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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > International relations > Espionage & secret services
James Bamford has been the preeminent expert on the National
Security Agency since his reporting revealed the agency's existence
in the 1980s. Now Bamford describes the transformation of the NSA
since 9/11, as the agency increasingly turns its high-tech ears on
the American public.
Reflecting on a career that spanned twenty-five years and four continents, Special Agent I.C. Smith gives you the inside story of the Bureau's greatest takedowns and biggest screw-ups. This intrepid G-man has seen it all. From China to the South Pacific, from East Berlin to Arkansas, I.C. Smith is one of the FBI's most storied figures. In this riveting new book about the Bureau, Smith brings a fresh, insider's perspective on the FBI's most well known triumphs and failures of the past three decades. Robert Hannsen. Morris and Eva childs. Larry Wu-Tai Chin. Aldrich Ames. Smith offers unique insights into how these monumental investigations were handled, or often mishandled, in alarming detail. He also confronts head-on the string of errors inside the FBI―in management and in the field―that directly led to the attacks of September 11th. Filled with startling new information, including more than seventy never-before-published findings, Smith tracks his incredible rise from street agent in St. Louis to special agent in charge of Arkansas―where he took on the corrupt political system that produced President Bill Clinton.
In 1967 the magazine "Ramparts" ran an expose revealing that the Central Intelligence Agency had been secretly funding and managing a wide range of citizen front groups intended to counter communist influence around the world. In addition to embarrassing prominent individuals caught up, wittingly or unwittingly, in the secret superpower struggle for hearts and minds, the revelations of 1967 were one of the worst operational disasters in the history of American intelligence and presaged a series of public scandals from which the CIA's reputation has arguably never recovered. CIA official Frank Wisner called the operation his "mighty Wurlitzer," on which he could play any propaganda tune. In this illuminating book, Hugh Wilford provides the first comprehensive account of the clandestine relationship between the CIA and its front organizations. Using an unprecedented wealth of sources, he traces the rise and fall of America's Cold War front network from its origins in the 1940s to its Third World expansion during the 1950s and ultimate collapse in the 1960s. Covering the intelligence officers who masterminded the CIA's fronts as well as the involved citizen groups--emigres, labor, intellectuals, artists, students, women, Catholics, African Americans, and journalists--Wilford provides a surprising analysis of Cold War society that contains valuable lessons for our own age of global conflict.
Other People's Money. The difference between Charity and Theft. The difference between noble and nefarious. Have you noticed that people who are most generous with your money are most stingy with their own? Socialists hate private charity, because they want to spend your money on what they want, not on what you want. Voluntary programs are less subject to abuse because the donor can refuse to give. "Entitlements" are a license to demand and to steal. Socialism produces a nation of leeches "entitled" to use the force of government to help themselves to "free" food, housing, and medical care at your expense. Why work? A light-hearted entertaining look at the origins of the current financial crisis. Includes a basic review of politically correct terminology, an allegorical review of how the American banking system works, a collection of politically correct bumper sticker slogans, a review of American financial history, and numerous quotations from our esteemed leaders. If you think Socialism is great stuff and you do not have a robust sense of humor, This probably isn't for you. But if you are one of the vast number of Americans who prefer freedom and want to spend your own money, you'll like this book.
Los Angeles, CA - (Release Date TBD) - From the Cuban Missile Crisis to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Cold War devastated the world by means of ideological and socio-economic polarization. Direct hostilities between the United States and the Soviet Union, NATO and the Warsaw Pact were waged through arms races, economic competition and political propaganda. As an American CIA operative in this historic conflict, Alexander von Lockner contributed to the destruction of the nefarious KGB. His tireless efforts aided the Western cause and contributed to the final collapse of Soviet communism. This stunning account is set to begin as Xlibris releases von Lockner's compelling new book "Always Ready." This story depicts the struggle of the United States against Soviet intelligence and communist doctrine. Its portrayal of thrilling CIA operations within the sanctum sanctorum of the Soviet and East European communist institutions provides for a poignant understanding of the totalitarian demise. Readers will discover how the bravery and determination of a few nameless heroes paved the way to what is remembered as the peaceful conclusion of the Cold War. Von Lockner's work exhibits the immeasurable power that a well-placed CIA spy can posses in fulfilling the strategic interests of the United States of America. Richly-layered and informative, "Always Ready" will engross a wide audience of readers with its burning content. Students, historians, journalists, political analysts, and members of the intelligence and military communities will likewise benefit from reading this historically accurate and CIA Review Board verified account.
