Intelligence Agencies Books

The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington

Jennet Conant

Amazon Price: $18.45 List Price: $27.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Simon & Schuster Amazon Marketplace: 59 new & used starting at $14.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Amazon Best of the Month, September 2008: Long before Willy Wonka sent out those five Golden Tickets, Roald Dahl lived a life that was more James Bond than James and the Giant Peach. After blinding headaches cut short his distinguished career as a Royal Air Force fighter pilot, Dahl became part of an elite group of British spies working against the United States' neutrality at the onset of World War II. The Irregulars is a brilliant profile of Dahl's lesser-known profession, embracing a real-life storyline of suave debauchery, clandestine motives, and afternoon cocktails. If this sounds oddly familiar, it's no coincidence: both Ian Fleming (the creator of 007) and Bill Stephenson (the legendary spymaster rumored to be the inspiration for Bond) were members of the same outfit. Although "Dahl...Roald Dahl" doesn't quite carry the same debonair ring, there is no discrediting this fascinating look at the British author's covert service to the Allied cause during WWII. --Dave Callanan

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA

Tim Weiner

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Anchor Amazon Marketplace: 62 new & used starting at $9.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> 1945 - Present
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 21st Century

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 139 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

CIA as evil once again 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Well having an interest history and how we held the soviets back I bought the book and audio cd of Legacy OF Ashes.
I though listened and read carefully and after taking in the entire book I am left with a bad taste.....the book really gives very little positive's to the fellows who really had little or no idea how to be spys etc. other than the fact that they were brave enough to give it go!

The book really attacks them all as being fools who couldn't shoot straight and so on and frankly that is not correct.

My suggestion would be to read some of the other books out there on the CIA and really see how hard it was to foil the soviets as they were brutal and vilolent and we as Americans really didnt know how to deal with what we know now and they new then as EVIL!!!!

The agents for Russia stopped at nothing to steal secrets from the US as well as convience hundreds of Americans that the soviet union was a pleasant carefree workers paradise , when in fact it was Stalin's sandbox that he ruled with an iron fist! The terror of 1938 read about it as it will open your eyes to the mesery of the soviet union ; punishing those who disagreed with him or he imagined disagreed etc. The truth as we know it is Socialism is Evil in all its forms ...the powerfull use it to control the many !Think about it horror was living under communist rule in the 1920's to the 1980's the fench in Berlin wasnt put up to keep everybody out but to keep everyone in!

Thank God we had brave men such as Frank Wisner,Tracy Barnes,Richard Bissel and Desmond FitzGerald all of them served and worked hard toward the goal of protecting all us from the soviets.Richard Bissel who in the nineteen fifties developed the U2 spyplane with Kelly Johnson ( Lockheed )absolutely saved many lives with our ability to capture pictures inside russia as the soviets lied about everything from number of warheads to the number of tanks ,Bissel and Johnson then went on to create the SR-71 Blackbird which still holds the speed record for a jet propelled aircraft; both were designed and built prior to computers being used in design and creation of aircraft etc. ...these folks are hero's they did it quickly and correctly and under budget with a slide rule!I also wish to mention the work of Dr.Edwin Land who developed the camera used in the U2 and the Blackbird with out his genius the planes could never have taken any pictures at heights in excess of 60,000 feet up!

Each man listed did there job to the best of thier abilities.... they as well as thier families suffered , wondering if the men ever would return from the lastest mission. The years spent in the company of thieves and murderer's took its toll on everyone not just the CIA men themselves.

Did everything that the CIA do become a success? no it did not but I will tell you ...read all the books about the history of the CIA and then judge for yourself...I did and I am better off for it. I wish to say thank you to all of them for keeping myself and my family safe during there lifetime.

James

Editorial Review:

With shocking revelations that made headlines in papers across the country, Pulitzer-Prize-winner Tim Weiner gets at the truth behind the CIA and uncovers here why nearly every CIA Director has left the agency in worse shape than when he found it; and how these profound failures jeopardize our national security.

Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs, from Communism to al-Qaeda

Robert Wallace, H. Keith Melton, Henry R. Schlesinger

Amazon Price: $18.87 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Dutton Adult Amazon Marketplace: 48 new & used starting at $15.22

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Military -> Intelligence & Espionage
Subjects -> History -> Military -> General
Subjects -> History -> Military -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 35 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

From two men who know better than anyone how espionage really works, an unprecedented history—heavily illustrated with neverbefore- seen images—of the CIA’s most secretive operations and the gadgets that made them possible.

It is a world where the intrigue of reality exceeds that of fiction. What is an invisible photo used for? What does it take to build a quiet helicopter? How does one embed a listening device in a cat? If these sound like challenges for Q, James Bond’s fictional gadget-master, think again. They’re all real-life devices created by the CIA’s Office of Technical Service—an ultrasecretive department that combines the marvels of state-of-the-art technology with the time-proven traditions of classic espionage. And now, in the first book ever written about this office, the former director of OTS teams up with an internationally renowned intelligence historian to take readers into the laboratory of espionage.

Spycraft tells amazing life and death stories about this littleknown group, much of it never before revealed. Against the backdrop of some of America’s most critical periods in recent history—including the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the war on terror—the authors show the real technical and human story of how the CIA carries out its missions.

Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent

Fred Burton

Amazon Price: $17.16 List Price: $26.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Random House Amazon Marketplace: 45 new & used starting at $11.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Political
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Memoirs
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 46 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

For decades, Fred Burton, a key figure in international counterterrorism and domestic spycraft, has secretly been on the front lines in the fight to keep Americans safe around the world. Now, in this hard-hitting memoir, Burton emerges from the shadows to reveal who he is, what he has accomplished, and the threats that lurk unseen except by an experienced, world-wise few.

In the mid-eighties, the idea of defending Americans against terrorism was still new. But a trio of suicide bombings in Beirut–including one that killed 241 marines and forced our exit from Lebanon–had changed the mindset and mission of the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), the arm of the State Department that protects U.S. embassy officials across the globe. Burton, a member of DSS’s tiny but elite Counterterrorism Division, was plunged into a murky world of violent religious extremism spanning the streets of Middle Eastern cities and the informant-filled alleys of American slums. From battling Libyan terrorists and their Palestinian surrogates to having facing down hijackers, hostages, and Hezbollah double agents, Burton found himself on the front lines of America’s first campaign against Terror.

In this globe-trotting account of one counterterrorism agent’s life and career, Burton takes us behind the scenes to reveal how the United States tracked Libya-linked master terrorist Abu Nidal; captured Ramzi Yusef, architect of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; and pursued the assassins of major figures including Yitzhak Rabin, Meir Kahane, and General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, the president of Pakistan–classic cases that have sobering new meaning in the treacherous years since 9/11. Here, too, is Burton’s advice on personal safety for today’s most powerful CEOs, gleaned from his experience at Stratfor, the private firm Barron’s calls “the shadow CIA.”

Told in a no-holds-barred, gripping, nuanced style that illuminates a complex and driven man, Ghost is both a riveting read and an illuminating look into the shadows of the most important struggle of our time.

Praise for GHOST
“With spy thriller suspense and the clarity of a police report, former special agent Burton’s State Department saga reads like a brewing-storm prequel to the current war on terror ... Of obvious interest to anyone with an eye on world affairs.... Most striking is the material’s relevance twenty years later; Burton’s clashes with Hezbollah in Beirut and prickly diplomacy with Iran could almost be pulled from present-day newspapers”—Publisher's Weekly

“In many ways, this book reads like a le Carré spy novel: it’s not flashy, not filled with pyrotechnics, not full of chase scenes and derring-do. Rather, it’s the story of a working man whose job involved trying to prevent people from attacking his country. Shorn of ideological rights and wrongs, it’s a fascinating look at what counterterrorism really means on a day-to-day level.” —Booklist

“The world of counterterrorism is like that old jigsaw puzzle in the back of the closet: its many missing pieces and extra parts jumbled in from other puzzles make it almost impossible to assemble. But in Ghost, Fred Burton manages to join together enough pieces to give us a discerning look at that world. This is a story, told in human terms, that will help make sense of the great puzzle of our times.” —Eric L. Haney, author of Inside Delta Force and executive producer of The Unit

