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Proof of Life: Twenty Days on the Hunt for a Missing Person in the Middle East
By Daniel Levin. 2021
&“Truly thrilling. Daniel Levin brilliantly conveys both the menace and the evil of Middle Eastern intrigue, and some victories of…
human kindness over cruelty and despair.&” —Daniel Kahneman, New York Times bestselling author of Thinking, Fast and Slow &“In laying bare the raw human toll of the ferocious and cruel Syrian conflict, Proof of Life asks the reader to make a choice between cynicism and compassion.&” —Ayaan Hirsi Ali, New York Times bestselling author of Infidel Daniel Levin was at his office when he got a call from an acquaintance with an urgent, cryptic request to meet in Paris. A young man had gone missing in Syria. No government, embassy, or intelligence agency would help. Could he? Would he? So begins a suspenseful, shocking, and at times brutal true story of one man&’s search to find a missing person in Syria over twenty tense days. Levin, a lawyer turned armed-conflict negotiator, uses his extensive contacts to chase leads throughout the Middle East, meeting with powerful sheikhs, drug lords, and sex traffickers in his pursuit of the truth. He also discovers remarkable people who retain their essential goodness and spirit in the face of adversity. In Proof of Life, Levin dives deep into a shadowy world where few have access—an underground industry of war where everything is for sale, including arms, drugs, and even people. He offers a fascinating study of how people use leverage to get what they want from one another and where no one does a favor without wanting something in return, whether it&’s immediately or years down the road.Proof of Life is a fast-paced thriller wrapped in a memoir, a must-read for anyone interested in power dynamics, international affairs, the Middle East, or our growing number of forever wars.Mission France: The True History of the Women of SOE
By Kate Vigurs. 2021
The full story of the thirty-nine female SOE agents who went undercover in France Formed in 1940, Special Operations Executive…
was to coordinate Resistance work overseas. The organization’s F section sent more than four hundred agents into France, thirty-nine of whom were women. But while some are widely known—Violette Szabo, Odette Sansom, Noor Inayat Khan—others have had their stories largely overlooked. Kate Vigurs interweaves for the first time the stories of all thirty-nine female agents. Tracing their journeys from early recruitment to work undertaken in the field, to evasion from, or capture by, the Gestapo, Vigurs shows just how greatly missions varied. Some agents were more adept at parachuting. Some agents’ missions lasted for years, others’ less than a few hours. Some survived, others were murdered. By placing the women in the context of their work with the SOE and the wider war, this history reveals the true extent of the differences in their abilities and attitudes while underlining how they nonetheless shared a common mission and, ultimately, deserve recognition.The Spy Who Changed The World
By Mike Rossiter. 2014
The world first heard of Klaus Fuchs, the head of theoretical physics at the British Research Establishment at Harwell in…
February 1950 when he appeared at the Old Bailey, accused of passing secrets to the Soviet Union. For over sixty years disinformation and lies surrounded the story of Klaus Fuchs as the Governments of Britain, the United States and Russia all tried to cover up the truth about his treachery.Piecing together the story from archives in Britain, the United States, Russia and Germany, The Spy Who Changed the World unravels the truth about Fuchs and reveals for the first time his long career of espionage. It proves that he played a pivotal role in Britain's bomb programme in the race to keep up with the United States in the atomic age, and that he revealed vital secrets about the atom bomb, as well as the immensely destructive hydrogen bomb to the Soviet Government. It is a dramatic tale of clandestine meetings, deadly secrets, family entanglements and illicit love affairs, all set against the tumultuous years from the rise of Hitler to the start of the Cold War.Falling For Danger: Capital Confessions 3 (Capital Confessions #3)
By Chanel Cleeton. 2015
From the author of Next Year In Havana, a Reese Witherspoon's Book Club pick!Calling fans of Scandal, House of Cards,…
Kristen Proby and Lauren Layne - prepare to be addicted to the Capital Confessions world of love stories, seduction, secrets and lies...Welcome to Washington, D.C., city of scandal, where no secret stays hidden for long... Four years ago Kate Reynolds' fiancé died on a Special Forces mission in Afghanistan. Ever since she's been consumed with uncovering the truth, vowing to prove his death was no accident. The daughter of a notoriously high-profile senator, her new job as a CIA political analyst is a dream come true, and the chance to avenge the man she loved and lost. Soon Kate's on the brink of discovering what happened that fateful night. Her own life is now in danger and she's stunned by the man who comes to her rescue. Together they must fight to stay alive as they're dragged into a corrupt world of secrets and lies. When the threat hits terrifyingly close to home, will Kate choose vengeance, or the man who has ignited a fire inside her she thought would never burn again? Want more sizzling chemistry and scandalous action? Don't miss Books One and Two in the Capital Confessions series, Flirting With Scandal and Playing With Trouble.Seduction Game: I-Team 7 (I-Team)
