The Spymasters

Author : Chris Whipple
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2021-10-26
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781982106416

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The Spymasters by Chris Whipple Pdf

"Only eleven men and one woman are alive today who have made the life-and-death decisions that come with running the world's most powerful and influential intelligence service. With unprecedented, deep access to nearly all these individuals plus several of their predecessors, Chris Whipple tells the story of an agency that answers to the United States president alone, but whose activities--spying, espionage, and covert action--take place on every continent. At pivotal moments, the CIA acts as a brake on rogue presidents, starting in the mid-seventies with DCI Richard Helms's refusal to conceal Richard Nixon's criminality and continuing to the present as the actions of a CIA whistleblower have ignited impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump. Since its inception in 1947, the Central Intelligence Agency has been a powerful player on the world stage, operating largely in the shadows to protect American interests. For The Spymasters, Whipple conducted extensive, exclusive interviews with nearly every living CIA director, pulling back the curtain on the world's elite spy agencies and showing how the CIA partners--or clashes--with counterparts in Britain, France, Germany, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Russia. Topics covered in the book include attempts by presidents to use the agency for their own ends; simmering problems in the Middle East and Asia; rogue nuclear threats; and cyberwarfare"--

Author : Stephen Grey
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2015-07-14
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781466867130

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The New Spymasters by Stephen Grey Pdf

The old world of spying-dead-letter boxes, microfilm cameras, an enemy reporting to the Moscow Center, and a hint of sexual blackmail-is history. The spymaster's technique has changed and the enemy has, too. He or she now frequently comes from a culture far removed from Western understanding and is part of a less well-organized group. The new enemy is constantly evolving and prepared to kill the innocent. In the face of this new threat, the spymasters of the world shunned human intelligence as the primary way to glean clandestine information and replaced it with an obsession that focuses on the technical methods of spying ranging from the use of high-definition satellite photography to the global interception of communications. However, this obsession with technology has failed, most spectacularly, with the devastation of the 9/11 attacks. In this searing modern history of espionage, Stephen Grey takes us from the CIA's Cold War legends, to the agents who betrayed the IRA, through to the spooks inside Al-Qaeda and ISIS. Techniques and technologies have evolved, but the old motivations for betrayal-patriotism, greed, revenge, compromise-endure. Based on years of research and interviews with hundreds of secret sources, Stephen Grey's The New Spymasters is an up-to-date exposé that shows how spycraft's human factor is once again being used to combat the world's deadliest enemies.

Author : Chris Whipple
Publisher : Crown Publishing Group (NY)
Page : 386 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2017
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780804138246

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The Gatekeepers by Chris Whipple Pdf

"The first in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the White House Chiefs of Staff, whose actions--and inactions--have defined the course of our country. Since George Washington, presidents have depended on the advice of key confidants. But it wasn't until the twentieth century that the White House chief of staff became the second most powerful job in government. Unelected and unconfirmed, the chief serves at the whim of the president, hired and fired by him alone. He is the president's closest adviser and the person he depends on to execute his agenda. He decides who gets to see the president, negotiates with Congress, and--most crucially--enjoys unparalleled access to the leader of the free world. When the president makes a life-and-death decision, often the chief of staff is the only other person in the room. Each chief can make or break an administration, and each president reveals himself by the chief he picks. Through extensive, intimate interviews with all seventeen living chiefs and two former presidents, award-winning journalist and producer Chris Whipple pulls back the curtain on this unique fraternity, whose members have included Rahm Emanuel, Dick Cheney, Leon Panetta, and Donald Rumsfeld. In doing so, he revises our understanding of presidential history, showing us how James Baker and Panetta skillfully managed the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, ensuring their reelections--and, conversely, how Jimmy Carter never understood the importance of a chief, crippling his ability to govern. From Watergate to Iran-Contra to the Monica Lewinsky scandal to the Iraq War, Whipple shows us how the chief of staff can make the difference between success and disaster. As an outsider president tries to govern after a bitterly divisive election, The Gatekeepers could not be more timely. Filled with shrewd analysis and never-before-reported details, it is a compelling history that changes our perspective on the presidency."--Jacket flap.

Author : Joanna Bourne
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2008-01-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 0425219607

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The Spymaster's Lady by Joanna Bourne Pdf

As the fates of nations hang in the balance, Annique Villiers, an elusive spy known as the Fox Cub, meets her match in British spymaster Robert Grey, when they, captured and thrown into prison, form an uneasy alliance in order to survive.