“Burton’s memoir of fighting the defensive fight against the burgeoning terrorist threat in the 1980s and beyond is a revealing personal journal of the stress and boredom involved in putting the pieces of the puzzle together to obtain justice. Fred Burton was there, and you will be as well.” —Bobby R. Inman, admiral, United States Navy (retired), former director of National Security Agency and former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency

"This memoir is all at once hard-hitting, well-researched, and an easy read. Organized into thirty-six chapters, with thoughtfully-placed transitions between each, Ghost becomes ones of those books that is easy to put down and return to in a few days." —SmallWars Journal.com

Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy

Mark M. Lowenthal

Amazon Price: $47.65 List Price: $52.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: CQ Press Amazon Marketplace: 3 new & used starting at $47.65

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Military -> Intelligence & Espionage
Subjects -> History -> Military -> General
Subjects -> History -> Military -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Intelligence veteran Mark M. Lowenthal details how the intelligence community's history, structure, procedures, and functions affect policy decisions. With his friendly prose, he demystifies a complicated and complex process. Rich with examples and anecdotes, Intelligence also includes bolded key terms, an acronym list, suggested readings and websites, and a list of major intelligence reviews or proposals.

This new, fully-updated fourth edition highlights many crucial recent developments in reforms, ethics, and transnational issues, including:

-the actual implementation of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) reforms and their successes and strains;
-the ongoing legal, operational, and ethical issues raised by the war against terrorism;
-the growth of transnational issues, such as WMD;
-fresh coverage of analytic standards and analytic transformation;
-more in-depth explanation of geospatial, signal, and human intelligence;
-a new discussion of the lessons of 9/11;
- and, the growing politicization of intelligence in the United States, specifically through the declassified use of National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs).

America's Secret War: Inside the Hidden Worldwide Struggle Between the United States and Its Enemies

George Friedman

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Broadway Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $8.82

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Current Events -> Terrorism
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> Freedom & Security -> Intelligence
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> Freedom & Security -> International Security

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 68 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Dubbed by Barron’s as “The Shadow CIA,” George Friedman’s global intelligence company, Stratfor, has provided analysis to Fortune 500 companies, news outlets, and even the U.S. government. Now Friedman delivers the geopolitical story that the mainstream media has been unable to uncover — the startling truth behind America’s foreign policy and war effort in Afghanistan, Iraq, and beyond.

Stratfor, one of the world’s most respected private global intelligence firms, has an unmatched ability to provide clear perspective on the current geopolitical map. In America's Secret War, George Friedman identifies the United States’ most dangerous enemies, delves into presidential strategies of the last quarter century, and reveals the real reasons behind the attack of 9/11—and the Bush administration’s motivation for the war in Iraq. It describes in eye-opening detail America’s covert and overt efforts in the global war against terrorism: Not only are U.S. armies in combat on every continent, but since 9/11 the intelligence services of dozens of nations have been operating in close partnership with the CIA.

Drawing on Stratfor’s vast information-gathering network, Friedman presents an insightful picture of today’s world that goes far beyond what is reported on television and in other news media.

Al Qaeda’s war plans and how they led to 9/11

The threat of a suitcase nuclear bomb in New York and how that changed the course of the war.

The deal the U.S. made with Russia and Iran which made the invasion of Afghanistan possible – and how those deals affect the United States today.

How fear and suspicion of the Saudis after 9-11 tore apart the Bush-Saudi relationship and why Saudi Arabia’s closest friends in the administration became the Saudi’s worst enemies.

The real reasons behind George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq and how WMD became the cover for a much deeper game.

How the CIA miscalculated about Saddam Hussein’s and Iran’s real plans, leaving the U.S. bogged down in the war.

How the war in Iraq began with a ruse, pretending that a “target of opportunity” attack on Saddam Hussein had presented itself.

The real story about why the U.S. raises and lowers its alert status and why the United States can’t find and destroy al Qaeda.

The strategic successes that are slowly leading the United States to victory

America's Secret War is an unprecedented look at the new world war being waged behind-the-scenes today. It is sure to stir debate and capture headlines around the world.