By Pamela Clare. 2015
Fans of Suzanne Brockmann, Maya Banks, Christy Reece, Julie Ann Walker and Cindy Gerard will adore Pamela Clare's expertly plotted…
romantic suspense series, which sets the pages alight with sizzling chemistry. For tension, thrills, romance and passion take a spin with the I-Team.CIA Officer Nick Andris wants revenge. His last mission failed after a Georgian arms smuggler killed his lover. He's been tailing a woman for three weeks hoping she will lead him to his target. But there's a problem with the intel. Holly Elise Bradshaw is nothing more than an entertainment writer with a love for sex and designer clothes. Clearly someone at Langley made a mistake...When Holly finds herself in trouble, the only weapons at her disposal are her brains and her body. But they won't be enough to handle the man who's following her. He's going to turn her world upside-down.Sexy. Thrilling. Unputdownable. Take a wildly romantic ride with Pamela Clare's I-Team: Extreme Exposure, Hard Evidence, Unlawful Contact, Naked Edge, Breaking Point, Striking Distance, Seduction Game.From Resistance to Revolution
By Pauline Maier. 1991
Maintaining that the outbreak of revolution in 1775 was not the result of secret planning by radicals but rather the…
end product of years of painful evolution, Pauline Maier brilliantly traces the American colonists’ road to independence from 1765 to 1776 and examines the role of popular violence as political allegiances corroded and once-loyal subjects were gradually transformed into revolutionaries. Mrs. Maier presents a view of the American leaders different from that which prevailed a generation ago, when historians saw them as lawless demagogues who, already set upon independence at the outset of the conflict with England, manipulated the public toward their goal through propaganda and mob violence. She shows that none of the men in the forefront of American opposition to British policies favored independence when the colonies blocked England’s efforts to impose a tamp Tax upon them in 1765. Their love of British institutions was undermined gradually and for reasons beyond their opposition to legislation affecting American interest. Developments in England itself, in Ireland, Corsica, and the West Indies also fed American disillusionment with imperial rule, until leading colonists came to believe that just government required casting loose from Britain and monarchy. Indeed, Mrs. Maier demonstrates that participants saw the American Revolution as part of an international struggle between freedom and despotism. Like independence, violence was a last resort. Arguing that colonial leaders, like many present-day “revolutionaries,” quickly learned that popular violence was counterproductive, Mrs. Maier makes it clear that they organized resistance in part to contain disorder. Building association to discipline opposition, they gradually made self-rule founded upon carefully designed “social compacts” a reality. Out of the struggle with Britain emerged not merely separation, but the beginnings of American republican government.The Next Wave: On the Hunt for Al Qaeda's American Recruits
By Catherine Herridge. 2011
TERROR WALKS AMONG US. Born here, raised here, plotting here, the terrorists of al Qaeda 2. 0 aim to kill…
Americans. And our government helps. Who are the recruits for the next wave? They live next door. A radicalized army major guns down forty-five, killing twelve soldiers and one civilian; an airport shuttle-bus driver plots a subway slaughter; a legal immigrant tries to blow up Times Square while another fanatic hopes to kill hundreds at a Christmas tree–lighting ceremony . . . and a radical Muslim born in New Mexico has a legion of fanatics in his web. The Next Wavereveals the shocking story of how that blood-crazed American, Anwar al-Awlaki-now hiding in Yemen-was treated to Pentagon pomp as a “moderate Muslim,” and how our Justice Department hid his movements from the 9/11 Commission . . . even though al-Awlaki aided the 9/11 hijackers. The terrorists next door turn our tech against us, exploiting Facebook, Skype, and our outdated laws. Online terror recruiters are one of the Web’s greatest success stories-yet our government refuses to stop them. Activists howl about “inhuman” conditions at Guantánamo-while pampered inmates laugh at our weaknesses. The next wave of deadly terror is here and now. Washington shuts its eyes. And the next massacre in the name of Islam will be “Made in the U. S. A. ” From the Hardcover edition.The Spy in Moscow Station: A Counterspy's Hunt for a Deadly Cold War Threat