Author : Jack Devine,Vernon Loeb
Publisher : Sarah Crichton Books
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2014-06-03
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781429944175

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Good Hunting by Jack Devine,Vernon Loeb Pdf

"A sophisticated, deeply informed account of real life in the real CIA that adds immeasurably to the public understanding of the espionage culture—the good and the bad." —Bob Woodward Jack Devine ran Charlie Wilson's War in Afghanistan. It was the largest covert action of the Cold War, and it was Devine who put the brand-new Stinger missile into the hands of the mujahideen during their war with the Soviets, paving the way to a decisive victory against the Russians. He also pushed the CIA's effort to run down the narcotics trafficker Pablo Escobar in Colombia. He tried to warn the director of central intelligence, George Tenet, that there was a bullet coming from Iraq with his name on it. He was in Chile when Allende fell, and he had too much to do with Iran-Contra for his own taste, though he tried to stop it. And he tangled with Rick Ames, the KGB spy inside the CIA, and hunted Robert Hanssen, the mole in the FBI. Good Hunting: An American Spymaster's Story is the spellbinding memoir of Devine's time in the Central Intelligence Agency, where he served for more than thirty years, rising to become the acting deputy director of operations, responsible for all of the CIA's spying operations. This is a story of intrigue and high-stakes maneuvering, all the more gripping when the fate of our geopolitical order hangs in the balance. But this book also sounds a warning to our nation's decision makers: covert operations, not costly and devastating full-scale interventions, are the best safeguard of America's interests worldwide. Part memoir, part historical redress, Good Hunting debunks outright some of the myths surrounding the Agency and cautions against its misuses. Beneath the exotic allure—living abroad with his wife and six children, running operations in seven countries, and serving successive presidents from Nixon to Clinton—this is a realist, gimlet-eyed account of the Agency. Now, as Devine sees it, the CIA is trapped within a larger bureaucracy, losing swaths of turf to the military, and, most ominous of all, is becoming overly weighted toward paramilitary operations after a decade of war. Its capacity to do what it does best—spying and covert action—has been seriously degraded. Good Hunting sheds light on some of the CIA's deepest secrets and spans an illustrious tenure—and never before has an acting deputy director of operations come forth with such an account. With the historical acumen of Steve Coll's Ghost Wars and gripping scenarios that evoke the novels of John le Carré even as they hew closely to the facts on the ground, Devine offers a master class in spycraft.

Author : W.E.B. Griffin,William E. Butterworth IV
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 323 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2012-08-07
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781101517680

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The Spymasters by W.E.B. Griffin,William E. Butterworth IV Pdf

#1 Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestselling author W.E.B. Griffin continues his gripping series featuring the legendary OSS—fighting a silent war of spies and assassins in the shadows of World War II. Summer 1943. Two of the Allies’ most important plans for winning World War II are at grave risk—the coming D-Day invasion and the Manhattan Project’s race to build the atomic bomb. OSS spy chief William “Wild Bill” Donovan turns to his top agent, Dick Canidy, and his team. They’ve certainly got their work cut out for them. In the weeks to come, they must fight not only the enemy in the field—and figure out how to sabotage Germany’s new “aerial torpedo” rockets—but also the enemy within. Someone is feeding Manhattan Project secrets to the Soviets. And if the Soviets build their own atomic bomb, winning the war might only lead to another, even more terrible conflict… FIRST TIME IN PAPERBACK

Author : Jack Devine
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2021-03
Category : History
ISBN : 9781640124554

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Spymaster's Prism by Jack Devine Pdf

In Spymaster’s Prism the legendary former spymaster Jack Devine details the unending struggle with Russia and its intelligence agencies as it works against our national security. Devine tells this story through the unique perspective of a seasoned CIA professional who served more than three decades, some at the highest levels of the agency. He uses his gimlet-eyed view to walk us through the fascinating spy cases and covert action activities of Russia, not only through the Cold War past but up to and including its interference in the Trump era. Devine also looks over the horizon to see what lies ahead in this struggle and provides prescriptions for the future. Based on personal experience and exhaustive research, Devine builds a vivid and complex mosaic that illustrates how Russia’s intelligence activities have continued uninterrupted throughout modern history, using fundamentally identical policies and techniques to undermine our democracy. He shows in stark terms how intelligence has been modernized and weaponized through the power of the cyber world. Devine presents his analysis using clear-eyed vision and a repertoire of better-than-fiction spy stories, giving us an objective, riveting, and candid take on U.S.-Russia relations. He offers key lessons from our intelligence successes and failures over the past seventy-five years that will help us determine how to address our current strategic shortfall, emerge ahead of the Russians, and be prepared for what’s to come from any adversary.

Author : Tennent H. Bagley
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 296 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2015-08-25
Category : History
ISBN : 9781510701960

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Spymaster by Tennent H. Bagley Pdf

“Tennent Bagley’s Spymaster is the single most revealing book about espionage to emerge from the Cold War.” —Edward Jay Epstein, author of Deception: The Invisible War Between the KGB and the CIA From the dark days of World War II through the Cold War, Sergey A. Kondrashev was a major player in Russia’s notorious KGB espionage apparatus. Rising through its ranks through hard work and keen understanding of how the spy and political games are played, he “handled” American and British defectors, recruited Western operatives as double agents, served as a ranking officer at the East Berlin and Vienna KGB bureaus, and tackled special assignments from the Kremlin. During a 1994 television program about former spymasters, Kondrashev met and began a close friendship with a former foe, ex-CIA officer Tennent H. “Pete” Bagley, whom the Russian asked to help write his memoirs. Because Bagley knew so much about Kondrashev’s career (they had been on opposite sides in several operations), his penetrating questions and insights reveal slices of espionage history that rival anything found in the pages of Ian Fleming, Len Deighton, or John le Carré: chilling tales of surviving Stalin’s purges while superiors and colleagues did not, of plotting to reveal the Berlin tunnel, of quelling the Hungarian Revolution and “Prague Spring” independence movements, and of assisting in arranging the final disposition of the corpses of Adolf Hitler and Evan Braun. Kondrashev also details equally fascinating KGB propaganda and disinformation efforts that shaped Western attitudes throughout the Cold War. Because publication of these memoirs was banned by Putin’s regime, Bagley promised Kondrashev to have them published in the West. They are now available to all who are fascinated by vivid tales of international intrigue. Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Author : W.E.B. Griffin,William E. Butterworth IV,William Edmund Butterworth
Publisher : G.P. Putnam's Sons
Page : 464 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2013-06-25
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780515151374

