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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > International relations > Espionage & secret services
The Central Intelligence Agency's relative transparency makes it unique among the world's espionage operations. Over the past few decades it has released over 31 million pages of previously classified documents, including, most recently, the so-called Family Jewels, a special collection of records on a series of operations from the 1950s to the 1970s that violated the agency's own legislative charter. Taken together, these papers permit a partial glimpse inside the CIA's clandestine world: how it operates; how it views the outside world; how it gets things right; and, all too often, how it gets them wrong. The documentary selections assembled here, carefully analyzed for content, consistency, and context, guide readers through the CIA's shrouded history and allow readers to sift the evidence for themselves. The principal theme of this new documentary history of the Central Intelligence Agency is the dilemma of maintaining a secret organization in an open society. A democracy rests on accountability, and accountability requires transparency: the people cannot hold their government to account if they do not know what it is doing in their name. At the same time, an intelligence agency lives in a world of shadows. It cannot function if it is not able to keep its sources, its methods, and many of its operations secret. The resulting tension-and the constant temptation to take advantage of the impunity that secrecy allows-has shaped the CIA's history from its beginnings. Offers narrative chapters introducing the successive periods of CIA history Provides analytical discussion setting the individual documents in context and drawing connections among them A timeline traces major developments in CIA history A general bibliography of recommended print and electronic resources for further study
The Intelligence Science Board was chartered in August 2002 and advises the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and senior Intelligence Community leaders on emerging scientific and technical issues of special importance to the Intelligence Community. The mission of the Board is to provide the Intelligence Community with outside expert advice and unconventional thinking, early notice of advances in science and technology, insight into new applications of existing technology, and special studies that require skills or organizational approaches not resident within the Intelligence Community. "Educing information" refers to information elicitation and strategic debriefing as well as to interrogation. Educing Information is a profoundly important book because it offers both professionals and ordinary citizens a primer on the "science and art" of both interrogation and intelligence gathering. It concludes with an annotated bibliography.
Behind the front lines of every war in the world, prisoners are forced to sit for interrogation: manipulated, coerced, and sometimes tortured--often without ever being touched. Brainwash is a history of the methods intended to destroy and reconstruct the minds of captives, to extract information, convert dissidents, and lead peaceful men to kill and be killed. With access to formerly classified documentation and interviews
from the CIA, U.S. Army, MI5, MI6, and British Intelligence Corps,
Dominic Streatfeild traces the evolution of mind control from its
origins in the Cold War to the height of today's war on terror.
Vivid and disturbing, "Brainwash" is essential insight into the
modern practice of interrogation and torture. Dominic Streatfeild
is a writer and documentary filmmaker. His television work includes
the Discovery Channel's" "series" ""Age of Terror," which examined
the roots of political violence. Airing in over 150 countries, "
""Age of Terror" featured interviews with members of eighteen
terrorist groups, including FARC, the IRA, the Shining Path, and
Hezbollah, and won a British Broadcast Award in 2003. He is the
author of" ""Cocaine," which the" ""Sunday Times" (UK) described as
"a definitive history." With access to formerly classified
documentation and interviews from the CIA, the U.S. Army, MI5, MI6,
and the British Intelligence Corps, acclaimed journalist Dominic
Streatfeild traces the history of the world's most secret
psychological procedure. From the cold war to the height of today's
war on terror, groups as dissimilar as armies, religious cults, and
advertising agencies have been accused of brainwashing. But what
does this mean? Is it possible to erase memories or to implant them
artificially? Do heavy-metal records contain subliminal messages?
