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When I briefly worked for a "Three Letter Agency" we were told that the only answer we were allowed to give to any question like this to any of our own or foreign officials was "work of a confidential nature in the national interest"

It works well if you can do it with a straight face!

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That is great! I bet it works like a free pass if you match their notion of a NSA, CIA, NRO employee.

I bet it works like a jail sentence[1] if they have some way of checking whether you actually are an employee of a three-letter agency and you aren't one.

[1] Or a hefty fine, or some other variety of considerable nuisance.

Why? What law do you think you are breaking by saying that?

Adding jobs is in the national interest, right? You could be doing that by traveling.

You're not saying to whom the matter is confidential.

My client work abroad is certainly confidential, though the US government may not care, the client does.

I guess "unshaven hippie with long hair" isn't the best look to pull this off, huh? If I faked a military bearing would they assume I was one of those military intelligence types that doesn't shave and has long hair just to throw people off from thinking he's a military intelligence type?

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