A Spy in Plain Sight


Book Description

A legal analyst for NPR, NBC, and CNN, delves into the facts surrounding what has been called the “worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history”: the case of Robert Hanssen—a Russian spy who was embedded in the FBI for two decades. As a federal prosecutor and the daughter of an FBI agent, Wiehl has an inside perspective. She brings her experience and the ingrained lessons of her upraising to bear on her remarkable exploration of the case, interviewing numerous FBI and CIA agents both past and present as well as the individuals closest to Hanssen. She speaks with his brother-in-law, his oldest and best friend, and even his psychiatrist. In all her conversations, Wiehl is trying to figure out how he did it—and at what cost. But she also pursues questions urgently relevant to our national security today. Could there be another spy in the system? Could the presence of a spy be an even greater threat now than ever before, with the greater prominence cyber security has taken in recent years? Wiehl explores the mechanisms and politics of our national security apparatus and how they make us vulnerable to precisely this kind of threat. Wiehl grew up among the same people with whom Hanssen ingratiated himself, and she has spent her career trying to find the truth within fractious legal and political conflicts. A Spy in Plain Sight reflects on the deeply sown divisions and paranoias of our present day and provides an unparalleled view into the functioning of the FBI, and will stand alongside pillars of the genre like Killers of the Flower Moon, The Spy and the Traitor, and No Place to Hide.




TOP CASES of The FBI - Vol. II


Book Description

From underworld gangsters to homegrown terrorists, the Federal Bureau of Investigations has tracked down and arrested some of the most infamous felons in history. In this 2nd volume of TOP CASES of The FBI, Parker includes more recent and illustrious cases broken down into major criminal categories; Organized Crime and Gangsters, Counterintelligence/Espionage, Violent Crime/Major Thefts/Bank Robberies, Civil Rights, White Collar Crime, and Terrorism. Some of the more notorious investigations detailed in the book include; Black Dahlia, Hurricane Katrina Fraud, American Traitor Robert Hanssen, Undercover FBI Agent Joseph Pistone, the KKK, and the Anthrax Attacks post 9/11. ---- VOLUME 1 Book Description... "Top Cases of the FBI is a must for true crime fans and readers interested in details of famous villains and infamous events all in one place. A real bargain." One of the most fascinating Law Enforcement Agencies in the world is the FBI. From the J. Edgar Hoover days to present, the Bureau has investigated the most famous cases, including, mobsters, gangs, bank robbers, and terrorism. They have also received a few black eyes including, Waco Siege, and Ruby Ridge. From the roaring 20s to modern days, RJ Parker has written the true life events of cases that made major headlines all over the country. Each chapter in this book, is devoted to the biography (or background) of famous mobsters and horrendous events that the FBI has handled since the beginning of the agency. These cases include: John Dillinger and his Gang of Bank Robbers Mobster John Gotti Bonnie and Clyde Mobster Al Capone The Jonestown Massacre Oklahoma City Bombing The Unabomber The 1986 FBI Miami Shootout (In the line of fire) Ruby Ridge Waco Patty HearstThe D.C. Beltway Snipers




Washington Babylon


Book Description

Since America’s founding, the nation’s capital has experienced more than its share of scandals; thankfully, Washington Babylon explores some of the dirtiest secrets that have occurred throughout US history. Some are from the earliest days of America’s founding and include the most famous people in history, like George Washington. Others are still fresh in our minds, as the dust has not even settled. In between, US history is littered with scandals from nearly all walks of life that were the most talked-about stories at the time. Many past scandals remain infamous, such as Watergate, Chappaquiddick, and Abscam. Other scandals that were once the biggest stories of the day have faded into obscurity. Washington Babylon reveals new details in some scandals that were not known when the story first broke, offering a whole new perspective for discussion. This is the most comprehensive collection of American scandals that will educate, entertain, shock, and perhaps, even titillate the reader.




Compromised


Book Description

If you ask most Americans what they think about the FBI, they would tell you it’s far and away the government agency they trust the most. The Bureau has, for decades, sold an image of itself as efficient, professional, unbiased, and untouchable by corruption. That portrait is a sham. Seamus Bruner and the Government Accountability Institute have spent years cataloging the widespread conflict-of-interests of the D.C. political class. They have found massive self-enrichment and political bias at the highest levels of government—including the Justice Department and the FBI. Indeed, the nation's most important law enforcement agency has become so compromised that every major investigation should face intense scrutiny from the public, the media, and from Congress. James Comey, Robert Mueller, Andrew McCabe, and the rest of the recent FBI leadership should be forced to answer for the way the Bureau has abused the public trust under their watch.




Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide


Book Description

Impressively researched and eloquently argued, former special agent Mike German’s Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide tells the story of the transformation of the FBI after the 9/11 attacks from a law enforcement agency, made famous by prosecuting organized crime and corruption in business and government, into arguably the most secretive domestic intelligence agency America has ever seen. German shows how FBI leaders exploited the fear of terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11 to shed the legal constraints imposed on them in the 1970s in the wake of Hoover-era civil rights abuses. Empowered by the Patriot Act and new investigative guidelines, the bureau resurrected a discredited theory of terrorist “radicalization” and adopted a “disruption strategy” that targeted Muslims, foreigners, and communities of color, and tarred dissidents inside and outside the bureau as security threats, dividing American communities against one another. By prioritizing its national security missions over its law enforcement mission, the FBI undermined public confidence in justice and the rule of law. Its failure to include racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, and xenophobic violence committed by white nationalists within its counterterrorism mandate only increased the perception that the FBI was protecting the powerful at the expense of the powerless. Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide is an engaging and unsettling contemporary history of the FBI and a bold call for reform, told by a longtime counterterrorism undercover agent who has become a widely admired whistleblower and a critic for civil liberties and accountable government.




Screening the System


Book Description

The Personnel Security Clearance System—the process by which the federal government incorporates individuals into secret national-security work—is flawed. After twenty-three years of federal service, Martha Louise Deutscher explores the current system and the amount of power afforded to the state in contrast to that afforded to those who serve it. Deutscher’s timely examination of the U.S. screening system shows how security clearance practices, including everything from background checks and fingerprinting to urinalysis and the polygraph, shape and transform those individuals who are subject to them. By bringing participants’ testimonies to light, Deutscher looks at the efficacy of various practices while extracting revealing cultural insights into the way we think about privacy, national security, patriotism, and the state. In addition to exposing the stark realities of a system that is in critical need of rethinking, Screening the System provides recommendations for a more effective method that will be of interest to military and government professionals as well as policymakers and planners who work in support of U.S. national security.




Spies


Book Description

Foreign Policy Best Book of 2023 Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2023 The “riveting” (The Economist), secret story of the hundred-year intelligence war between Russia and the West with lessons for our new superpower conflict with China. Spies is the history of the secret war that Russia and the West have been waging for a century. Espionage, sabotage, and subversion were the Kremlin’s means to equalize the imbalance of resources between the East and West before, during, and after the Cold War. There was nothing “unprecedented” about Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. It was simply business as usual, new means used for old ends. The Cold War started long before 1945. But the West fought back after World War II, mounting its own shadow war, using disinformation, vast intelligence networks, and new technologies against the Soviet Union. Spies is a “deeply researched and artfully crafted” (Fiona Hill, deputy assistant to the US President) story of the best and worst of mankind: bravery and honor, treachery and betrayal. The narrative shifts across continents and decades, from the freezing streets of St. Petersburg in 1917 to the bloody beaches of Normandy; from coups in faraway lands to present-day Moscow where troll farms, synthetic bots, and weaponized cyber-attacks being launched woefully unprepared West. It is about the rise and fall of Eastern superpowers: Russia’s past and present and the global ascendance of China. Mining hitherto secret archives in multiple languages, Calder Walton shows that the Cold War started earlier than commonly assumed, that it continued even after the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, and that Britain and America’s clandestine struggle with the Soviet government provided key lessons for countering China today. This “authoritative, sweeping” (Fredrik Logevall, Pulitzer Prize­–winning author of Embers of War) history, combined with practical takeaways for our current great power struggles, make Spies a unique and essential addition to the history of the Cold War and the unrolling conflict between the United States and China that will dominate the 21st century.




Intelligence and Government in Britain and the United States


Book Description

Bringing a dose of reality to the stuff of literary thrillers, this masterful study is the first closely detailed, comparative analysis of the evolution of the modern British and American intelligence communities. Intelligence and Government in Britain and the United States: A Comparative Perspective is an intensive, comparative exploration of the role of organizational and political culture in the development of the intelligence communities of America and her long-time ally. Each national system is examined as a detailed case study set in a common conceptual and theoretical framework. The first volume lays out that framework and examines the U.S. intelligence community. The second volume offers the U.K. case study as well as overall conclusions. Particular attention is paid here to the fundamentally different concepts of what "intelligence" entails in the United States and United Kingdom, as well as to the nations' different approaches to managing change- and information-intensive activities. The impact of these differences is demonstrated by examining the evolution of the two intelligence communities from their inceptions prior to World War II through their development during the Cold War and the transformations that have taken place since, especially in the wake of the September 2001 terrorist attacks and 2003 invasion of Iraq.