“Nine years ago, Antonio J. Mendez, the son of a Nevada copper miner, retired from the CIA after a quarter-century. He had worked his way up from the lowly forgery unit – bogus signatures, altered documents, counterfeit currency and the like – to become head of the espionage agency’s division of disguise, with a rank equal to that of a two-star general. He created some of the CIA’s most elaborate, if little-known, productions – the ploys, skits, scams, masquerades and sleights of hand designed to dupe foreign agents and enemy surveillance teams.” – Washington Post