Do religious cults brainwash recruits? What were the CIA and MI6
doing with LSD in the 1950s? How far have the world's militaries
really gone? From the author of the definitive history of cocaine,
" ""Brainwash" is required reading in an era of cutting-edge and
often controversial interrogation practices. More than just an
examination of the techniques used by the CIA, the KGB, and the
Taliban, it is also a gripping, full history of the heated efforts
to master the elusive, secret techniques of mind control. "This
book is a series of wonderfully detailed and cleverly told stories,
each of which debunks the brainwashing myth. Streatfeild's
narrative control cannot be faulted. His research is
formidable."--"Sunday Times "(UK) "A gripping survey of the
post-war history of interrogation techniques."--"Telegraph on
Sunday" (UK) "Streatfeild does an important service by bringing
[brainwashing] to our attention again. It is especially relevant in
the light of Abu Ghraib and the war on terror."--"Financial Times
"(UK)
Kristian Gustafson's "Hostile Intent" reexamines one of the most controversial chapters in U.S. intelligence history, the Central Intelligence Agency's covert operations in Chile from 1964 to 1974. At the request of successive U.S. presidents, the CIA in conjunction with the State Department and the Defense Intelligence Agency first acted to prevent Chilean socialist Salvador Allende from becoming the democratically elected president of his country and then tried to undermine his government once he was in office. Allende's government eventually fell in a bloody military coup on September 11, 1973. President Richard Nixon's administration and corporate interests were not sorry to see him go, but did U.S. covert operations actually play a decisive role in Allende's downfall? The declassification of thousands of U.S. government documents over the last several years demands that historians take a new look.Since 1973, most observers have maintained that U.S. machinations were responsible for the success of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's coup that forced Allende's fall and suicide. This assessment has been based on a thin documentary record of U.S. activity, the myth of an all-powerful CIA, and the CIA's checkered history of covert action in Latin America. However, Gustafson convincingly shows the conventional wisdom about the impact of U.S. actions is badly flawed. His meticulous research is based upon an intensive examination of previously unavailable U.S. records as well as interviews with key figures. "Hostile Intent" is the most comprehensive account to date of U.S. involvement in Chile, and its provocative reinterpretation of this involvement will shape all future debates.
Tall, handsome, charming Col. Richard Meinertzhagen (1878-1967) was an acclaimed British war hero, a secret agent, and a dean of international ornithology. His exploits inspired three biographies, movies have been based on his life, and a square in Jerusalem is dedicated to his memory. Meinertzhagen was trusted by Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George, Chaim Weizmann, David Ben Gurion, T. E. Lawrence, Elspeth Huxley, and a great many others.He bamboozled them all. Meinertzhagen was a fraud. Many of the adventures recorded in his celebrated diaries were imaginary, including a meeting with Hitler while he had a loaded pistol in his pocket, an attempt to rescue the Russian royal family in 1918, and a shoot-out with Arabs in Haifa when he was seventy years old. True, he was a key player in Middle Eastern events after World War I, and during the 1930s he represented Zionism's interests in negotiations with Germany. But he also set up Nazi front organizations in England, committed a half-century of major and costly scientific fraud, and -- oddly -- may have been innocent of many killings to which he confessed (e.g., the murder of his own polo groom -- a crime of which he cheerfully boasted, although the evidence suggests it never occurred at all). Further, he may have been guilty of at least one homicide of which he professed innocence. A compelling read about a flamboyant rogue, "The Meinertzhagen Mystery" shows how recorded history reflects not what happened, but what we believe happened.
Israel's Mossad is one of the world's most powerful intelligence agencies. Having served as its director, Efraim Halevy has witnessed the Middle East crisis from the inside-out. As the secret envoy to prime ministers ranging from Yitzhak Rabin to Ariel Sharon, Halevy was privy to many of the top-level negotiations that changed the landscape of the region--and, in turn, the rest of the modern world. In "Man in the Shadows," he provides a fascinating, deeply informed look at the secret workings and global repercussions of Mossad's fight against Islamic terror, and writes with passion and authority about such topics as: - September 11, 2001: What the Mossad knew before and after the attacks; his critique of the 9/11 report; and his assertion that we haven't seen the worst of radical Islam - His candid thoughts about the Bush Administration; George Tenet and his dismissal; the assassination attempt of Hamas leader Khaled Mashal; and other key players in the war on terror - Iraq: From Operation Desert Storm to the WMD crisis to the war of the present day, Halevy offers a modern history of the region, as well as an action-plan for the future ...and more. By turns a powerful history lesson and a roadmap to world peace, "Man in the Shadows"" "is a must-read for the twenty-first century.
