TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
CIA chief: I’m no Jason Bourne, I drive an old Subaru
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director William Burns said in the United States spy agency's first-ever podcast on Thursday that his life was nothing like Jason Bourne and James Bond.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Not a Hollywood movie: Central Intelligence Agency director William Burns testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee on March 10 in Washington, DC. Burns said in a podcast onThursday that his life as a special agent is nothing like Jason Bourne and James Bond. (AFP/Getty Images/Kevin Dietsch)
C
entral Intelligence Agency (CIA) director William Burns said in the United States spy agency's first-ever podcast on Thursday that his life was nothing like Jason Bourne and James Bond, ripping hot cars through crowded cities and deploying unimaginable lethal gadgets.
Popular spy films show "a world of heroic individuals who drive fast cars and defuse bombs and solve world crises all on their own every day”, Burns said.
"That, I have to tell you, is a constant source of amusement for my wife and daughters."
"I'm most comfortable driving our 2013 Subaru Outback at posted speed limits and, for me at least, the height of technological daring is when I can finally get the Roku remote to work at home," he admitted.
Burns, 66, a veteran diplomat who has run the CIA since March 2021, made the comments in the first episode of The Langley Files, a podcast that pledges to demystify the super-secret agency.
Burns' main point was to stress that while the CIA has many officers undercover in the field, they are not dramatic solo operators like Bond, Bourne or Jack Ryan of Hollywood fame.
"The truth is that intelligence is very much a team sport. It's a profession of hard collective work and shared risks," Burns said.
More from The Weekender
Jakarta’s padel moment
From FOMO to full-blown obsession, padel has captured the city. What comes next may depend less on courts and more on the communities that grow around them.
The battle over memory
And why the government’s plan to rewrite its history books should alarm us all.
Are younger workers getting something right about work?
As micro-retirements gain traction, Gen Z and young millennials are challenging traditional ideas of ambition, success and when it’s okay to pause.