By Eric Haseltine. 2019
The thrilling, true story of the race to find a leak in the United States Embassy in Moscow—before more American…
assets are rounded up and killed. Foreword by Gen. Michael V. Hayden (Retd.), Former Director of NSA & CIAIn the late 1970s, the National Security Agency still did not officially exist—those in the know referred to it dryly as the No Such Agency. So why, when NSA engineer Charles Gandy filed for a visa to visit Moscow, did the Russian Foreign Ministry assert with confidence that he was a spy? Outsmarting honey traps and encroaching deep enough into enemy territory to perform complicated technical investigations, Gandy accomplished his mission in Russia, but discovered more than State and CIA wanted him to know. Eric Haseltine's The Spy in Moscow Station tells of a time when—much like today—Russian spycraft had proven itself far beyond the best technology the U.S. had to offer. The perils of American arrogance mixed with bureaucratic infighting left the country unspeakably vulnerable to ultra-sophisticated Russian electronic surveillance and espionage.This is the true story of unorthodox, underdog intelligence officers who fought an uphill battle against their own government to prove that the KGB had pulled off the most devastating penetration of U.S. national security in history. If you think "The Americans" isn't riveting enough, you'll love this toe-curling nonfiction thriller.Origins of Terrorism: The Rise of the World’s Most Formidable Terrorist Groups
By Godfrey Garner, Maeghin Alarid-Hughes. 2021
Origins of Terrorism: The Rise of the World’s Most Formidable Terrorist Groups examines the roots of Islamic terrorism, it’s history,…
and some of the foundational figures in prominent terrorist organizations. Throughout, the book also addresses the use of terrorism, the "hows" and "whys" of terrorists’ goals, and their modus operandi. Historically, insurgency operations have formed the basis of a number of terrorist groups—resistance to western powers, particularly the United States, and what is viewed as their unwanted interference in regional affairs. Sections are devoted to individual terror organizations, including some of the most well-known and resilient global movements—Al Qaeda, ISIS, the Taliban, and Boko Haram, among others. Coverage details where and how they originated, who the principal organizers were, how these individuals worked—or didn’t work—together. In this, the authors look at the circumstances that allowed for these leaders, and their groups’, development and success. In this, the authors expose interesting, little-known stories and facts about the specific upbringing, family life, and personal narrative around these organizations’ founders, as well as ties to other terrorist founders and organizations. For example, the relationship between individuals such as Osama bin Laden and Musab al Zarkawi (aka Ahmad al-Khalayleh)—the founder of ‘Al Qaeda in Iraq’ (AQI), which became ISIS—is examined in detail, providing readers with some of the "stories behind the stories" to understand the prominent figures and underpinnings of major terrorist organizations’ philosophies, formation, and elements that have led to their staying power. Origins of Terrorism will be a valuable resource for security and intelligence professionals, terrorism researchers, and students, providing a unique perspective to understand terrorism and terror movements in considering counterterror efforts.The Grey Men: Pursuing the Stasi into the Present
By Ralph Hope. 2021
What do you do with a hundred thousand idle spies? By 1990 the Berlin Wall had fallen and the East…
German state security service folded. For forty years, they had amassed more than a billion pages in manila files detailing the lives of their citizens. Almost a hundred thousand Stasi employees, many of them experienced officers with access to highly personal information, found themselves unemployed overnight. This is the story of what they did next. Former FBI agent Ralph Hope uses present-day sources and access to Stasi records to track and expose ex-officers working everywhere from the Russian energy sector to the police and even the government department tasked with prosecuting Stasi crimes. He examines why the key players have never been called to account and, in doing so, asks if we have really learned from the past at all. He highlights a man who continued to fight the Stasi for thirty years after the Wall fell, and reveals a truth that many today don&’t want spoken. The Grey Men comes as an urgent warning from the past at a time when governments the world over are building an unprecedented network of surveillance over their citizens. Ultimately, this is a book about the present.Atomic Spy: The Dark Lives of Klaus Fuchs
By Nancy Thorndike Greenspan. 2020
"Nancy Greenspan dives into the mysteries of the Klaus Fuchs espionage case and emerges with a classic Cold War biography…