The number of incidents and crimes carried out by terrorists and criminals, such as physical threats, violent attacks, assassinations, kidnapping and hostage situations are increasing by the minute worldwide. Each incident is a constant and ever demanding challenge to the law enforcement and the personal security professionals in particular. A detailed, but understandable manual for the Executive Protection Officer is a priority and the answer to those challenging situations. The Fine Art of Executive Protection is a detailed, but understandable manual for the Executive Protection Officer providing answers to those challenging situations. Information about every aspect of executive protection is not only an important part of the professional's training curriculum, but plays also a vital role for the client, who seeks protection. This manual will provide a clear view of all aspects not only for the professional, but also for prospect clients. To make sure of this all available training and study material, individual case studies and real scenarios combined with professional experience served as a foundation for this specialist's manual. The Fine Art of Executive Protection in its comprehensive and straight- forward form will guide the reader through the diversity of disciplines and skills, which are essential for any professional of the executive protection and private security sector. This book provides detailed information and knowledge, necessary and indispensable not only for the novice, but also for the experienced executive protection professional. It provides the clear knowledge and a thorough understanding of the characteristics, diversity and demands of this profession. Itcontains all the essential ingredients, necessary for an effective protection planning and successful service, demanded by any executive protection specialist. Providing all the tools, techniques and applications needed for this specific job, it also shall motivate some talents, which may need to be developed further and to face not only today's protection needs, but also those of the future. The book not only contains detailed professional information for the person seeking a post in the "glamorous world" of the executive protection- business but also provides all the information necessary for those under threat and in need of close protection and a secure environment. A protection- seeking client will find detailed information about Executive Protection and Physical Security. Executive or Personal Protection, was once considered a service only and exclusive for the rich, famous and a few selected government officials. But recent events and an increase in violence, quickly transformed Executive Protection into a sought after service- commodity worldwide. Keeping this in mind, any part of this guide is therefore easily adaptable and adjusted to any region or country in the world. However, one must carefully consider and act within the local laws to assure a successful protection service.
FOREIGN AGENTS analyzes the history and activities of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. FOREIGN AGENTS begins with testimony and subpoenaed documents from the 1963 Senate investigation into the activities of the agents of foreign principals. Senator J.W. Fulbright's discovery of "conduit" money-laundering operations in the US financed by Israeli principals touched off deep and important questions about US lobbying on behalf of the fledgling nation and the applicability of laws such as the Foreign Agents Registration Act and the Logan Act. The book then uncovers AIPAC election law skirmishes in the 1980s-1990s, analyzing the lobby's role in establishing and coordinating political action committees and AIPAC's role in alleged election law violations. FOREIGN AGENTS then turns to the question of espionage. In 2005, two AIPAC executives, Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, were criminally indicted for violating the 1917 Espionage Act. FOREIGN AGENTS reviews behind-the-scenes defense team motions and judicial decisions affecting First Amendment freedom of speech issues and questions about "inside the Beltway" trafficking in classified US defense information by lobbies. FOREIGN AGENTS evaluates Rosen and Weissman's assertions that the conduct alleged in the indictment was within the scope of their employment with AIPAC and was undertaken for AIPAC's benefit. FOREIGN AGENTS then makes comprehensive recommendations for legal oversight in the context of AIPAC's history as a powerful and secretive foreign agent for Israel.
These days, it's rare to pick up a newspaper and not see a story related to intelligence. From the investigations of the 9/11 commission, to accusations of illegal wiretapping, to debates on whether it's acceptable to torture prisoners for information, intelligence-both accurate and not-is driving domestic and foreign policy. And yet, in part because of its inherently secretive nature, intelligence has received very little scholarly study. Into this void comes Reforming Intelligence, a timely collection of case studies written by intelligence experts, and sponsored by the Center for Civil-Military Relations (CCMR) at the Naval Postgraduate School, that collectively outline the best practices for intelligence services in the United States and other democratic states. Reforming Intelligence suggests that intelligence is best conceptualized as a subfield of civil-military relations, and is best compared through institutions. The authors examine intelligence practices in the United States, United Kingdom, and France, as well as such developing democracies as Brazil, Taiwan, Argentina, and Russia. While there is much more data related to established democracies, there are lessons to be learned from states that have created (or re-created) intelligence institutions in the contemporary political climate. In the end, reading about the successes of Brazil and Taiwan, the failures of Argentina and Russia, and the ongoing reforms in the United States yields a handful of hard truths. In the murky world of intelligence, that's an unqualified achievement.
