Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The Taliban are on the rise. A top-secret SAS kill team is assassinating high-value targets. It is bloody, violent, relentless work, suitable only for the Regiment's most skilled and ruthless head hunters. Like Danny Black. But when Danny joins the kill team, he learns that Taliban militants are not his only problem. There are elements within the British Army who want to bring the SAS to book. And there are elements within the SAS who have their crosshairs on Danny himself. Framed for a sickening war crime, Danny finds himself hunted in a brutal, dangerous terrain where his wits, training and strength may not be enough to survive. And in a world where his enemies are closer than he could have imagined, he must do whatever it takes to get to the truth. If he fails, it will mean the end not only of Danny Black, but of the SAS itself.

In September 1940 a beautiful young woman arrived by seaplane and rubber dinghy on the shores of Scotland accompanied by two men - one of Germany's many attempt to penetrate British defences and infiltrate spies into the UK. This seems to be one of the few established facts in the otherwise mysterious tale of Vera Eriksen. Even the origins of the woman described as 'the most beautiful spy' remain hazy, as does her ultimate fate. David Tremain delves into the archives, and in doing so begins to reveal glimpses of her fascinating life story: her career as a dancer in Paris; a tumultuous and violent dalliance with a White Russian officer of uncertain identity; her time in England with the Duchesse de Chateau-Thierry, an Abwehr agent; the suspicious and untimely death of her husband, and a rumoured pregnancy. The Beautiful Spy also grapples with perhaps the biggest mystery of all: what happened to Vera after she was released by the British?

Communism was never a popular ideology in America, but the vehemence of American anticommunism varied from passive disdain in the 1920s to fervent hostility in the early years of the Cold War. Nothing so stimulated the white hot anticommunism of the late 1940s and 1950s more than a series of spy trials that revealed that American Communists had co-operated with Soviet espionage against the United States and had assisted in stealing the technical secrets of the atomic bomb as well as penetrating the US State Department, the Treasury Department, and the White House itself. This book, first published in 2006, reviews the major spy cases of the early Cold War (Hiss-Chambers, Rosenberg, Bentley, Gouzenko, Coplon, Amerasia and others) and the often-frustrating clashes between the exacting rules of the American criminal justice system and the requirements of effective counter-espionage.

Communism was never a popular ideology in America, but the vehemence of American anticommunism varied from passive disdain in the 1920s to fervent hostility in the early years of the Cold War. Nothing so stimulated the white hot anticommunism of the late 1940s and 1950s more than a series of spy trials that revealed that American Communists had co-operated with Soviet espionage against the United States and had assisted in stealing the technical secrets of the atomic bomb as well as penetrating the US State Department, the Treasury Department, and the White House itself. This book, first published in 2006, reviews the major spy cases of the early Cold War (Hiss-Chambers, Rosenberg, Bentley, Gouzenko, Coplon, Amerasia and others) and the often-frustrating clashes between the exacting rules of the American criminal justice system and the requirements of effective counter-espionage.

As Asia increases in economic and geopolitical significance, it is necessary to better understand the region's intelligence cultures. The Handbook of Asian Intelligence Cultures explores the historical and contemporary influences that have shaped Asian intelligence cultures as well as the impact intelligence service have had on domestic and foreign affairs. In examining thirty Asian countries, it considers the roles, practices, norms and oversight of Asia's intelligence services, including the ends to which intelligence tools are applied. The book argues that there is no archetype of Asian intelligence culture due to the diversity of history, government type and society found in Asia. Rather, it demonstrates how Asian nations' histories, cultures and governments play vital roles in intelligence cultures. This book is a valuable study for scholars of intelligence and security services in Asia, shedding light on understudied countries and identifying opportunities for future scholarship.

