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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > International relations > Espionage & secret services
Shabtai Shavit, director of the Mossad from 1989 to 1996, is one of
the most influential leaders to shape the recent history of the
State of Israel. In this exciting and engaging book, Shavit
combines memoir with sober reflection to reveal what happened
during the seven years he led what is widely recognized today as
one of the most powerful and proficient intelligence agencies in
the world. Shavit provides an inside account of his intelligence
and geostrategic philosophy, the operations he directed, and
anecdotes about his family, colleagues, and time spent in, among
other places, the United States as a graduate student and at the
CIA. Shavit's tenure occurred during many crucial junctures in the
history of the Middle East, including the collapse of the Soviet
Union and the end of the Cold War era; the first Gulf War and Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir's navigation of the state and the Israeli
Defense Forces (IDF) during the conflict; the peace agreement with
Jordan, in which the Mossad played a central role; and the
assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Shavit offers a
broad sweep of the integral importance of intelligence in these
historical settings and reflects on the role that intelligence can
and should play in Israel's future against Islamist terrorism and
Iran's eschatological vision. Head of the Mossad is a compelling
guide to the reach of and limits facing intelligence practitioners,
government officials, and activists throughout Israel and the
Middle East. This is an essential book for everyone who cares for
Israel's security and future, and everyone who is interested in
intelligence gathering and covert action.
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Delivering Osama
(Paperback)
Kabir Mohabbat, Leah McInnis; Foreword by Graeme Smith
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R730
Discovery Miles 7 300
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Ships in 18 - 22 working days
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Initially stationed at the U.S. Army's counterintelligence
headquarters in Saigon, David Noble was sent north to launch the
army's first covert intelligence-gathering operation in Vietnam's
Central Highlands. Living in the region of the
Montagnards-Vietnam's indigenous tribal people, deemed critical to
winning the war-Noble documented strategic hamlets and Green Beret
training camps, where Special Forces teams taught the Montagnards
to use rifles rather than crossbows and spears. In this book, he
relates the formidable challenges he confronted in the course of
his work. Weaving together memoir, excerpts from letters written
home, and photographs, Noble's compelling narrative throws light on
a little-known corner of the Vietnam War in its early years-before
the Tonkin Gulf Resolution and the deployment of combat units-and
traces his transformation from a novice intelligence agent and
believer in the war to a political dissenter and active protester.
Espionage is one of the world's oldest professions, and it played
an integral role in Allied successes and failures during the Second
World War. Equal to men in both their bravery and in the sacrifices
they made, the female undercover operatives of the Second World War
deserve to have their incredible stories told. The Women Who Spied
for Britain traces the fascinating and sometimes tragic stories of
eight women who put their lives on the line and made invaluable
contributions to the British war effort. Drawn from many different
walks of life, including a princess, a beauty queen, a war widow, a
teenage girl and a bawdy Australian journalist, all of these women
shared a sense of adventure, daring and determination that allowed
them to embrace the role of secret agent. Trained in the art of
clandestine warfare, guerilla tactics and radio operation, these
women worked closely with resistance movements throughout Occupied
Europe. Their stories are portraits of courage, offering a mixture
of thrilling adventure, gutsy humour, hard-fought triumphs and, for
far too many, horrific tragedy.
During the spring and summer of 1918, with World War I still
undecided, British, French and American agents in Russia developed
a breathtakingly audacious plan. Led by Robert Hamilton Bruce
Lockhart, a dashing, cynical, urbane 30-year-old Scot, they
conspired to overthrow Lenin's newly established Bolshevik regime,
and to install one that would continue the war against Germany on
the Eastern Front. Lockhart's confidante and chief support, with
whom he engaged in a passionate love affair, was the mysterious,
alluring Moura von Benkendorff, wife of a former aide-de-camp to
the Tsar. The plotters' chief opponent was 'Iron Felix'
Dzerzhinsky. He led the Cheka, 'Sword and Shield' of the Russian
Revolution and forerunner of the KGB. Dzerzhinsky loved humanity -
in the abstract. He believed socialism represented humanity's best
hope. To preserve and protect it he would unleash unbounded terror.
Revolutionary Russia provided the setting for the ensuing contest.
In the back streets of Petrograd and Moscow, in rough gypsy
cabarets, in glittering nightclubs, in cells beneath the Cheka's
Lubianka prison, the protagonists engaged in a deadly game of wits
for the highest possible stakes - not merely life and death, but
the outcome of a world war and the nature of Russia's post-war
regime. Confident of success, the conspirators set the date for an
uprising, September 8, 1918, but the Cheka had penetrated their
organization and pounced just beforehand. The Lockhart Plot was a
turning point in world history, except it failed to turn. At a time
when Russian meddling in British and American politics now sounds
warning bells, however, we may sense its reverberations and realize
that it is still relevant.
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