Army intelligence officers are using classified anti-personnel weapons to target activists and people who fit a common profile. Edited by Marshall Thomas The case being made is based on Four Facts, these four facts are the bare bones case to avoid confusion, disinformation, and circular arguments that lead nowhere. MKULTRA took place at over 80 institutions and the current illegal program that I call MONARCH (the real name is unknown) is equally complex. The four facts are all that is necessary to convince a reasonable person that this atrocity is really taking place and demands immediate action. ONE: Public microwave weapons exist. TWO: A prior pattern of criminal behavior. THREE: Credible witnesses who fit a common profile. FOUR: Persons of interest in military intelligence in charge of developing nonlethal microwave weapons who must be investigated. ONE: Microwave weapons like the Active Denial System (ADS) and milliwave radars are public electromagnetic weapons. The Russians used microwave weapons to attack the American embassy in Moscow in the 1950's. In response the US began a secret crash program to develop microwave weapons. TWO: There is a criminal history dating back to 1943, a prior pattern of criminal behavior all through the Cold War. Half a million US citizens used as human guinea pigs in nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) weapons development programs. FBI Cointelpro government hit lists of political activists, and CIA MKULTRA using torture to break the human mind to control it. All of these illegal government programs escaped detection for decades and no perpetrators were ever punished. THREE: Credible witnesses, people who have testified that they are targets of classified nonlethal microwave weapons assaults and organized stalking. The author has interviewed more than 200 targets in person and documented their stories. Most targeted individuals (TI's) are political activists or whistleblowers that are around forty years old, have an above average IQ, and share other commonalities. The majority of the targets fit a common profile similar to the victims of previous programs. FOUR: Persons of interest, military intelligence officers who have worked since 1980 to develop nonlethal microwave weapons for the Army. They publicly advocated using them on civilians to "neuter people," expressed admiration for MKULTRA crimes, and given the classified weapons to local law enforcement and others. In addition they promote borderline beliefs and superstitions as part of a smoke screen cover-up. These are the basic facts reduced to their bare minimum. There is much more evidence available in the films, blogs, and supporting government documents, military science papers, nonlethal weapons scientists papers and patents, authoritative newspaper and magazine articles, books, films, and the testimony of experts and witnesses. The Four Facts are all that is necessary to prove a preponderance of evidence, and convince a reasonable person that these crimes are actually taking place and must be stopped. If it adds up to FOUR, people open the door
John F. Sullivan was a polygraph examiner with the CIA for thirty-one years, during which time he conducted more tests than anyone in the history of the CIA's program. The lie detectors act as the Agency's gatekeepers, preventing foreign agents, unsuitable applicants, and employees guilty of misconduct from penetrating or harming the Agency. Here Sullivan describes his methods, emphasizing the importance of psychology and the examiners' skills in a successful polygraph program. Sullivan acknowledges that using the polygraph effectively is an art as much as a science, yet he convincingly argues that it remains a highly reliable screening device, more successful and less costly than the other primary method, background investigation. In the thousands of tests that Sullivan conducted, he discovered double agents, applicants with criminal backgrounds, and employee misconduct, including compromising affairs and the mishandling of classified information. But "Gatekeeper" is more than Sullivan's memoirs. It is also a window to the often acrimonious and sometimes alarming internal politics of the CIA: the turf wars over resources, personnel, and mandate; the slow implementation of quality control; the aversion to risk-taking; and the overzealous pursuit of disqualifying information. In an age when the intelligence community's conduct is rightly being questioned, Sullivan contributes a fascinating personal account of one of the Agency's many important tasks.
This book critically examines the weaknesses of U.S. intelligence led by the Central Intelligence Agency in informing presidential decision-making on issues of war and peace. It evaluates the CIA's strategic intelligence performance during the Cold War and post-Cold War periods as a foundation for examining the root causes of intelligence failures surrounding the September 11th attacks and assessments of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs in the run up to the Iraq war. Intelligence expert Richard L. Russell probes the roots causes of these failures which lie in the CIA's poor human intelligence collection and analysis practices. Russell argues that none of the post-9/11 intelligence reforms have squarely addressed these root causes of strategic intelligence failure and it recommends measures for redressing these dangerous vulnerabilities in American security.