Moura Budberg: spy, adventurer, charismatic seductress and mistress of two of the century's greatest writers, the Russian aristocrat Baroness Moura Budberg was born in 1892 to indulgence, pleasure and selfishness. But after she met the British diplomat and secret agent Robert Bruce Lockhart, she sacrificed everything for love, only to be betrayed. When Lockhart arrived in Revolutionary Russia in 1918, his official mission was Britain's envoy to the new Bolshevik government, yet his real assignment was to create a network of agents and plot the downfall of Lenin. Lockhart soon got to know Moura and they began a passionate affair, even though Moura was spying on him for the Bolsheviks. But when Lockhart's plot unravelled, she would forsake everything in an attempt to protect him from Lenin's secret police. Fleeing to a life of exile in England and taking a string of new lovers, including Maxim Gorky and H. G. Wells, Moura later spied for Stalin and for Britain amidst the web of scandal surrounding the Cambridge spies. Through all this she clung to the hope that Lockhart would finally return to her. Grippingly narrated, this is the first biography of Moura Budberg to use the full range of previously unexamined letters, diaries and documents. An incredible true story of passion, espionage and double crossing that encircled the globe, A Very Dangerous Woman brings her extraordinary world vividly to life with dramatic resonances to rival the most sensational novel.

This book tells for the first time the extraordinary story of Sergei Degaev, a political terrorist in tsarist Russia who disappeared after participating in the assassination of the chief of Russia's security organization in 1883. Those who knew and admired Alexander Pell at the University of South Dakota never guessed that he was actually Degaev, a revolutionary who had reinvented himself as a quiet mathematics professor. "An amazing story, part Dostoevsky, part Conrad. . . . Remarkable."-Michael J. Ybarra, Wall Street Journal "One of the most distinguished historians of Russia . . . [gives] us a real-life thriller that is also a cautionary tale rich with insight into depths of the human psyche."-David Pryce-Jones, Commentary "Absorbing, brilliantly researched. . . . [A] fascinating display of scholarly detective work."-Raymond Carr, Spectator "Pipes is the finest historian of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Russia. . . . [His] Degaev Affair takes the reader through the dark and terrifying alleyways of the historical underworld. As a story, it ranks as a true-life version of Conrad's Under Western Eyes."-Nikolai Tolstoy, Literary Review "A brilliant history of treason, deception, terror, and academe in the underworld of Imperial Russia and the respectability of midwestern U.S. universities."-Simon Sebag Montefiore, Financial Times "Fascinating."-Orlando Figes, New York Review of Books

Originally published in 1998 and a best seller in its hardcover and paperback publications, Blind Man's Bulff is a dramatic, and riveting history. Over the course of five years, investigative reporters Sherry Sontag and Chris Drew interviewed hundreds of men who had never spoken about their underwater lives,not even to their wives and children. They uncovered a wealth of classified information: the tapping of undersea Soviet telephone cables, the stealing of Soviet weapons, the tragic collisions of enemy submarines. They tell of medals awarded in secret and deaths disguised with disinformation. Blind Man's Bluff is a critical work of history that reads with all the excitement of a Tom Clancy novel and all the tragedy of Das Boot.

'Fascinating analysis' Nigel West; 'Grippingly told, authoritative' Mail on Sunday; 'Meticulously researched...a remarkably good read' John Brennan, former CIA Director; 'Excellent...a detailed, highly professional account' Sir John Scarlett, former MI6 Chief ​ The Special Relationship between America and Britain is feted by politicians on both sides of the Atlantic when it suits their purpose and just as frequently dismissed as a myth, not least by the media, which announces its supposed death on a regular basis. Yet the simple truth is that the two countries are bound together more closely than either is to any other ally. In The Real Special Relationship, Michael Smith reveals how it all began, when a top-secret visit by four American codebreakers to Bletchley Park in February 1941 - ten months before the US entered the Second World War - marked the start of a close collaboration between the two nations that endures to this day. Once the war was over, and the Cold War began, both sides recognised that the way they had worked together to decode German and Japanese ciphers could now be used to counter the Soviet threat. Despite occasional political conflict and public disputes between the two nations, such as during the Suez crisis, behind the scenes intelligence sharing continued uninterrupted, right up to the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine.  Smith, the bestselling author of Station X and having himself served in British military intelligence, brings together a fascinating range of characters, from Winston Churchill and Ian Fleming to Kim Philby and Edward Snowden, who have helped shape the security of our two nations. Supported by in-depth interviews and an excellent range of personal contacts, he takes the reader into the mysterious workings of MI6, the CIA and all those who work to keep us safe.   

Everyone knows the story of the codebreaker and computer science pioneer Alan Turing. Except ... When Dermot Turing is asked about his famous uncle, people want to know more than the bullet points of his life. They want to know everything - was Alan Turing actually a codebreaker? What did he make of artificial intelligence? What is the significance of Alan Turing's trial, his suicide, the Royal Pardon, the GBP50 note and the film The Imitation Game? In Reflections of Alan Turing, Dermot strips off the layers to uncover the real story. It's time to discover a fresh legacy of Alan Turing for the twenty-first century.

LONGLISTED FOR THE ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION 'One of the mysteries I've long been fascinated by, and I am so grateful that Ravi Somaiya has cracked it open so brilliantly' David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon A PLANE CRASH IN THE JUNGLE. A LEGENDARY STATESMAN DEAD. A TRAGIC ACCIDENT... OR THE ULTIMATE CONSPIRACY? For nearly sixty years, the circumstances surrounding the death of renowned diplomat Dag Hammarskjoeld have remained one of the Cold War's most tightly guarded secrets. Now, with exclusive evidence, investigative journalist Ravi Somaiya finally uncovers the truth. In 1961 the Congo was in crisis, fragmented and at war with itself. The streets of Leopoldville, the capital, were crawling with CIA operatives, MI6 agents and Soviet infiltrators. Belgian colonialists, Rhodesian white supremacists and corporate mercenaries massed in the south of the country. The chaos conspired to make it one of the most dangerous places on earth. UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjoeld, the man John F. Kennedy called 'the greatest statesman of our century' flew into the maelstrom. He was an idealist. The Congo's best hope for peace and independence. But en route to a diplomatic summit to reunite the country, Hammarskjoeld's plane mysteriously disappeared. Soon afterward he was discovered dead in the smoking wreckage, an Ace of Spades playing card placed on his body. A riveting work of investigative journalism based on new evidence, recently revealed first-hand accounts, and groundbreaking interviews, Operation Morthor reveals the plot behind one of the longest-standing murder mysteries of the Cold War, with dark implications for governments and corporations alike.

This is the first history and analysis of the intelligence and espionage activities of the regime of Charles II (1660–85). It is concerned with the mechanics, activities and philosophy of the intelligence system which developed under the auspices of the office of the Secretary of State and which emerged in the face of the problems of conspiracy and international politics. It examines the development of intelligence networks on a local and international level, the use made of the Post Office, codes and ciphers, and the employment of spies, informers and assassins. The careers of a number of spies employed by the regime are examined through a series of detailed case studes. The book provides a balanced portrait of the dark byways of Restoration politics, particularly in the 1660s and 1670s, and fills an important gap in the current literature.

Home-grown terrorists equipped by a foreign power are not a new phenomenon. During the Second World War, Hitler's Germany made sustained efforts to inflict a terror campaign on the streets of Britain through the use of secret agents and agents provocateurs. The aim was to blow up military, industrial, transport and telecommunication targets, to lower morale among the civilian population and disrupt the war effort. Even before the outbreak of war, the Nazis provided the IRA with assistance for their plan to sabotage the British mainland. Prior to their planned invasion in the summer of 1940, the Nazis were also keen to recruit members of the Welsh and Scottish Nationalist Parties to engage in sabotaging British targets and, over the course of the war, infiltrated dozens of trained agents from countries including Norway, Denmark, Holland, France and Cuba. What happened to the myriad plots to blow up Britain? We know that intelligence obtained from decrypted enemy messages via Bletchley Park and double agents like ZIGZAG, SUMMER and TATE alerted MI5 to some of these spies' arrivals, but what about the others? And how successful were MI5's efforts to fake acts of sabotage and arrange media coverage to fool the enemy into thinking their agents were still at large and on task? In this book, Bernard O'Connor, a noted wartime espionage historian, tells the complete story of the successes and failures of the Nazi terror offensive on mainland Britain during 1938-1944.