of intrigue and torn loyalties. Atomic Spy is a mesmerizing morality tale, told with fresh sources and empathy." --Kai Bird, author of The Good Spy and coauthor of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert OppenheimerThe gripping biography of a notorious Cold War villain--the German-born British scientist who handed the Soviets top-secret American plans for the plutonium bomb--showing a man torn between conventional loyalties and a sense of obligation to a greater good.German by birth, British by naturalization, Communist by conviction, Klaus Fuchs was a fearless Nazi resister, a brilliant scientist, and an infamous spy. He was convicted of espionage by Britain in 1950 for handing over the designs of the plutonium bomb to the Russians, and has gone down in history as one of the most dangerous agents in American and British history. He put an end to America's nuclear hegemony and single-handedly heated up the Cold War. But, was Klaus Fuchs really evil?Using archives long hidden in Germany as well as intimate family correspondence, Nancy Thorndike Greenspan brings into sharp focus the moral and political ambiguity of the times in which Fuchs lived and the ideals with which he struggled. As a university student in Germany, he stood up to Nazi terror without flinching, and joined the Communists largely because they were the only ones resisting the Nazis. After escaping to Britain in 1933, he was arrested as a German émigré--an "enemy alien"--in 1940 and sent to an internment camp in Canada. His mentor at university, renowned physicist Max Born, worked to facilitate his release. After years of struggle and ideological conflict, when Fuchs joined the atomic bomb project, his loyalties were firmly split. He started handing over top secret research to the Soviets in 1941, and continued for years from deep within the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. Greenspan's insights into his motivations make us realize how he was driven not just by his Communist convictions but seemingly by a dedication to peace, seeking to level the playing field of the world powers.With thrilling detail from never-before-seen sources, Atomic Spy travels across the Germany of an ascendant Nazi party; the British university classroom of Max Born; a British internment camp in Canada; the secret laboratories of Los Alamos; and Eastern Germany at the height of the Cold War. Atomic Spy shows the real Klaus Fuchs--who he was, what he did, why he did it, and how he was caught. His extraordinary life is a cautionary tale about the ambiguity of morality and loyalty, as pertinent today as in the 1940s.Since 9/11, counterterrorism has become a national and international priority. Research on violent extremism and terrorism, from homegrown threats to…
foreign fighters, has adapted accordingly but has not always translated into policymaking. Extremism can be traced to no single cause, and yet governments and law-enforcement agencies continue to spend millions on prevention efforts. Contributors to this book identify persistent challenges for counterterrorism and countering violent extremism and provide analysis from a variety of academic and professional perspectives. Countering Violent Extremism and Terrorism cautions against adopting a causal model to understand violent extremism and takes a critical look at how states have managed to cope with the global phenomenon of terrorism. By drawing on the expertise of researchers and practitioners from government, law enforcement, and the military, contributors identify past failures and offer guidance on how to correct these mistakes. With the collective goal of developing more effective strategies, the authors dispel common myths, discard counterproductive tactics, and point to countries in which policies have functioned as intended. As some terrorist organizations' influence wanes, others innovate and thrive, further challenging a state apparatus that is slow to adapt to these mutating threats. An essential and timely book, Countering Violent Extremism and Terrorism seeks to change how governments and policymakers consider and respond to security threats.The crypto wars have raged for half a century. In the 1970s, digital privacy activists prophesied the emergence of an…
Orwellian State, made possible by computer-mediated mass surveillance. The antidote: digital encryption. The U.S. government warned encryption would not only prevent surveillance of law-abiding citizens, but of criminals, terrorists, and foreign spies, ushering in a rival dystopian future. Both parties fought to defend the citizenry from what they believed the most perilous threats. The government tried to control encryption to preserve its surveillance capabilities; privacy activists armed citizens with cryptographic tools and challenged encryption regulations in the courts. No clear victor has emerged from the crypto wars. Governments have failed to forge a framework to govern the, at times conflicting, civil liberties of privacy and security in the digital age—an age when such liberties have an outsized influence on the citizen–State power balance. Solving this problem is more urgent than ever. Digital privacy will be one of the most important factors in how we architect twenty-first century societies—its management is paramount to our stewardship of democracy for future generations. We must elevate the quality of debate on cryptography, on how we govern security and privacy in our technology-infused world. Failure to end the crypto wars will result in societies sleepwalking into a future where the citizen–State power balance is determined by a twentieth-century status quo unfit for this century, endangering both our privacy and security. This book provides a history of the crypto wars, with the hope its chronicling sets a foundation for peace.The Evolution of the Global Terrorist Threat: From 9/11 to Osama bin Laden's Death (Columbia Studies in Terrorism and Irregular Warfare)
By Bruce, Hoffman, Fernando, Reinares. 2014
Examining major terrorist acts and campaigns undertaken in the decade following September 11, 2001, internationally recognized scholars study the involvement…
of global terrorist leaders and organizations in these incidents and the planning, organization, execution, recruitment, and training that went into them. Their work captures the changing character of al-Qaeda and its affiliates since the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the sophisticated elements that, despite the West's best counterterrorism efforts, continue to exert substantial direction over jihadist terrorist operations.Through case studies of terrorist acts and offensives occurring both in and outside the West, the volume's contributors investigate al-Qaeda and other related entities as they adapted to the strategies of Operation Enduring Freedom and subsequent U.S.-led global counterterrorism programs. They explore whether Osama bin Laden was indeed reduced to a mere figurehead before his death or continued to influence al-Qaeda's global activities. Did al-Qaeda become a loose collection of individuals and ideas following its expulsion from Afghanistan, or was it reborn as a transnational terrorist structure powered by a well-articulated ideology? What is the preeminent terrorist threat we face today, and what will it look like in the future? This anthology pinpoints the critical patterns and strategies that will inform counterterrorism in the coming decades.Spy tells, for the first time, the full, authoritative story of how FBI agent Robert Hanssen, code name grayday, spied…
for Russia for twenty-two years in what has been called the "worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history"-and how he was finally caught in an incredible gambit by U.S. intelligence.David Wise, the nation's leading espionage writer, has called on his unique knowledge and unrivaled intelligence sources to write the definitive, inside story of how Robert Hanssen betrayed his country, and why.Spy at last reveals the mind and motives of a man who was a walking paradox: FBI counterspy, KGB mole, devout Catholic, obsessed pornographer who secretly televised himself and his wife having sex so that his best friend could watch, defender of family values, fantasy James Bond who took a stripper to Hong Kong and carried a machine gun in his car trunk.Brimming with startling new details sure to make headlines, Spy discloses:-the previously untold story of how the FBI got the actual file on Robert Hanssen out of KGB headquarters in Moscow for $7 million in an unprecedented operation that ended in Hanssen's arrest.-how for three years, the FBI pursued a CIA officer, code name gray deceiver, in the mistaken belief that he was the mole they were seeking inside U.S. intelligence. The innocent officer was accused as a spy and suspended by the CIA for nearly two years. -why Hanssen spied, based on exclusive interviews with Dr. David L. Charney, the psychiatrist who met with Hanssen in his jail cell more than thirty times. Hanssen, in an extraordinary arrangement, authorized Charney to talk to the author.-the full story of Robert Hanssen's bizarre sex life, including the hidden video camera he set up in his bedroom and how he plotted to drug his wife, Bonnie, so that his best friend could father her child.- how Hanssen and the CIA's Aldrich Ames betrayed three Russians secretly spying for the FBI-including tophat, a Soviet general-who were then executed by Moscow. -that after Hanssen was already working for the KGB, he directed a study of moles in the FBI when-as he alone knew-he was the mole.Robert Hanssen betrayed the FBI. He betrayed his country. He betrayed his wife. He betrayed his children. He betrayed his best friend, offering him up to the KGB. He betrayed his God. Most of all, he betrayed himself. Only David Wise could tell the astonishing, full story, and he does so, in masterly style, in Spy.From the Hardcover edition.Deep Fakes and the Infocalypse: What You Urgently Need To Know
By Nina Schick. 2020