As the world prepared for war in the 1930s, the United States discovered that it faced the real threat of foreign spies stealing military and industrial secrets-and that it had no established means to combat them. Into that breach stepped J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. Although the FBI's expanded role in World War II has been well documented, few have examined the crucial period before Pearl Harbor when the Bureau's powers secretly expanded to face the developing international emergency. Former FBI agent Raymond Batvinis now tells how the Bureau grew from a small law enforcement unit into America's first organized counterespionage and counterintelligence service. Batvinis examines the FBI's emerging new roles during the two decades leading up to America's entry into World War II to show how it cooperated and competed with other federal agencies. He takes readers behind the scenes, as the State Department and Hoover fought fiercely over the control of counterintelligence, and tells how the agency combined its crime-fighting expertise with its new wiretapping authority to spy on foreign agents. Based on newly declassified documents and interviews with former agents, Batvinis's account reconstructs and greatly expands our understanding of the FBI's achievements and failures during this period. Among these were the Bureau's mishandling of the 1938 Rumrich/Griebl spy case, which Hoover slyly used to broaden his agency's powers; its cracking of the Duquesne Espionage Case in 1941, which enabled Hoover to boost public and congressional support to new heights; and its failure to understand the value of Soviet agent Walter Krivitsky, which slowed Bureau efforts to combat Soviet espionage in America. In addition, Batvinis offers a new view of the relationship between the FBI and the military, cites the crucial contributions of British intelligence to the FBI's counterintelligence education, and reveals the agency's ultra-secret role in mining financial records for the Treasury Department. He also reviews the early days of the top-secret Special Intelligence Service, which quietly dispatched FBI agents posing as businessmen to South America to spy on their governments. With an insider's knowledge and a storyteller's skill, Batvinis provides a page-turning history narrative that greatly revises our views of the FBI--and also resonates powerfully with our own post-9/11 world.
The FBI that Freeh took over in the summer of 1993 was still reeling from the bloody standoff at Ruby Ridge and the conflagration at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texa. Unpopular, under-funded and understaffed, the Bureau was also creeping along in the technological Dark Ages. For eight years, the second longest tenure of any Director since J. Edgar Hoover, Freeh would fight tooth and nail to turn the FBI around. In "MY FBI", we follow Freeh through his disputes with Clinton, National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, and others over indictments against the senior Iranian officials behind the Khobar bombing. When he finally gets indictments in the Bush II administration, the families of those killed present Freeh with a plaque thar reads: "To the only honest man in Washington" No wonder Bill Clinton called Freeh a "law enforcement legend" when he nominated him to be FBI Director. No wonder, either, that when Clinton subsequently called that appointment the worst one he made as president, Freeh considered it a badge of honour.
The death of CIA operative Theodore G. "Ted" Shackley in December 2002 triggered an avalanche of obituaries from all over the world, some of them condemnatory. Pundits used such expressions as "heroin trafficking," "training terrorists," "attempts to assassinate Castro," and "Mob connections." More specifically, they charged him with having played a major role in the Chilean military coup of 1973.But who was the real Ted Shackley? In "Spymaster," he has told the story of his entire remarkable career for the first time. With the assistance of fellow former CIA officer Richard A. Finney, he discusses the consequential posts he held in Berlin, Miami, Laos, Vietnam, and Washington, where he was intimately involved in some of the key intelligence operations of the Cold War. During his long career, Shackley ran part of the inter-agency program to overthrow Castro, was chief of station in Vientiane during the CIA's "secret war" against North Vietnam and the Pathet Lao, and was chief of station in Saigon. After his retirement, he remained a controversial figure. In the early eighties, he was falsely charged with complicity in the Iran-Contra scandal. Ted Shackley's comments on CIA operations in Europe, Cuba, Chile, and Southeast Asia and on the life of a high-stakes spymaster will be the subject of intense scrutiny by all concerned with the fields of intelligence, foreign policy, and postwar U.S. history.
This new edition of the definitive history of the Secret Service lays bare the 2004 Bush campaign's political uses of the agency and the new challenges it faces as a branch of the Homeland Security Department, in a post-9/11 world. Acclaimed scholar of political violence and governmental secrecy Philip Melanson explores the long-hidden workings of the Secret Service since its inception in 1865 and through rigorous research and extensive interviews with former White House staffers and retired agents, uncovers startling facts about the Agency's role in such traumatic national events as the assassination of JFK and the shooting of President Reagan. Included, too, are revelations about presidential demands on the agency the problems of alcoholism, divorce, and burnout among agents and the Service's inexplicable failure to develop profiles of potential assassins. Up-to-date and explosive, this book assails the public image of the Secret Service as a highly professional apolitical organization, exposing the often-detrimental influence that politics exerts on the Agency.
