Two CIA officers explain how intelligence work begins long before approaching a target. They describe using casual encounters called "bumps" to make first contact and assess whether someone is worth recruiting as a human intelligence source.
CIA, when they recruit ops officers, there's a whole process. You get into a foreign country, and the first thing that you're doing is trying to spot viable targets. Who are the people who have access to information that the U.S. government might want? And then once you've identified those people, then you're assessing them.
How are you assessing them if you don't really know them yet?
You have to be able to find an excuse to talk to anyone. And a lot of relationships start with what's called a bump. You gotta figure out what that person's pattern of life is, find a way to run into him her, and your first goal in a bump is just to secure a second meeting.
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