4 ms·

Are 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 cu

Are 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info, with hints as to techniques scattered randomly around fiction some of it timeless, but a lot of it probably out of date.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 ago
Every 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 ago
If you send me a reminder I can send you a whole bunch when I get home.
- criddell 5y ago
  Could you just post it here? I'd be interested as well.
  - stef25 5y ago
    check reply to OP
    - mellosouls 5y ago
      (OP) thanks for the list!
AlbertCory 5y ago
There 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.
stef25 5y ago
Here's a few that might be relevant, some are more military than espionage - SPECIAL OPERATIONS, IRREGULAR WARFARE, AND OPERATIONAL ART: A THEORY OF SPECIAL OPERATIONS, Major William D. Harris Jr. - The counter insurgency manual, Leroy Thompson - Counter terrorism and open source intelligence, Uffe Kock Wiil (https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783709103876 https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783709103876) - Enyclopedia of the CIA, W. Thomas Smith Jr. - Espionage and Intelligence Gathering, Louise I. Gerdes - Open Source Intelligence in the 21st Century New Approaches and Opportunities (Palgrave MacMillan) - Open Source Intelligence Methodology, Robert André Furuhaug - Special Operations Forces Reference Manual, JSOU press - A Spy's guide to thinking, John Braddock - Surprise, Kill, Vanish - Annie Jacobsen - The Intelligence War, Col William V Kennedy - A theory of special operations, Robert J Spular Jr - Finally, there's a 23GB dump called "Strategic Intelligence Network" with material relevant to your interests. Found it on /r/datahoarder a while back. One of the books above has a link to springer.com, you'll find more interesting books & journals on there (CS, cryptology, security, behavior etc). Some of the ebooks are floating around on the web.

sandworm101 5y ago

Every 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 ago

If you send me a reminder I can send you a whole bunch when I get home.

criddell 5y ago
Could you just post it here? I'd be interested as well.
- stef25 5y ago
  check reply to OP
  - mellosouls 5y ago
    (OP) thanks for the list!

AlbertCory 5y ago

There 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.

stef25 5y ago

Here's a few that might be relevant, some are more military than espionage - SPECIAL OPERATIONS, IRREGULAR WARFARE, AND OPERATIONAL ART: A THEORY OF SPECIAL OPERATIONS, Major William D. Harris Jr. - The counter insurgency manual, Leroy Thompson - Counter terrorism and open source intelligence, Uffe Kock Wiil (https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783709103876 https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783709103876) - Enyclopedia of the CIA, W. Thomas Smith Jr. - Espionage and Intelligence Gathering, Louise I. Gerdes - Open Source Intelligence in the 21st Century New Approaches and Opportunities (Palgrave MacMillan) - Open Source Intelligence Methodology, Robert André Furuhaug - Special Operations Forces Reference Manual, JSOU press - A Spy's guide to thinking, John Braddock - Surprise, Kill, Vanish - Annie Jacobsen - The Intelligence War, Col William V Kennedy - A theory of special operations, Robert J Spular Jr - Finally, there's a 23GB dump called "Strategic Intelligence Network" with material relevant to your interests. Found it on /r/datahoarder a while back. One of the books above has a link to springer.com, you'll find more interesting books & journals on there (CS, cryptology, security, behavior etc). Some of the ebooks are floating around on the web.