Shadowy theatrics train agents for real threats

FBI, CIA, others stage covert scenarios to help trainees apply class lessons

By Laura Blumenfeld
updated 3:38 a.m. MT, Mon., Aug 17, 2009

WASHINGTON - Five minutes before his job interview, John Fisher parks at Ace Fire Extinguisher Services in College Park, his window open and his stomach jumpy. He is nibbling on spoonfuls of cottage cheese when shouts erupt from the car next to his.

Fisher believes what he is seeing is real.

"Gun! He has a gun!" a man with a Secret Service earpiece yells, riffling through the glove compartment.

"It's my brother's gun!" a man in a black ski cap growls. "I didn't know I had a gun!"

<snip> For Obama, Spodak created a new character, Gideon Caine, a white supremacist who works as a data-entry clerk at Wachovia.

- Well, at least they're on the right track with the supremacist threat. I wonder if they have a sobbing woman with disheveled hair and a misspelled sign? :silly: