Nevertheless, many of the agency's methods come straight out of Robert Ludlum or Ian Fleming, including sophisticated gadgets, top-secret operations, and such questionable actions as kidnapping, blackmail, corruption, and assassination. The organization works fairly openly with local police, "undercover" agents readily identify themselves as ISA members, and they have legal arrest powers in their own right. The ISA also has several advanced scientific and medical facilities throughout the world, dealing with problems encountered by its agents such as brainwashing and biological warfare.
