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Useful Spy Books
- _boffin_ 5y agoI'm extremely surprised You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger by Roger Hall didn't make the list. This book had me in stitches the entire time reading it. Amazing story teller and just an overall amazing story. Link: https://www.amazon.com/Youre-Stepping-Cloak-Dagger-Bluejacket/dp/1591143535 https://www.amazon.com/Youre-Stepping-Cloak-Dagger-Bluejacke... It seems that this specific gun was owned by Roger Hall (OSS): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tct21UpVwM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tct21UpVwM
- AndrewKemendo 5y agoI find the list lacking Having done the job in a previous life there are a lot that are really good out there that don't get a lot of press. Here's two: HUMINT - Counterintelligence: The Double Cross System https://www.amazon.com/Double-Cross-System-Incredible-Turned-Double/dp/1585741302 https://www.amazon.com/Double-Cross-System-Incredible-Turned... How Bureaucracy and Policy shapes spying: From the Shadows https://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Ultimate-Insiders-Story-Presidents/dp/1416543368/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Robert+Gates&qid=1631768137&s=books&sr=1-3 https://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Ultimate-Insiders-Story-Presi... n.b. I always find it funny how interested and intrigued yet abhorred so many people are when it comes to spycraft/espionage etc...
- TeeMassive 5y agoFailed to mention John LeCarré, although his books are fiction it still comes from the perspective of someone who worked ~20 years in the British intelligence services.
- stef25 5y agoThe article's full of references to LeCarré
- withinboredom 5y ago> I always find it funny how interested and intrigued yet abhorred so many people are when it comes to spycraft/espionage Also having done this sort of stuff in a previous life. And it’s always interesting how people react when they find out, some people automatically just lose all faith in you. Like you’re some sort of actor, just playing a role. Some people legitimately want to know more about how it really works. I literally keep it to myself in most contexts.
- roody15 5y ago“ some people automatically just lose all faith in you” Could this be that there is a level of dishonesty when involved with espionage/spying. This may be a natural reaction to not want to associate with people who have little qualms being dishonest perhaps?
- fires10 5y agoI was thinking it might be that most people claiming to be a former spy were just posing and not really a former spy. I know the few I dealt with that had the legitimate potential to actually being one were all very low key and wouldn't normally talk about it any way. I would probably lose faith in someone claiming to be a spy simply because of this. Not the dishonesty in being one, but that most who claim to be are probably not.
- implements 5y agoI expect there’s a fair few intelligence analysts knocking about who don’t need to be that secretive (“I just read material from multiple sources and produced reports”) - unlike intelligence officers (people who covertly recruit and run agents) who really do need to show the utmost discretion to protect other people, methods and locations.
- withinboredom 5y agoPeople like to ask what I did in the military if it comes up. It took me a few years to come up with something that didn’t cause this reaction.
- CaptainJustin 5y ago> n.b. I always find it funny how interested and intrigued yet abhorred so many people are when it comes to spycraft/espionage etc... I was such a person. When I was in school I read the EU report on Echelon. There was so much basic espionage meta in there that shocked me. For example I had thought of signals intelligence as an aggressive act - an act of war. In the EU report SIGINT and broadly spying was introduced as a ordinary part of a decent intelligence function of a state.
- goohle 5y agoListening and watching is not a form of aggression. A state have right to listen and watch other state actions from their territory. If a foreign traffic is passing through your state territory, your state has rights to look into it.
- Fnoord 5y agoOn top of that, it is a tool, which can be used or abused. It can, for example, be used to avoid aggression. Just like talking to a high military leader of a hostile state can be used for 'good' or 'bad' purposes.
- AndrewKemendo 5y agoIt also comprises the vast majority of the intelligence we collect. It's not even close how big of a gap there is between how much SIGINT and IMINT we collect and there's still another huge gap between the amount of IMINT and HUMINT we collect. I personally wouldn't consider any of them aggressive.
- throw1234651234 5y ago"Having done the job in a previous life there are a lot that are really good out there that don't get a lot of press." Assuming you had access, I am not asking for any specifics at all, but did you know ANYTHING that is remotely interesting as part of the job? Anything from "There are aliens, we have plasma weapons" to "we actually figured out a way to fix enamel" or "sleeping 6.8213 hours is actually more efficient than any other number". Basically, does the "intelligence community" actually have any interesting information other than some backdoors, a lot of data dumps, and stealth helicopters that crash (or maybe just tail props thrown around to mislead).
- mooncakes_ooohh 5y agoI've always been a fan of espionage related stories but I was born sometime after the fall of the Berlin wall, so anything Cold War just seems like a tale from a time long ago. Does anyone have recommendations of books dealing with espionage in the contemporary age? Bonus if it's cyberespionage related.
