu46M

Length: 15min 33sec (933 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 29 2023