Just when you think you have seen everything, I ran across an advertisement for a "Spy Cruise." 

"SpyCruise®"  advertises itself as "a private group aboard a cruise ship where members attend exclusive lectures and talks on espionage, spies, intelligence, counterterrorism and more. Speakers are intelligence experts, leaders, officers, operatives, analysts, authors and historians, many of whom served in the US Intelligence Community."

Spy Cruise - James Bond The cruise will be into the Caribbean aboard Holland America Line’s Eurodam cruise ship, leaving Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale) on November 13th.  

The cruise is sponsored by the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies (CI CENTRE) whose motto is "Detect, Deter & Disrupt," Henley-Putnam University and The Counter Terrorist magazine which is discussing "The Radical Islamic Threat" and "Mass Casualty Protection" in its publication.

Now, to be honest, I have never heard of this organization, or this university, or this anti-terrorist magazine (which actually sounds quite interesting).  Perhaps because they are run by spies and operatives? 

But all kidding aside, the line-up seems impressive if you like this kind of stuff, and includes a couple of former CIA and NSA Directors as well as some top generals and commanders from the U.S. Army and Navy.  According to the Washington Post, its also for a good cause – part of the cruise proceeds go to a scholarship fund for the children of fallen CIA officers and another memorial fund for a U.S. Army soldier.

The cruise website includes links to prior spy cruises, to the Western Caribbean in 2002, and Hawaii and London in 2003.

But I can’t help thinking about the potential dangers involved in such an event.  Is it a smart idea to load up a cruise ship with a group of former CIA, NSA, FBI directors and operatives and retired U.S. Army and Navy types to sail around on a foreign flagged cruise ship where the passengers’ safety is protected only by a small number of unarmed Filipino security guards?   

Spy Cruise

 

Credits:

Photo and ad banner  SpyCruise®