My name is Michael Westen. I used to be a spy until...

Monday, July 18, 2011

Burn Notice - Season 01 - Episode 04 Spy Tips and Tactics

Burn Notice Season 1 Episode 04 "Old Friends" was first aired last July 19, 2007 and below are the Spy Tips and Tactics:

* You want to blend into a new city, you better be up on local sports.


* Covert ops has its perks. You travel, make your own hours and expense most of your meals. The downside? Lots of people want you dead.

* If it looks like you're about to get into a fight that could get you killed, try starting another one.

* When booby-trapping your home, it's important to keep it simple. Make it easy to set up, easy to disable.

* One more thing about booby traps. Make sure your friends know not to drop by unannounced.

* You can learn good self-defense fighting with students in a class, but great self-defense -that you pick up fighting with your family.

* Spies go to bars for the same reason people go to libraries -full of information, if you know how to ask.

* The key to a good knife defense is to control the knife hand and strike with everything you've got.

* Fighting is often about tactical retreats like running away from two knives. It's also about knowing how to make the body count unacceptable.

* Pimps are all about show. High end or low end, they like to stand out.

* Compulsive gamblers get a lot of practice seeing people bluff so the good news is they can usually pick up on people's tells. The bad news is when they're wrong, the consequences are very expensive.

* Any good operative is careful not to leave much behind. Everyone gets careless, though and even the littlest things can turn out to be useful. A receipt, a paperback. Room service records. Every bit helps.

* A rescue attempt is hard enough when it's someone who actually wants to be rescued. It doesn't matter whether it's a brother with a compulsive gambling problem or a girl who thinks she's about to launch her modeling career. So you eliminate escape options. Keep a low profile. But no matter what you do, you'll still have someone screaming bloody murder in the back of your car.
* Some situations just come down to probabilities -the chance that an assassin with a handgun can hit you at 50 yards, and the number of shots he can get off might have a one-in-five chance of taking a bullet, and maybe a one-in-10 chance of dying. Or a hundred percent chance of getting blown away by a shotgun wired to a door. A ricochet's usually not deadly, but it sure feels that way.

* Any decent criminal will change his plans at mention of the word "cops."

* Spend a lot of time in countries without hospitals...you pick up a few things.

* Running an operation, you can't let personal feelings get in the way. It's about planning and execution. Although occasionally you may get a little angry.

* There's a reason family's always a good source of leverage. Whether it's a brother that always owes people money, or a brother stuck in the trunk of a car. You can't really turn your back on them.

* The drive home is often a grueling experience for someone you just rescued especially if they were unaware of their situation. They ask a lot of questions. You fill them in on the answers. And then it dawns on them. The truth. It can be a little overwhelming.

Looks like whoever burned me has something planned. They don't want me leaving Miami, but they don't want me dead either.

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