The Secret Life of a Female Spy

Nov. 29, 2005 — -- Lindsay Moran grew up reading books about spies in the Central Intelligence Agency, and after graduating from Harvard University, she became one herself. But Moran became disillusioned after five years undercover and left the agency.

"At the end of the day, I really didn't enjoy being a spy," Moran told ABC News in January. "I didn't enjoy preying upon people and taking advantage of their vulnerabilties or taking advantage of someone who was sort of down on their luck."

Moran has written about her experience in "Blowing My Cover, My Life As A CIA Spy."

"You are basically being asked to cheat and steal for the United States government," said Chase Brandon, the agency's liaison to the entertainment industry.

"You want someone who thinks outside the box," said John Phillips, chief scientist at the CIA. "I know that's a worn phrase but that's what we are trying to get -- people who are a little bit on the fringe."

Moran said the CIA sometimes recruits people they think will make excellent officers. In her case, she submitted an application that included her language skills and and her time living in Eastern Europe as a Fulbright scholar. She was accepted into the agency where she learned how to jump out of planes, crash cars and drive power boats.

Beginning in 1998, she was deployed to Macedonia under the official cover of a foreign diplomat. She found forming relationships with potential agents came naturally for her.

"In most parts of the world, the people that we're targeting, the foreign agents we want to recruit, are men," Moran said. "It's a lot easier as a young woman to approach a foreign man and suggest that you go out for coffee or to dinner."

But there is a line women in the CIA will not cross.

"Obviously, you're not going to prostitute yourself as a CIA case officer," she said. "At the end of the day, it's still a government job, nor would anyone ever want to."

While being a female helped Moran approach men on the job, the job hurt her when it came to approaching men in her personal life.

"I was single and approaching 30 at the time when it's hard enough to even, you now, get a date," Moran said. "And the agency was very explicit saying that you should make yourself sound as boring as possible."

It wasn't until after she left that CIA in 2003 that Moran actually told the man she would eventually marry what she did for a living.

Said Moran: "When I did, he said 'I thought there was something fishy about you.'"