"Deep Fakes and the Infocalypse is an urgent, thoughtful and thoroughly-researched book that raises uncomfortable questions about the way that…
information is being distorted by states and individuals... A must-read." - Greg Williams, Editor in Chief of WIRED UK"Essential reading for any one interested about the shocking way information is and will be manipulated." - Lord Edward Vaizey"Schick's Deep Fakes and the Infocalypse is a short, sharp book that hits you like a punch in the stomach." - Nick Cohen, The Observer"Deep Fakes is an uncomfortable but gripping read, probing the way in which the internet has been flooded with disinformation and dark arts propaganda." - Jim Pickard, Chief Political Correspondent, Financial Times"A searing insight into a world so many of us find difficult to understand. I was gripped from the first page." - Iain Dale, Broadcaster"With this powerful book, Nina Schick has done us all a great public service...It's your civic duty to read it." - Jamie Susskind, author of Future Politics"Gripping, alarming and morally vital." - Ian Dunt, Host of Remainiacs PodcastIt will soon be impossible to tell what is real and what is fake. Recent advances in AI mean that by scanning images of a person (for example using Facebook), a powerful machine learning system can create new video images and place them in scenarios and situations which never actually happened. When combined with powerful voice AI, the results are utterly convincing.So-called 'Deep Fakes' are not only a real threat for democracy but they take the manipulation of voters to new levels. They will also affect ordinary people. This crisis of misinformation we are facing has been dubbed the 'Infocalypse'. Using her expertise from working in the field, Nina Schick reveals shocking examples of Deep Fakery and explains the dangerous political consequences of the Infocalypse, both in terms of national security and what it means for public trust in politics. She also unveils what it means for us as individuals, how Deep Fakes will be used to intimidate and to silence, for revenge and fraud, and how unprepared governments and tech companies are. As a political advisor to select technology firms, Schick tells us what we need to do to prepare and protect ourselves. Too often we build the cool technology and ignore what bad guys can do with it before we start playing catch-up. But when it comes to Deep Fakes, we urgently need to be on the front foot.The Folly and the Glory: America, Russia, and Political Warfare 1945-2020
By Tim Weiner. 2020
From Tim Weiner, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, an urgent and gripping account of the…
seventy-five-year battle between the United States and Russia that led to the election and impeachment of an American president. With vivid storytelling and riveting insider accounts, Tim Weiner traces the roots of political warfare--the conflict America and Russia have waged with espionage, sabotage, diplomacy, and disinformation--from 1945 until 2020. America won the cold war, but Russia is winning today. Vladimir Putin helped to put his chosen candidate in the White House with a covert campaign that continues to this moment. Putin's Russia has revived Soviet-era intelligence operations, gaining ever more potent information from--and influence over--the American people and government. Yet the United States has put little power into its defense. This has put American democracy in peril. Weiner takes us behind closed doors, illuminating Russian and American intelligence operations and their consequences. To get to the heart of what is at stake and find potential solutions, he examines long-running twentieth-century CIA operations, the global political machinations of the Soviet KGB, the erosion of American political warfare after the cold war, and how twenty-first-century Russia has kept the cold war alive. He provides details of US duplicity with Russia which caused resentment and anger and US involvement in the murder of Congo's Patrice Lumumba and our wrongful support of Mobutu. The Folly and the Glory is an urgent call to our leaders and citizens to understand the nature of political warfare--and to change course before it's too late. TIM WEINER has won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his reporting and writing on national security and intelligence. He covered the CIA, the war in Afghanistan, and crises and conflicts in fourteen nations for the New York Times. Weiner has taught history and writing at Princeton and Columbia. The Folly and the Glory is his sixth book.From Mandate to Blueprint: Lessons from Intelligence Reform
By Thomas Fingar. 2021
In From Mandate to Blueprint, Thomas Fingar offers a guide for new federal government appointees faced with the complex task…
of rebuilding institutions and transitioning to a new administration. Synthesizing his own experience implementing the most comprehensive reforms to the national security establishment since 1947, Fingar provides crucial guidance to newly appointed officials. When Fingar was appointed the first Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis in 2005, he discovered the challenges of establishing a new federal agency and implementing sweeping reforms of intelligence procedure and performance. The mandate required prompt action but provided no guidance on how to achieve required and desirable changes. Fingar describes how he defined and prioritized the tasks involved in building and staffing a new organization, integrating and improving the work of sixteen agencies, and contending with pressure from powerful players. For appointees without the luxury of taking command of fully staffed and well-functioning federal agencies, From Mandate to Blueprint is an informed and practical guide for the challenges ahead.East German Foreign Intelligence: Myth, Reality and Controversy (Studies in Intelligence)
By Thomas Wegener Friis. 2010
This edited book examines the East German foreign intelligence service (Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung, or HVA) as a historical problem, covering politics, scientific-technical and…
military intelligence and counterintelligence. The contributors broaden the conventional view of East German foreign intelligence as driven by the inter-German conflict to include its targeting of the United States, northern European and Scandinavian countries, highlighting areas that have previously received scant attention, like scientific-technical and military intelligence. The CIA’s underestimation of the HVA was a major intelligence failure. As a result, East German intelligence served as a stealth weapon against the US, West German and NATO targets, acquiring the lion’s share of critical Warsaw Pact intelligence gathered during the Cold War. This book explores how though all of the CIA’s East German sources were double agents controlled by the Ministry of State Security, the CIA was still able to declare victory in the Cold War. Themes and topics that run through the volume include the espionage wars; the HVA's relationship with the Russian KGB; successes and failures of the BND (West German Federal Intelligence Service) in East Germany; the CIA and the HVA; the HVA in countries outside of West Germany; disinformation and the role and importance of intelligence gathering in East Germany. This book will be of much interest to students of East Germany, Intelligence Studies, Cold War History and German politics in general. Kristie Macrakis is Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. Thomas Wegener Friis is an Assistant Professor at the University of Southern Denmark’s Centre for Cold War Studies. Helmut Müller-Enbergs is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Southern Denmark and holds a tenured senior staff position at the German Federal Commission for the STASI Archives in Berlin.Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare
By Thomas Rid. 2020
This revelatory and dramatic history of disinformation traces the rise of secret organized deception operations from the interwar period to…
contemporary internet troll farmsWe live in the age of disinformation—of organized deception. Spy agencies pour vast resources into hacking, leaking, and forging data, often with the goal of weakening the very foundation of liberal democracy: trust in facts. Thomas Rid, a renowned expert on technology and national security, was one of the first to sound the alarm. More than four months before the 2016 election, he warned that Russian military intelligence was “carefully planning and timing a high-stakes political campaign" to disrupt the democratic process. But as crafty as such so-called active measures have become, they are not new. The story of modern disinformation begins with the post-Russian Revolution clash between communism and capitalism, which would come to define the Cold War. In Active Measures, Rid reveals startling intelligence and security secrets from materials written in more than ten languages across several nations, and from interviews with current and former operatives. He exposes the disturbing yet colorful history of professional, organized lying, revealing for the first time some of the century’s most significant operations—many of them nearly beyond belief. A White Russian ploy backfires and brings down a New York police commissioner; a KGB-engineered, anti-Semitic hate campaign creeps back across the Iron Curtain; the CIA backs a fake publishing empire, run by a former Wehrmacht U-boat commander, that produces Germany’s best jazz magazine. Rid tracks the rise of leaking, and shows how spies began to exploit emerging internet culture many years before WikiLeaks. Finally, he sheds new light on the 2016 election, especially the role of the infamous “troll farm” in St. Petersburg as well as a much more harmful attack that unfolded in the shadows.Active Measures takes the reader on a guided tour deep into a vast hall of mirrors old and new, pointing to a future of engineered polarization, more active and less measured—but also offering the tools to cut through the deception.