In the wake of the September 11 attacks, American citizens within the United States constantly worry about security against future terrorist attacks. But author Gordon Greer delves further into this subject by trying to understand why the general public is so intent on the ramifications of security measures, such as the Patriot Act.The history of warfare might provide an answer. Greer examines domestic security throughout the history of the United States. During a period of war or the aftermath of war, the American government has generally found it necessary to install security measures that may limit a citizen's basic rights or freedoms.Greer discusses these security issues from the earliest history of the United States, beginning with the early American settlers and the Revolutionary War through World War II and the Cold War. Greer points out that ordinary American citizens may chafe under the constraints such wars produce simply because the United States has arguably never been a totalitarian government."What Price Security?" is a thought-provoking look at a subject that affects us all, offering insight into how America can protect itself against future attacks.
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.
William K. Harvey was the CIA's most daring and successful field operator during the tense, early days of the Cold War. Extremely intelligent, a dedicated martini drinker, coarse in manner and appearance, both loved and hated, he was larger than life. But just as Harvey reached his zenith, fate and personal flaws caused his swift, dramatic downfall. Bayard Stockton provides a rich portrait of the man, including accounts from Harvey's family, friends, and former CIA colleagues who have never spoken publicly before.Harvey's intelligence career began at the FBI, where he hunted Nazi spies. After running afoul of J. Edgar Hoover, Harvey went to the fledgling CIA in 1947. Harvey's CIA successes included the unmasking of Soviet spy Kim Philby and masterminding the famous Berlin Tunnel that tapped Russian communications. The pinnacle of Harvey's career came as chief of both ZR/RIFLE, the agency's political assassination operation, and Task Force W, the group targeted on Cuba. But Harvey was in constant conflict with Bobby Kennedy, who micromanaged operations against Fidel Castro. Harvey profanely insulted the president's brother during a tense meeting, which led to Harvey's reassignment to Rome. His alcoholism worsened in Italian exile, and he was forced to retire. He became a nonperson. However, Harvey resurfaced during Senate hearings in the 1970s. When his supervision of the plots to assassinate Castro was revealed, many labeled Harvey the epitome of CIA excess. Harvey's continuing friendship with Johnny Rosselli, a Mafia figure who had helped the CIA with Cuban operations, opened further questions as some-most notably Robert Blakey, former chief counsel to the House Subcommittee onAssassinations-linked Rosselli to JFK's assassination."Flawed Patriot" cuts through the rumors and inaccuracies surrounding Harvey to show a brilliant but flawed man who was undoubtedly one of the most talented and imaginative officers in the agency's storied history.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Much has been said and written about the failure of U.S. intelligence to prevent the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and its overestimation of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction under Saddam Hussein. This book focuses instead on the central role that intelligence-collection systems play in promoting arms control and disarmament. Ambassador Thomas Graham Jr. and Keith Hansen bring more than fifty combined years of experience to this discussion of the capabilities of technical systems, which are primarily based in space. Their history of the rapid advancement of surveillance technology is a window into a dramatic reconceptualization of Cold War strategies and policy planning. Graham and Hansen focus on the intelligence successes against Soviet strategic nuclear forces and the quality of the intelligence that has made possible accurate assessments of WMD programs in North Korea, Iran, and Libya. Their important insights shed a much-needed light on the process of verifying how the world harnesses the proliferation of nuclear arms and the continual drive for advancements in technology.
Chosen by William Safire in the "New York Times" to be the
publishing sleeper-seller of the year for 2007 In this rapid-paced
book, a former CIA chief of Soviet bloc counterintelligence breaks
open the mysterious case of KGB officer Yuri Nosenko' s 1964
defection to the United States. Still a highly controversial
chapter in the history of Cold War espionage, the Nosenko affair
has inspired debate for more than forty years: was Nosenko a bona
fide defector with the real information about Lee Harvey Oswald' s
stay in Soviet Russia, or was he a KGB loyalist, engaged in a
complex game of deception?
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.
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.
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. |
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