Posts tagged as:

Book Review

The Slippery Nature of Secrets

25 February 2010

Wall Street Journal, 25 Feb 10: When we hear the sound of hoofbeats, should we think horses or zebras? The question is a classic problem of intelligence analysis. Too often in recent years the CIA, FBI and Department of Homeland Security have got it wrong—most recently with the Christmas Day underwear bomber, who was able [...]

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Johnny X was global spy who became a Canuck

8 February 2010

Canadian Press, 7 Feb 10: Johnny X is Canada’s spy who came in from the cold. An enigmatic secret agent, he spent a lifetime covertly battling Nazis and Communists on several continents while living under a death sentence.
Johnny X, one of his many shadowy aliases, appears only sporadically in the historical record of 20th-century espionage. [...]

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Smiley’s People

29 January 2010

New York Times book review, 29 Jan 10:
Defend the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 by Christopher Andrew
Twenty years ago, the subject of this vast and fascinating book did not, officially speaking, exist at all. The Security Service, better known as MI5, is the domestic arm of British intelligence. While its sister organization, MI6, supplies [...]

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The Intelligence Officer’s Bookshelf

27 January 2010

CIA, 27 Jan 10: New “Studies in Intelligence” posted. Includes:
The Intelligence Officer’s Bookshelf by Hayden Peake, curator of the CIA’s Historical Intelligence Collection Library. Among the books reviewed:

Vaults, Mirrors and Masks: Rediscovering U.S. Counterintelligence, Jennifer E. Sims and Burton Gerber (eds.)
The Real Spy’s Guide to Becoming A Spy, Peter Earnest with Suzanne Harper
My Life As [...]

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Book Review: A God Who Hates

12 January 2010

FP, 12 Jan 10: . . . .Wafa Sultan, an ex-Muslim dissident from Syria, offers a wholly different take on this sophistical premise in her new book, “A God Who Hates” (St. Martin’s Press – 2009) as she portrays a searing portrait of Muslim culture. The subtitle of the book describes Sultan as “the courageous [...]

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BOOK REVIEW: The successes and glitches of MI5

18 December 2009

Washington Times/Joseph Goulden, 18 Dec 09:
DEFEND THE REALM: THE AUTHORIZED HISTORY OF MI5 By Christopher Andrew
Any book with the words “authorized history” in the title causes my eyebrows to twitch reflexively. Even when the work comes from such a respected British historian as Christopher Andrew, one must wonder, “Can the reader expect a glowing, dimples-and-all [...]

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Book Review of Wafa Sultan’s “A God Who Hates: The Courageous Woman Who Inflamed the Muslim World Speaks Out Against the Evils of Islam”

10 December 2009

FrontPage/Pam Geller, 10 Dec 09: Wafa Sultan’s seminal moment was when she took on an Islamic cleric on Al-Jazeera. The clip went viral on Youtube, and it really was a defining moment in the clash of civilizations. Here was a woman, basically considered “property” in the Muslim world and expected to do what she was [...]

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1953 manual detailing tricks of the Agency’s trade is published

1 December 2009

The Independent, 28 Nov 09: At the height of the Cold War, the CIA issued its top spooks with a more prosaic piece of equipment: a beginner’s guide to magic, educating them in the old-fashioned arts of conjuring and sleight-of-hand.
The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception was written in 1953 by a well-known [...]

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The truth – but not the whole truth – about spies

1 December 2009

The Defence Of The Realm: The Authorised History Of MI5 By Christopher Andrew
Daily Mail/Chapman Pincher, 27 Nov 09: This massive compilation from MI5’s files holds much for those curious to know how the nation’s counter-spy ’spooks’ really operate.
Yes, they do tap telephones, intercept letters, eavesdrop on radio communications and did ‘bug and burgle their way [...]

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