- randycupertino 5y agoYou might like American Kingpin by Nick Bilton which covers the rise and fall of the Silk Road website. There's a lot of "spy stuff" that takes place both when the DEA agents get involved in the case and start stealing bitcoins themselves and cyber sleuthing (well, basically just reading, lots and lots of reading) by the IRS agent who ultimately ID'd Ross via an old username and matching it to one of his throwaway gmail addresses from a message board. It's a fantastic read- basically a nonfiction that reads like a thriller. Also, if you're from the Bay Area you'll notice a lot of the action takes place here- their final bust happened 3 blocks away from me!
- stef25 5y agoThere's a whole bunch of books about the CIA and the lead up to and aftermath of 9/11: - Currently absorbed in Ghost Wars in audiobook format. Won a Pulitzer. All about the CIA and their dealing with their Pakistani counterpart ISI and the Afghan war lords. Lots of great cowboy stories and incredible amount of detail. - The Targeter by Nada Bakos - On another topic, you might enjoy The Spy on Netflix https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spy_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spy_(TV_series) about Eli Cohen working as a spy in Syria.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 5y agoSpeaking of Eli Cohen: His most famous achievement was the tour of the Golan Heights in which he collected intelligence on the Syrian fortifications there. According to an unconfirmed but widely believed story, he feigned sympathy for the soldiers exposed to the sun and had trees planted at every position, placed to provide shade. The Israel Defense Forces were alleged to have used the trees as targeting markers during the Six-Day War, which enabled Israel to capture the Golan Heights in two days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Cohen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Cohen
- sam_lowry_ 5y agoNote that Bert is one of the 3 people appointed to oversee the Dutch security service. He knows a bit more than your average blogger.
- Pinus 5y agoI totally agree that books written by "insiders" are often not the most interesting ones. In the worst cases, you get long descriptions of organisational changes and anecdotes about the quality of the coffee machine (though I suppose that teaches us that spooks are people, too).
- bawolff 5y agoFrom the article: > One is what I would like to call the communication triangle. Communications can be secure, easy to use or hard to detect. But seldom all three. Applies to the internet too.
- TheCowboy 5y agoAnother interesting (non-fiction) book that flies under the radar is "The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB" (vol 1 of 2). A disillusioned archivist (Mitrokhin) for the KGB kept notes for years and when the Soviet Union collapsed attempted to defect to the US, but was turned away after being incorrectly judged as not credible. But the Brits realized what they had in their hands and took him up on his offer. The books are an effort by a historian and Mitrokhin to describe the history as revealed by the notes and corroborate them as best as possible. They do a really good job creating a general history of the Cold War from the inside perspective of the KGB.
- Arrath 5y agoThe book is very dry, as you might expect from the subject matter. It is also incredibly interesting.
- aerostable_slug 5y agoThe book both inspired me to go search for hidden caches of weapons, radios, etc., and to absolutely not go search for these hidden caches. The disarming procedure for the KGB's favored Molniya booby trap was a little too exciting for me. "If you don't hear a 'click', do not disturb the package..."
- mzs 5y agoI also recommend Venona^, it has close to a hundred pages of notes on the decoded cables plus the authors had brief access to Soviet records. ^ Haynes, John Earl & Klehr, Harvey (2000). Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-08462-7 https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300084627/venona https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300084627/venona
- Fnoord 5y agoSeems to be available here for free on Archive.org [1] [1] https://archive.org/details/TheSwordAndTheShield-TheMitrokhinArchiveAndTheSecretHistoryOfTheKGB https://archive.org/details/TheSwordAndTheShield-TheMitrokhi...
- Animats 5y agoThere's a link in there to an issue of Cryptolog, NSA's employee newsletter, from 1994.[1] It mentions the "Director's Summer Program". "For the past four summers, the R51-sponsored Director's Summer Program ( DSP) has invited exceptionally talented young mathematicians from across the nation to NSA for up to 12 weeks and exposed them to the excitement of cryptologic mathematics by giving them hands-on experience working on some of our most difficult and important cryptologic problems under the direction of top Agency mathematicians. The program has been enormously successful in its first four years ( 1990-1993 ). obtaining surprisingly effective operational solutions to very hard problems, encouraging participants to continue their study of mathematics, and helping NSA to become better known in the active network of outstanding young mathematicians. Entry into this program ideally will take place between the junior and senior undergraduate years, but exceptional older or younger undergraduates and high school students may be considered." We had five Sun terminals connected to the Cray in the room for the eight students and two technical directors, but we had to add three more terminals. [1] https://www.nsa.gov/Portals/70/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/cryptologs/cryptolog_126.pdf https://www.nsa.gov/Portals/70/documents/news-features/decla...
- mdp2021 5y agoAlso missing: Sir David Omand, 'How Spies Think : Ten Lessons in Intelligence', March 2021 About the systematic process for analysis (evaluation of sources, bayesian reasoning, pitfalls), exported to general decision making. Rich with references to well known actual cases (Falklands war, Yugoslav wars, Prague Spring etc) used to provide insights and explanations.
- quantafire 5y agoThe Spy and the Traitor was an astoundingly good book. But it's funny that it's called this as the CIA "traitor" who gave up Gordievsky was given like 10% space in the book.