First In: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan

Gary Schroen

Amazon Price: $7.99 List Price: $7.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Presidio Press Amazon Marketplace: 49 new & used starting at $3.70

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> Afghanistan
Subjects -> History -> Military -> Intelligence & Espionage
Subjects -> History -> Military -> United States -> Operation Desert Storm

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Introduction to the War in Afganistan 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

An interesting introduction to the people involved on the ground, just days after 9/11, in the early stages of the war in Afganistan.

The focus is on the interaction between the CIA teams and their Northern Alliance allies. Most of the book covers the inner circle of Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was assasinated immediately prior to 9/11. Near the end, you get a brief introduction to Hamid Karzai, the current President of Afganistan. The brief mention of Professor Abdul Sayyaff was a suprise to me. I did not realize the namesake of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group in the Philippines was fighting with the Northern Alliance.

Schroen thinks very highly of himself and, although he seems to respect their capabilities, is compelled to point out mistakes made by the Special Forces operators and the military in general. If you have ever read books by the FBI profiler John Douglas, you will recognize the general tone.

Overall a good book about very brave men who were willing to take significant risks for their country.

Editorial Review:

While America held its breath in the days immediately following 9/11, a small but determined group of CIA agents covertly began to change history. This is the riveting first-person account of the treacherous top-secret mission inside Afghanistan to set the stage for the defeat of the Taliban and launch the war on terror.

As thrilling as any novel, First In is a uniquely intimate look at a mission that began the U.S. retaliation against terrorism–and reclaimed the country of Afghanistan for its people.


From the Hardcover edition.

The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage

Cliff Stoll

Amazon Price: $10.46 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Pocket Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $3.49

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Business & Culture -> Biographies
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Business & Culture -> Culture
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Business & Culture -> Government

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 155 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

I love this book. 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

As you can see from the reviews here, many people also love this book.

I love the trip down memory lane that this book provides. Sure is fun to go back to a more innocent time and remember what it was like before the internet became huge. If you remember archie, gopher, kermit, then this is a book for you.

Even if you're too young to remember this time, it would be quite fun to watch WAR GAMES and then read this book. I love the writing style--this is a real page-turner.

Editorial Review:

A sentimental favorite, The Cuckoo's Egg seems to have inspired a whole category of books exploring the quest to capture computer criminals. Still, even several years after its initial publication and after much imitation, the book remains a good read with an engaging story line and a critical outlook, as Clifford Stoll becomes, almost unwillingly, a one-man security force trying to track down faceless criminals who've invaded the university computer lab he stewards. What first appears as a 75-cent accounting error in a computer log is eventually revealed to be a ring of industrial espionage, primarily thanks to Stoll's persistence and intellectual tenacity.

The Volunteer: The Incredible True Story of an Israeli Spy on the Trail of International Terrorists

Michael Ross, Jonathan Kay

Amazon Price: $16.47 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Skyhorse Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 22 new & used starting at $6.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Military -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Military -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Professionals & Academics -> Military & Spies

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Good Insight Into Mossad! 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 13 people found this review helpful.

"Volunteer" is the story of Michael Ross. He was formerly a Canadian citizen who had served in the Canadian Army. He went on a hitchhiking tour and wound up in Israel. He moved into a kibbutz and married an
Israeli girl. He then served in the Isareli army(IDF). After his service in the IDF he was recruited by Mossad. He describes in detail the hard
training he had to endure. His first assignment was the Caesarea. During
the Gulf War he had a hand in marking a ship that was shipping scuds from
North Korea to Syria. On his next assignment he slipped into Iran to make
an assessment of the Iranian nuclear program. The book points out the deep
hatred that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadine jad has for Israel. It also
points out the Hezbollah-Iranian connection. Ross was next sent to Khartoum in Sudan to target Hezbollah members. Khartoum was known as Terror Central. Osama bin-Ladin used to be part of the network in Sudan.
Ross was next promoted to the Tevel Department in the Mossad. He had a role catching a Hezbollah agent named Ramez who was based in the Detroit area. There was also a section concerning Jonathan Pollard. Ross also was
active in catching the terrorists who set off truck bombs in Nairobi,Kenya,and Oar Es Salaam. This proved to be a very informative book by an actual spy.