In a brief period of explosive, top-secret innovation during the 1950's, a small group of scientists, engineers, businessmen, and government officials rewrote the book on airplane design and led the United States into outerspace. Their inventions - the U-2 and SR-71 spyplanes and the first spy satellites - made possible the space-based reconnaissance, mapping, communications, and targeting systems used in the Gulf War, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Veteran New York Times reporter and editor, Philip Taubman interviewed dozens of participants and mined thousands of previously classified documents to tell this hidden, far-reaching story. The hugely expensive and incredibly sophisticated spies in the skies proved that the missile gap was a myth, protected us from surprise attack, and kept us ahead of the game vis-a-vis the Soviets. Now as we confront new and increasingly vicious wars against terrorism, we need them as well as human spies to fight back.
An unprecedented look at the front line of the war against terror: the inside story of five American interrogators, thousands of prisoners, and the race for the truth. More than 3,000 prisoners in the war on terrorism have been captured, held, and interrogated in Afghanistan alone. But no one knows what transpired in those interactions between prisoner and interrogator--until now. In The Interrogators, Chris Mackey, the senior interrogator at Bagram Air Base and in Kandahar, where al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners were first detained and questioned, lifts the curtain. Soldiers specially trained in the art of interrogation went face-to-face with the enemy. These mental and psychological battles were as grueling, dramatic, and important as any in the war on terrorism. We learn how, under Mackey's command, his small group of "soldier spies" engineered a breakthrough in interrogation strategy, rewriting techniques and tactics grounded in the Cold War. Mackey reveals the tricks of the trade, and we see how his team--four men and one woman--responded to the pressure and the prisoners. By the time Mackey's group was finished, virtually no prisoner went unbroken.
IN A COUNTRY where talk of conspiracies is often a national pastime, the deepest, sometimes darkest, secrets have long been held by Indonesia's State Intelligence Agency (Badan Intelijen Negara, or BIN). Whether targeting communist diplomats, foreign terrorists, or domestic dissidents, BIN and its precursor organizations have been the covert spearhead of the nation's security policy. Here, for the first time, this secretive agency is exposed in INTEL: Inside Indonesia's Intelligence Service by noted author Ken Conboy. Drawing from exclusive access to BIN's personnel and operational archives, Conboy examines the agents and their operations since BIN's founding fifty years ago, and sheds new light on Indonesia's role in the Cold War with case studies of North Korean, Soviet, and Vietnamese operations across the archipelago and BIN's current position at the forefront on the war against terrorism. From the activities and subsequent captures of both Faruq and Hambali to the Indonesian operations of al-Qaeda, this book provides far more detail and insight than previously available. Understanding BIN is an integral part of understanding the politics and security of Indonesia, and INTEL is essential reading for anyone interested in intelligence operations, contemporary Indonesian history, and international terrorism. KEN CONBOY is country manager for Risk Management Advisory, a private security consultancy in Jakarta. Prior to that, he served as deputy director at the Asian Studies Center, an influential Washington-based think tank, where his duties including writing policy papers for the U.S. Congress and Executive on economic and strategic relations with the nations of South and Southeast Asia. The author of a dozen books about Asian military history and intelligence operations, Conboy's most recent title, Spies in the Himalayas, has earned praise as an intriguing account of high-altitude mountaineering and covert missions. A graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and of Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies, Conboy was also a visiting fellow at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and has lived in Indonesia since 1992.
Given recent experiences with terrorism, clearly even the most democratic societies have a legitimate need for secrecy. This secrecy has often been abused, however, and strong oversight systems are necessary to protect individual liberties. The assembled authors, each well known in the international community of national security scholars, bring together in one volume the rich experience of three decades of experimentation in intelligence accountability. Using a structured approach, they examine the strengths and weaknesses of the intelligence systems of Argentina, Canada, Germany, Norway, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States. While these democracies have experimented with methods to make intelligence more accountable, they all have different political systems, political cultures, legal systems, and democratic traditions, thereby presenting an exceptional opportunity to examine how intelligence accountability evolves under disparate circumstances. The contributors draw together the best practices into a framework for successful approaches to intelligence accountability, including a prescription for a model law.