Barry Broman has led a remarkable life, and met some remarkable people along the way of his years at a Central Intelligence Agency case officer. Broman was a teenage photographer for the Associated Press in Southeast Asia, then a Marine Corps infantry officer in combat in Vietnam before spending a quarter century as a "head-hunter" with dozens of recruits for the Clandestine Service in operations around the world. Mr. Broman received a BA in Political Science in 1967 followed by an MA in Southeast Asian Studies a year later. Immediately following his service in the Marine Corps, he was recruited by the CIA and spent his first posting in Cambodia at war. He was present at the fall of Phnom Penh in 1975, escaping just before the Khmer Rouge took power. He subsequently served in other Asian postings, one in Europe, and one in the Western Hemisphere. During his career, Mr. Broman was twice a CIA chief of station, once a Deputy Chief of Station, and supervised an international para-military project in support of the Cambodian resistance to Vietnamese invaders. He was actively involved in several assignments in counter-narcotics operations in Southeast Asia including a major "bust" that yielded 551 kilograms of high-grade heroin from a major drug trafficker. His "favorite agent" against a variety of "hard targets" was a fellow whose only demand was that his assignments be "life threatening." He survived them all. At times, the memoir reads like a travel book with tales of visits to little-known and rarely seen places like the Naga Hills on the India-Burma border, the world-famous but off limits jade and ruby mines of Burma, and the isolated Banda Islands of Indonesia, the home of nutmeg. The book is strengthened by many photos by the author. They include Marines in action in Vietnam, the ravages of war in Cambodia at war, and opium buyers forcing growers to sell in Burma.

Security intelligence continues to be of central importance to the contemporary world: individuals, organizations and states all seek timely and actionable intelligence in order to increase their sense of security. But what exactly is intelligence? Who seeks to develop it and to what ends? How can we ensure that intelligence is not abused? In this third edition of their classic text, Peter Gill and Mark Phythian set out a comprehensive framework for the study of intelligence, discussing how states organize the collection and analysis of information in order to produce intelligence, how it is acted upon, why it may fail and how the process should be governed in order to uphold democratic rights. Fully revised and updated throughout, the book covers recent developments, including the impact of the Snowden leaks on the role of intelligence agencies in Internet and social media surveillance and in defensive and offensive cyber operations, and the legal and political arrangements for democratic control. The role of intelligence as part of 'hybrid' warfare in the case of Russia and Ukraine is also explored, and the problems facing intelligence in the realm of counterterrorism is considered in the context of the recent wave of attacks in Western Europe. Intelligence in an Insecure World is an authoritative and accessible guide to a rapidly expanding area of inquiry - one that everyone has an interest in understanding.

Behind enemy lines is an examination of gender relations in wartime using the Special Operations Executive as a case study. Drawing on personal testimonies, in particular oral history and autobiography, as well as official records and film, it explores the extraordinary experiences of male and female agents who were recruited and trained by a British organisation and infiltrated into Nazi-Occupied France to encourage sabotage and subversion during the Second World War. With its original interpretation of a wealth of primary sources, it examines how these ordinary, law-abiding civilians were transformed into para-military secret agents, equipped with silent killing techniques and trained in unarmed combat. This fascinating, timely and engaging book is concerned with the ways in which the SOE veterans reconstruct their wartime experiences of recruitment, training, clandestine work and for some, their captivity, focusing specifically upon the significance of gender and their attempts to pass as French civilians. This examination of the agents of an officially-sponsored insurgent organisation makes a major contribution to British socio-cultural history, war studies and gender studies and will appeal to both the general reader, as well as to those in the academic community. -- .

Intelligence activities have always been an integral part of statecraft. Ancient governments, like modern ones, realized that to keep their borders safe, control their populations, and keep abreast of political developments abroad, they needed a means to collect the intelligence which enabled them to make informed decisions. Today we are well aware of the damage spies can do.Here, for the first time, is a comprehensive guide to the literature of ancient intelligence. The entries present books and periodical articles in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, and Dutch - with annotations in English. These works address such subjects as intelligence collection and analysis (political and military), counterintelligence, espionage, cryptology (Greek and Latin), tradecraft, covert action, and similar topics (it does not include general battle studies and general discussions of foreign policy).Sections are devoted to general espionage, intelligence related to road building, communication, and tradecraft, intelligence in Greece, during the reign of Alexander the Great and in the Hellenistic Age, in the Roman republic, the Roman empire, the Byzantine empire, the Muslim world, and in Russia, China, India, and Africa. The books can be located in libraries in the United States; in cases where volumes are in one library only, the author indicates where they may be found.

