Central Intelligence Agency
Blackford's missions with the CIA involve various top-secret Cold War enterprises arranged by the Agency's highest ranking individuals and American presidents alike. Oakes possesses the ability to impress his colleagues, superiors (among them John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan), and even his enemies with his easy-going competence and likability.
Read more about this topic: Blackford Oakes
Famous quotes containing the words central, intelligence and/or agency:
“Et in Arcadia ego.
[I too am in Arcadia.]”
—Anonymous, Anonymous.
Tomb inscription, appearing in classical paintings by Guercino and Poussin, among others. The words probably mean that even the most ideal earthly lives are mortal. Arcadia, a mountainous region in the central Peloponnese, Greece, was the rustic abode of Pan, depicted in literature and art as a land of innocence and ease, and was the title of Sir Philip Sidney’s pastoral romance (1590)
“There are whole precincts of voters in this country whose united intelligence does not equal that of one representative American woman.”
—Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947)
“It is possible that the telephone has been responsible for more business inefficiency than any other agency except laudanum.... In the old days when you wanted to get in touch with a man you wrote a note, sprinkled it with sand, and gave it to a man on horseback. It probably was delivered within half an hour, depending on how big a lunch the horse had had. But in these busy days of rush-rush-rush, it is sometimes a week before you can catch your man on the telephone.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)