Across the globe, spies gather in inconspicuous places to meet contacts and hold discreet conversations. This week, Intelligence Online sits down near CIA headquarters in Langley, at the McLean Family Restaurant. A typical American diner where agency staff are regulars.
There's a joke within the intelligence community that you need a CIA badge to get into the McLean Family Restaurant, or MFR. The traditional diner is around two kilometres from the George Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley, making it one of the closest restaurants to the agency's headquarters.
In fact there's no need to show your credentials to enter this North Virginia institution, opened in 1969, which is now located in the heart of a typical small retail development with a chemist's, a barber's,