The first edition of this book, published in 1999, was well-received, but interest in it has surged in recent years. It chronicles an early example of "regime change" that was based on a flawed interpretation of intelligence and proclaimed a success even as its mistakes were becoming clear. Since 1999, a number of documents relating to the CIA's activities in Guatemala have been declassified, and a truth and reconciliation process has unearthed other reports, speeches, and writings that shed more light on the role of the United States. For this edition, the author has selected and annotated twenty-one documents for a new documentary Appendix, including President Clinton's apology to the people of Guatemala.

A legendary CIA operative and central figure in the Watergate scandal at last tells his story World War II covert agent E. Howard Hunt joined the CIA soon after its inception, becoming one of its most valuable operatives until his retirement in 1970. He blazed a trail for the agency in Latin America, helping to orchestrate the successful 1954 coup in Guatemala as well as the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, which ended in disaster after an ill-fated decision by President John F. Kennedy. During the Nixon administration, he worked with the White House Special Investigations Unit (aka the "plumbers"). In the aftermath of the Pentagon Papers leak, he masterminded the burglary of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office in 1971, and, with G. Gordon Liddy, he organized the break-in at the Democratic National Committee's Watergate headquarters in 1972. Hunt was ultimately convicted of burglary, conspiracy, and wiretapping and served 33 months in prison. Now in his late eighties, Hunt looks back over his storied career, revealing what really happened and debunking the many rumors that have swirled around him. Writing with his characteristic salty wit, he brings to life his exploits in the CIA, offering surprising revelations about the agency's Latin American operations and its masterly manipulation of politics and the media in the U.S. He details the "black bag jobs" of the White House plumbers, explains why he agreed to participate in the Watergate burglary even though he thought it was a bad idea and sheds new light on the aftermath of the break-in. He sets the record straight on rumors about his first wife's death and accusations that have linked him to the JFK assassination and the George Wallace shooting. And finally, he offers an insider's advice on how the CIA must now reshape itself to regain its edge and help win the war on terrorism. E. Howard Hunt (Miami, FL) is author of more than 70 suspense novels. Greg Aunapu (Miami, FL) has reported for Time, People, and a variety of other national news media.

In a penetrating account of the evolution of British intelligence gathering in India, C. A. Bayly shows how networks of Indian spies, runners and political secretaries were recruited by the British to secure information about their subjects. He also examines the social and intellectual origins of these informants, and considers how the colonial authorities interpreted and often misinterpreted the information they supplied. As Professor Bayly demonstrates, it was such misunderstandings which ultimately contributed to the failure of the British to anticipate the mutinies of 1857. He argues, however, that, even before this, India's complex systems of communication were challenging the political and intellectual dominance of the European rulers.

The first edition of this book, published in 1999, was well-received, but interest in it has surged in recent years. It chronicles an early example of regime change that was based on a flawed interpretation of intelligence and proclaimed a success even as its mistakes were becoming clear. Since 1999, a number of documents relating to the CIA's activities in Guatemala have been declassified, and a truth and reconciliation process has unearthed other reports, speeches, and writings that shed more light on the role of the United States. For this edition, the author has selected and annotated twenty documents for a new documentary Appendix, culminating with President Clinton's apology to the people of Guatemala.

The events of September 11, 2001 sharply revived governmental and societal anxieties in many democratic countries concerning the threats posed by terrorism, organized crime, the proliferation and use of weapons of mass destruction, and other complex security threats. In many countries, public discourse of subjects traditionally considered part of social policy, such as immigration and asylum, have been securitized, while intelligence services have been granted greater resources and expanded powers. This comprehensive volume discusses the various challenges of establishing and maintaining accountable and democratically controlled intelligence services, drawing both from states with well-established democratic systems and those emerging from authoritarian systems and in transition towards democracy. It adopts a multidisciplinary and comparative approach, identifying good practices to make security services accountable to society and its democratic representatives. The volume will engage both academics and practitioners in the discussion of how to anchor these vital yet inherently difficult to control institutions within a firmly democratic framework. As such, it has clear relevance for these concerned with the control and oversight of intelligence and security issues in many countries.