Summer, a time to forget about work and head for the beach! No, the mountains! No….a museum! We all live for those times when the kids battle for primacy of place in the back of the van. We hear them cry out with joy because vacation time is here! While your vacation may be a time when you hope to forget about your day job, trips mean one thing for security clearance holders: a pre-travel briefing.
Every counterintelligence support branch for every cleared company should give pre-travel briefings. Even for vacations.
Remember, the pre-travel briefing is the first line of defense against collection of your secrets by others. Spies for other countries, or other companies, know you are least protected and least aware on vacation. Remember, you are on vacation. The spies are not.
‘C’mon,’ you protest. ‘I’m going on vacation for crying out loud! Vacation is not somewhere I need to protect against elicitation, losing my laptop, rooms being bugged, or attractive ‘honey-traps’ laying in wait for me poolside.’
No? Consider this. Before every trip, clearance holders should be required to advise where they will be. Why? Because Big Brother says so? No, because a briefing would have prevented these problems.
4 Scenarios Where Overseas Travel Turned Into an Overseas Nightmare
- A cleared traveler to Italy decided to go out on a carefree walk alone. While out alone, she slipped on a paving stone in a remote part of a middle sized city. She came to in a hospital, could not speak the language of the nurses, nor they hers. Always travel with someone.
- In another case, our cleared traveler was struck with sciatica, the fearsome back nerve ailment which paralyzes the leg. Without any knowledge of the language, the traveler and his wife were rendered helpless in the foreign capital. He luckily knew the American embassy’s phone number. After he contacted them, they were able to provide access to local doctors, and even a translator, who remained online with him during the doctor’s visit.
- A cleared wanderer was robbed not five minutes after he’d counted his money from an ATM and placed it carefully in his wallet. The ATM on the town square where he was visiting was closely observed by thieves, and previous travelers had lost money there too. Had he received a briefing, his informed CI officer would have advised him of this.
- A beach sunbathing practice in some countries requires little, if any, clothing to soak up rays. What do you do with your wallet or purse? A good review of local advisories will help to know if you can trust the room safes, the hotel safes, or any safes provided. Such practical advice can be found beforehand, and the protective measures needed employed. Our travelers were always told to make a copy of all the important documents they wanted to bring, and leave the copies with a trusted family member or friend while traveling. If robbed abroad, then our cleared traveler only has to make one call to the family or friend, and say, “Start cancelling everything.” Everything? Yes, everything.
Let’s walk through this. If you bring a credit card, ask yourself: Do I need this for the trip? If not, leave it home. Driver’s license? Do you need it in Belize? No? Leave it home. ID? Yes, you’ll need some ID. Check on what that is before you leave. If you need a passport, bring it. Another pitfall which is easy to avoid regarding passports: have two ID card sized extra photos of yourself with you. If you get your passport stolen, report it immediately to the nearest U.S. Consulate. (Remember the advisory above? Know where the nearest consulate is and how to reach them!) You will save yourself a massive headache if you bring extra passport sized photos because you will need them for the temporary ID the consulate can issue.
The State Department website, travel.state.gov, has a host of great tips and practical advisories. Not least of which is a complete pre-travel checklist for overseas travel. Of course, most Americans don’t go overseas for vacations, but see the USA in their Chevrolet (maybe).
Here are some tips for any travel:
- Have a friend watch your house. In one case, the friend watching the cleared traveler’s house observed an arm poked out of a neighbors garage. He knew the neighbors were in Pensacola! Their car was being stolen in the closed garage, and the arm was reaching out to open the garage door! Due to the watcher’s diligence, the cops recovered the stolen car about 400 miles away. The neighbor knew to call the police.
- The U.S. Post Office has an online service to stop your mail from piling up.
- Ask a friend to cut your lawn while you are gone.
- Lights which flick on and off in your house are good prevention against theft.
Every briefing we ever gave would be spiced with good advisories like these. All too often, our travelers were immensely thankful for the tips which prevented disaster, or mitigated one that happened. And why do this for cleared travelers? Because we care. Your house, your wallet, your cell phone, your purse, and even your mind are targets for those who want to do you wrong. Your counterintelligence officer wants to protect what you know – and you.
