CIA SURVEILLANCE TRAINING: How Spies Know They’re Being Followed

What happened in this episode?

Andrew Bustamante, a former CIA officer, explains what the agency calls a “surveillance detection route” (SDR) and describes how, in his telling, it becomes more than a training exercise when an officer believes they are being watched while using a cover identity abroad. He outlines a standard response he calls “lulling surveillance”: behaving predictably and “boringly” to encourage watchers to drop their guard while the target maintains situational awareness.

Bustamante then gives a detailed personal account of detecting surveillance partway through a short collection trip and running what he calls a “rabbit run” — an 8–12 hour circuit of mundane errands designed to confirm surveillance and observe it without signalling awareness. He says he decided to exit the country early to reduce the chance the “home team” could bring in more resources.

He describes weighing land, sea and air exit options and choosing to fly out commercially on an airport route he was already scheduled to use. As part of that plan, he says he intentionally created a “large digital footprint” by changing his flight and communicating it widely, assuming adversaries might be monitoring his phone. He claims he was pulled into secondary screening and questioned in broken English, and says the interrogators’ approach suggested to him they did not know his prior activities.

Elsewhere, Bustamante argues the CIA is an “agency of last resort”, contrasts CIA constraints with Mossad’s threat environment, and discusses the damage caused by moles such as Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, including how US due-process protections can complicate counterintelligence responses.

What are the key points?

• Bustamante explains CIA “surveillance detection routes” and the goal of detecting surveillance across multiple locations.
• He describes “lulling surveillance” as acting predictably to encourage watchers to lose focus.
• He claims he detected surveillance abroad and ran an 8–12 hour “rabbit run” of errands to draw surveillance out and observe it.
• He says he chose to leave early because ongoing presence increases the chance surveillance can bring in more resources.
• He claims he deliberately created a communications trail about a flight change, assuming signals monitoring, before travelling to the airport.
• He alleges he was pulled into secondary screening and questioned, and inferred the interrogators did not know his earlier activities.
• He discusses major US mole cases (Ames, Hanssen, Montes) and argues US legal protections can slow action after suspects are identified.

Which topics are covered?

How is this page sourced?

Programme

Everyday Spy

Published

16 August 2026

Duration

20m

Original episode

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