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The Spymasters by W.E.B. Griffin,William E. Butterworth IV,William Edmund Butterworth Pdf

Tapped by FDR to assist the Allies' efforts to secure France and build an atomic bomb, OSS spy chief Wild Bill Donovan and top agent Dick Canidy coordinate a sabotage mission in Germany while countering a mole who is leaking Manhattan Project secrets to the Soviets.

Author : Roger Boar,Nigel Blundell
Publisher : Bounty Books
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 1997
Category : Espionage
ISBN : 1851528717

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The World's Greatest Spies and Spymasters by Roger Boar,Nigel Blundell Pdf

Spies and spymasters have had a crucial role to play ever since man first learned to rage war. This book tells the stories of some of the world's most infamous spies and spy organisations including the Portland spy Ring, the secret of the KGB Sex Spies, Mata Hari and Sidney Reilly - Ace of spies

Author : Ted Shackley,Richard A. Finney
Publisher : Potomac Books, Inc.
Page : 427 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2014-05-27
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781612342030

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Spymaster by Ted Shackley,Richard A. Finney Pdf

Lively and informative . . . It is also a good story of how an operative actually works in the field. -- Military Ted Shackley's comments on CIA operations in Europe, Cuba, Chile, and Southeast Asia and on the life of a high-stakes spymaster will be the subject of intense scrutiny by all concerned with the fields of intelligence, foreign policy, and postwar U.S. history. The death of CIA operative Theodore G. "Ted" Shackley in December 2002 triggered an avalanche of obituaries from all over the world, some of them condemnatory. Pundits used such expressions as "heroin trafficking," "training terrorists," "attempts to assassinate Castro," and "Mob connections." More specifically, they charged him with having played a major role in the Chilean military coup of 1973. But who was the real Ted Shackley? In Spymaster, he has told the story of his entire remarkable career for the first time. With the assistance of fellow former CIA officer Richard A. Finney, he discusses the consequential posts he held in Berlin, Miami, Laos, Vietnam, and Washington, where he was intimately involved in some of the key intelligence operations of the Cold War. During his long career, Shackley ran part of the inter-agency program to overthrow Castro, was chief of station in Vientiane during the CIA's "secret war" against North Vietnam and the Pathet Lao, and was chief of station in Saigon. After his retirement, he remained a controversial figure. In the early eighties, he was falsely charged with complicity in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Author : Oleg Kalugin
Publisher : Basic Books (AZ)
Page : 482 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2009-03-03
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780465014453

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Spymaster by Oleg Kalugin Pdf

Oleg Kalugin oversaw the work of American spies, matched wits with the CIA, and became one of the youngest generals in KGB history. Even so, he grew increasingly disillusioned with the Soviet system. In 1990, he went public, exposing the intelligence agencyÕs shadowy methods. Revised and updated in the light of the KGBÕs enduring presence in Russian politics, Spymaster is KaluginÕs impressively illuminating memoir of the final years of the Soviet Union.

Author : Helen Fry
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 373 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2021-11-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9780300262971

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Spymaster by Helen Fry Pdf

The dramatic story of a man who stood at the center of British intelligence operations, the ultimate spymaster of World War Two: Thomas Kendrick Thomas Kendrick (1881–1972) was central to the British Secret Service from its beginnings through to the Second World War. Under the guise of "British Passport Officer," he ran spy networks across Europe, facilitated the escape of Austrian Jews, and later went on to set up the "M Room," a listening operation which elicited information of the same significance and scope as Bletchley Park. Yet the work of Kendrick, and its full significance, remains largely unknown. Helen Fry draws on extensive original research to tell the story of this remarkable British intelligence officer. Kendrick’s life sheds light on the development of MI6 itself—he was one of the few men to serve Britain across three wars, two of which while working for the British Secret Service. Fry explores the private and public sides of Kendrick, revealing him to be the epitome of the "English gent"—easily able to charm those around him and scrupulously secretive.

Author : Jock Haswell
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 176 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 1977
Category : Espionage
ISBN : 0500272492

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Spies and Spymasters by Jock Haswell Pdf

Bog om spionage gennem tiderne og den måde, hvorpå spionerne drev deres hemmelige og farlige arbejde.

Author : Charles Whiting
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 1976
Category : World War, 1939-1945
ISBN : STANFORD:36105119330541

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The Spymasters by Charles Whiting Pdf