[3] After graduating from Harvard and submitting an application that included her language skills and her time living in Eastern Europe as a Fulbright scholar, Moran was recruited to work for the CIA.
As a case officer for the CIA, Moran's primary job was to spot, assess, develop, and recruit foreigners willing to sell secrets, as well as maintaining the agents who were already under her control.
However, her interest in spy work gradually diminished because of the pressure her career had put on her personal life, as well as her growing disillusionment with the CIA's bureaucracy, especially after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
On the Diane Rehm talk radio show on January 17, 2005, Moran said that the final straw that convinced her to leave the agency was its slow reaction to the terrorist attacks.
Some find it surprising that the CIA allowed Moran to speak freely about her top-secret work, especially due to the negative press this book generated for the Agency.