Burn Notice - Season 01 - Episode 02 Spy Tips & Tactics

Burn Notice Season 01 Episode 2 "Identity" was first aired last July 5, 2007 and below are the Spy Tips and Tactics:

* A surveillance photo can tell you a lot about the photographer. Surveillance takes planning. You have to scout the area. You need a place to sit and wait for the target for an hour-or 10. You need to take a leak now and then. Lots of chances to get seen.

* You can't choose your intelligence sources. Might be a heroin smuggler, a dictator or your mom.

* Not all bugs are the same. If it's got a battery, it's disposable, short-term. If it's wired into the house power, it's a longer-term thing. If it has a transmitter, you can figure out how close the listener is.

*  Once your surveillance knows you're onto them, the clock starts ticking. They know you're coming, so the question for them is whether they can destroy their equipment and get out of there in time. The question for you is whether you can find them before every bit of useful information is turned into a pile of burning slag.

* There's a reason pies don't have a lot of parties. Everybody's got a history with everyone else.

* Often, the best way to get intel is to provoke action, set people in motion. Pros know better, but they usually have to work with a few amateurs and they panic. So you beat the bushes a little and see what flies out. Once your frightened amateur leads you to the pros, the work begins.

* Con artists and spies are both professional liars. Cons do it for the money, and spies do it for the flag, but it's mostly the same gig. They run operations, they follow security procedures, they recruit support staff and issue orders.

* When you go after a spy, you send another spy. The same goes for con artists. To catch one, you've got to beat him at his own game- be a better liar than he is.

* No matter how good your cover identity is, you've got to sell it, and that's not always easy.

* Sometimes you have to decide just how committed you are to pretending you are who you say you are.

* I don't like running from cops, but it has its advantages. It builds your credibility with a criminal when you flee a crime scene.

* Eavesdropping and fieldwork go hand in hand. You want to know what your target is saying, what he's typing into his computer. But technology can't work miracles. Bugs don't plant themselves. Fact is, even the fanciest equipment, usually needs help from a good old-fashioned crowbar.

* It's always useful to be able to disable a car remotely. A cell phone, some wire you can ground the circuit on the electrical system with a phone call.

* A good cover identity keeps the target feeling in control. You talk too much, drink too much just to let him know he's got the edge.

* Go after a group of people directly, and they pull together. They get stronger. Taking on a tight-knit group is about making them turn on each other. You plant the seeds of distrust and watch them grow. Of course, sowing seeds of distrust is harder, when nobody trusts you.

* You've been in the business way too long when you recognize
the sound of a .45 caliber over a phone.

* Whether you're in Moscow, Tehran or Miami...club girls are a good
source of information. Men say things to a beautiful woman. They give out phone numbers, hotel keys. They let down their guard.

* Getting information from a club girl means buying drinks. It's no problem with an operational slush fund. It's a big problem if you're spending cash scrounged from your mom's purse.

* A hit man is like a plumber, a dentist or a mechanic. Everybody's always looking for a good one.

* I don't much like dealing with paranoids. They get erratic, make bad decisions. Of course, that can be a help when you need them to make a bad decision.

* Truth is, identity theft isn't hard. A number and an I.D. is all you need to drain a bank account.