- shantnutiwari 5y agoThats a very weak list-- most of the books are cold war related. Nothing about the last 10-20 years? I groan when I see yet another book on World War 2/Enigma/Early cold war-- hasnt this topic been done to the death? Or have I read too many books? For me, See no Evil by Robert Baer, though it came out in 2003, is a good book about how politics interferes with intelligence work. I Spy by Tom Marcus, though it was about counter intelligence, is also a great book.
- Khaine 5y agoThere is a reason for that. Spying hasn’t changed that much in the last 50 years.
- mzs 5y agoIt typically takes about 50 years or for everyone involved to be dead for countries to decide it's okay to declassify.
- arethuza 5y agoSee no Evil is excellent as it covers both CIA training and what intelligence officers actually spend their time doing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/See_No_Evil_(Baer_book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/See_No_Evil_(Baer_book) Something like Paddy Ashdown's auto biography covers how he got into MI6 (Royal Marines and SBS) and what his cover story was but carefully avoids the intelligence side of his work.
- themark 5y agoCheck out Spooked, it is about the recent phenomenon of private spies for hire.
- mellosouls 5y agoAre there any useful books on actual tradecraft up to contemporary practice? Most of what I've seen on the intelligence subject are mostly about history and culture rather than technical info, with hints as to techniques scattered randomly around fiction some of it timeless, but a lot of it probably out of date.
- sandworm101 5y agoEvery book on hacking, online anonymity, or social engineering attacks. All police books on interrogation. Any book dealing with the psychology of motivation or perception.
- stef25 5y agoIf you send me a reminder I can send you a whole bunch when I get home.
- criddell 5y agoCould you just post it here? I'd be interested as well.
- stef25 5y agocheck reply to OP
- mellosouls 5y ago(OP) thanks for the list!
- AlbertCory 5y agoThere are a couple books (I don't have the titles handy) by people who went through the spy training, and they describe what it was like. The part I remember was the "graduation exercise" where you were given a 30-page summary of a fictional country, and your task was to meet someone (a CIA actor) from this fictional country, and try to "turn" him. Part of this exercise was detecting and avoiding surveillance of YOU. They had CIA people trying to follow you, and if you didn't detect and avoid them, you failed.
- Khaine 5y agoSome other interesting books to include: The Spy Catchers - The Official History of ASIO, 1949-1963 - https://www.amazon.com.au/Spy-Catchers-Official-History-1949-1963/dp/1760290424/ https://www.amazon.com.au/Spy-Catchers-Official-History-1949... The Protest Years: The Official History of ASIO, 1963-1975 - https://www.amazon.com.au/Protest-Years-Official-History-1963-1975/dp/1760294187/ https://www.amazon.com.au/Protest-Years-Official-History-196... The Secret Cold War: The Official History of ASIO, 1975-1989 - https://www.amazon.com.au/Secret-Cold-War-Official-1975-1989/dp/1760297429/ https://www.amazon.com.au/Secret-Cold-War-Official-1975-1989...
- rramadass 5y agoNo books on Mossad? My favourite is - Deception: The invisible war between the KGB and the CIA. by Edward Jay Epstein. This is the real "Art" of Spycraft. Another must see is Yuri Bezmenov's "The Four Stages of Ideological Subversion" video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yErKTVdETpw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yErKTVdETpw You can go crazy trying to interpret this video in the light of what Epstein wrote about Deception :-)
- motohagiography 5y agoIs there anything spies do that doesn't reduce to or is ultimately in service of blackmail of one kind or another? I'm negative on spy stories these days. From everything I've read it's just, "find adversary's source of power, co-opt or subvert it, run adversary as your own or neutralize them." Where "adversary" is basically, "everyone" these days. As though their job is to physically embody a foundational lie of state power, and be the provisional wing of bureaucracy. A kind of bizarro world anti-aristocracy that props up a kakistocracy. Spy fiction is full of self pitying people, and they aren't really admirable or role models, probably because they are created by writers, but it's a real theme. If you spend a great deal of time in bureaucracies and in security you encounter spooks from time to time, and the gross vibe they have is because they appear to operate on deception as a basic premise of all things, and I suspect some are just trained that deception itself is power. One of many tells is they often add a reflexive lie about something trivial so they have something to distance themselves from others with and manage, and as a honeypot for scrutiny. I'm unimpressed by stories about them now, as I've seen the results of tolerating them, and someone should balance the romanticisization of them by calling it what it is: propaganda.
- throw1234651234 5y agoSpetsnaz - Victor Suvorov Aquarium - Victor Suvorov There is a strong possibility he romanticizes or makes a lot of things up though. Some of the things he wrote did turn out to be true.
- martinflack 5y agoOfftopic: what a refreshingly lovely web design... I miss simple pages like this.
- 74d-fe6-2c6 5y agoAnybody here who likes Twilight Struggle? Have it lying around for years and keep postponing actually learning it. Should I do it?