Editorial Review:

When Michael Ross decided to go backpacking across Europe, he had no inkling that his vacation would lead to a life tracking down the world’s most dangerous terrorists. In Israel, out of money and alone, Ross began working on a Kibbutz—and fell in love with both the country and an Israeli woman. After converting to Judaism, Ross was recruited by the country’s secret service—the Mossad—as an undercover agent. In the years that followed, he played a significant role in capturing al-Qaeda members responsible for the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, and worked jointly with the FBI and CIA to uncover a senior Hezbollah terrorist living in the United States. His never before revealed story makes an action-packed biography.

A G-Man's Life: The FBI, Being Deep Throat, and the Struggle for Honor in Washington

Mark Felt, John O'connor

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 7 to 11 days By: PublicAffairs Amazon Marketplace: 15 new & used starting at $8.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> United States -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> United States -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Political

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Last Watergate Book? 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I've been a student of Watergate for years. Maybe in part because I was born in October 1973, and I enjoy asking people who was Vice President the day I was born (answer: no-one). Maybe also in part because ten years ago I picked up "The Haldeman Diaries" off the remainder rack at Barnes & Noble, and then started collecting all the Watergate autobiographies still in print (yes, that includes your own, Jeb Stuart Magruder).

I never really had an intelligent guess as to who Deep Throat actually was. When Mark Felt's name was released by his family last year, I finally understood why -- he's only a tangential part of the books I read, not mentioned by name in the Woodward/Bernstein books, not mentioned even in "The Haldeman Diaries" or the Oliver Stone "Nixon" movie, both of which fixated on J. Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson, Felt's immediate FBI superiors.

When I purchased "A G-Man's Life", I thought I'd bought my last Watergate book. I was wrong. This book necessarily leaves lots of questions unanswered, primarily because Felt is now essentially senile and then, according to my reading of co-author John O'Connor's portions of the back, he took no active role in the writing. "G-Man" is drawn mostly from Felt's long-forgotten FBI memoir, and supplemented by unpublished writings and interviews with family members (who learned Felt's secret only at the same time as did family friend O'Connor).

Oddly, even the unpublished writings do not acknowledge that Felt was Deep Throat (hence the odd parsing of his phrase last year, "I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat"). O'Connor does explain this gap in two different ways: first, he points out where Felt didn't identify with the Deep Throat character portrayed in the movie; and second, he prints his speculation that Woodward's Deep Throat was a composite of which Felt was only a part. That speculation, however, is not echoed in Woodward's own "Secret Man", a book about Felt written before the public announcement.

Felt's own writing, about his rise through the FBI ranks, well reflects the fatigue of hard work with the rewards of a job well done. This is a more than adequate crime memoir, with lots of decent anecdotes along the way. The FBI is not publicly regarded the way it used to be, so "A G-Man's Life" is not only an effective period piece, but a reminder of what good a governmental organization can achieve when motivated solely by the public interest.

The toll that Felt's career took on his own family is mentioned not at all in the memoir chapters-- that is left to O'Connor to describe in the epilogue. O'Connor, whose daughter went to college with Felt's grandson, has become a family friend and is thus in the best position to write objectively about these struggles. Where Felt's own writing also seems naive in retrospect is his celebration of Hoover the man -- there are tens of thousands of pages of well-documented books offering contrary evidence -- and also in his take on the New Left, the obsession that ultimately brought down his FBI career. Whether the New Left was a Communist-infiltrated organization that actively conspired with foreign governments to overthrow the United States is not a question answered by Felt, although he does try.

The aftermath of Felt's authorization of "black bag jobs" against the Weather Underground resulted in his conviction in federal court -- after a trial in which Richard Nixon testified in his favor. Felt's principled refusal to come forward as Deep Throat in the midst of his trial postponed his receiving the accolades he so richly deserved. The question remains... was Felt's three decades of secrecy worth the wait?

Editorial Review:

This absorbing account of Mark Felt's FBI career--from the end of the great American crime wave through World War II and the culture wars of the 1960s--and his conviction for his role in penetrating the Weather Underground, provides a rich historical and personal context to the "Deep Throat" chapter of his life. Felt's personal recollections of the Watergate scandal (which he wrote in 1982 and kept secret) in which he explains how he came to feel that the FBI needed a "Lone Ranger" to protect it from White House corruption, shed light one of the most mysterious public figures of our time.