Sometime around 1983 here was CIA agent in Beirut who looked and acted like a typical American, and drove a taxi as a cover, and made no secret about his nationality. He claimed to locals he liked living in Beirut, which was plausible in 1983 when it still had a number of Christians and remnants of French culture. It is amazing how much intelligence a cab driver can pick up if his ears are open.
Even today, there are a number of exiled Lebanese Christians living in the U.S. and Israel who would make great agents.
Remember when the Vietcong took over Huế? They were able to round up every government official, march them all off into the jungle and kill every last one of them in one single night.
They knew exactly where they lived, who they visited, where they shopped and where they ate dinner, and when.
How you ask?
The cabbies had been providing the data on their every move for years in advance.
Soooo, where do most of the cabbies in your berg come from? In Washington DC, it's Somalia...