Concealment devices
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Concealment devices, CDs in CIA usage, are everyday objects modified to hide something inside them. John Kiriakou confirms they are real, ordinary and widely distributed: "certainly books like that exist. They're called CDs or concealment devices." Some are handed out without a purpose attached, "here are some CDs for you. Use them for whatever you want to use them for", and some are big enough to hold a gun. "Absolutely they exist, and every CIA officer has access to them."

How one is found

Reviewing the scene in The Good Shepherd in which a hollowed copy of Ulysses is detected on a shelf, Kiriakou calls the setup slightly "Hollywood fabulist" but the method sound. The character is looking for an anomaly in the placement of the book: it sits among classic literature, but its binding is newer and it stands ever so slightly higher than the others, the signature of a book that has been handled.

Taking it down, he is checking the hard cover for a second anomaly, whether something has been glued in, whether there is something inside, and he can feel it. Kiriakou's professional verdict on the device rather than the search: "Frankly, it wasn't a very good concealment device if you can feel it with your finger."

The Directorate of Science and Technology's old work

Kiriakou places concealment devices in the historical portfolio of the Directorate of Science and Technology, which in his time was "almost an afterthought" responsible mostly for disguises and "briefcases with secret pockets in them." The directorate has since moved to what he calls big-ticket items and pushed the concealment and disguise work out to individuals and makeup companies.

See also

- John Kiriakou
- Directorate of Science and Technology