CONTENTS Foreword Preface - Okhrana: The Paris Operations of the Russian Imperial Police From Paris to Palo Alto CIA Interest in the Okhrana Files Origins of the Okhrana and Its Paris Office Foreign Operations Change and Continuity Dramatis Personae Conclusions Articles by "Rita T. Kronenbitter" Paris Okhrana 1885-1905 The Illustrious Career of Arkadiy Harting The Sherlock Holmes of the Revolution Okhrana Agent Dolin The Okhrana's Female Agents - Part I: Russian Women The Okhrana's Female Agents - Part II: Indigenous Recruits Review of Edward Ellis Smith, The Young Stalin, by Ham Gelman Commentary by Rita T. Kronenbitter
Security depends on intelligence. A leading authority discusses basic problems in American intelligence and how to fix them William E. Odom is the highest-ranking member of the United States Intelligence community ever to write a book outlining fundamental restructuring of this vast network of agencies, technology, and human agents. In the wake of 9/11, Odom has revised and updated a powerful critique he wrote several years ago for staffs of the U.S. congressional committee overseeing the vast American intelligence bureaucracy. His recommendations for revamping this essential component of American security are now available for general readers as well as for policymakers. While giving an unmatched overview of the world of U.S. intelligence, Odom persuasively shows that the failure of American intelligence on 9/11 had much to do with the complex bureaucratic relationships existing among the various components of the Intelligence Community. The sustained fragmentation within the Intelligence Community since World War II is part of the story; the blurring of security and intelligence duties is another. Odom describes the various components of American intelligence in order to give readers an understanding of how complex they are and what can be done to make them more effective in providing timely intelligence and more efficient in using their large budgets. He shows definitively that they cannot be remedied with quick fixes but require deep study of the entire bureaucracy and the commitment of the U.S. government to implement the necessary reforms.
In the early years of World War II, Special Operations Executive (SOE) set up top secret training schools to instruct prospective agents in the art of being a spy. By the end of 1941, an international network of schools was in operation in secluded locations ranging from the Scottish Highlands to Singapore and Canada. How to Be a Spy reproduces the extensive training manuals used to prepare agents for their highly dangerous missions behind enemy lines. The courses cover a variety of clandestine skills including disguise, surveillance, burglary, interrogation, close combat, and assassination - everything needed to wreak havoc in occupied Europe. Secret History Files is an exciting series from The National Archives that puts covert history in readers' hands. Dossiers previously classified as 'Top Secret' are now available, with an introduction and background analysis by expert historians. Denis Rigden was engaged in information and historical research for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for over 30 years. He is the author of Kill the Fuhrer: Section X and Operation Foley, and has in recent years made a study of the SOE.
Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, a leading expert on the history of American espionage, here offers a lively and sweeping history of American secret intelligence from the founding of the nation through the present day. Jeffreys-Jones chronicles the extraordinary expansion of American secret intelligence from the 1790s, when George Washington set aside a discretionary fund for covert operations, to the beginning of the twenty-first century, when United States intelligence expenditure exceeds Russia's total defense budget. How did the American intelligence system evolve into such an enormous and costly bureaucracy? Jeffreys-Jones argues that hyperbolic claims and the impulse toward self-promotion have beset American intelligence organizations almost from the outset. Allan Pinkerton, whose nineteenth-century detective agency was the forerunner of modern intelligence bureaus, invented assassination plots and fomented anti-radical fears in order to demonstrate his own usefulness. Subsequent spymasters likewise invented or exaggerated a succession of menaces ranging from white slavery to Soviet espionage to digital encryption in order to build their intelligence agencies and, later, to defend their ever-expanding budgets. While American intelligence agencies have achieved some notable successes, Jeffreys-Jones argues, the intelligence community as a whole has suffered from a dangerous distortion of mission. By exaggerating threats such as Communist infiltration and Chinese espionage at the expense of other, more intractable problems-such as the narcotics trade and the danger of terrorist attack-intelligence agencies have misdirected resources and undermined their own objectivity. Since the end of the Cold War, the aims of American secret intelligence have been unclear. Recent events have raised serious questions about effectiveness of foreign intelligence, and yet the CIA and other intelligence agencies are poised for even greater expansion under the current administration. Offering a lucid assessment of the origins and evolution of American secret intelligence, Jeffreys-Jones asks us to think also about the future direction of our intelligence agencies. |
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