Editor’s Note: The following conversation has been excerpted from the playwright John Hadden’s Conversations with a Masked Man: My Father, the CIA, and Me published by Arcade Publishing, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing. In the book, Hadden interviews his father about the latter’s long career in the CIA, the intricacies and follies of espionage, and…
Category: Intelligence Tradecraft
Tradecraft: 5 Ways to Spot a Liar
Wouldn’t it be nice to know how to tell if someone is lying? We’re going to see what the research has to say on detecting lies, avoiding deception and more. And this is the industrial strength package. We’ll look at how to avoid being deceived by the pros in this arena: con artists. To get the real answers,…
Crusader Corner: FBI Unable to Crack San Bernardino Killers Cell Phone
Wow. Mind Boggling. One of the biggest, bloated bureaucracies on the planet and we cannot crack a damn cell phone? I mean consider the resources at hand: we have the monstrosity that is the DHS, the NSA, CIA, DIA and still no dice on a cell phone? Something tells me the FBI is back to…
Robot Cockroaches (For Real)
OK, I am giving away my age, but do any of you guys remember the Tom Selleck and Gene Simmons movie Runaway from 1984? OK, before you read this article, watch this clip below… I think it is hilarious to see how people over 30 years ago saw the future and actually nailed it in…
Espionage Files: The CIA’s Phoenix Program in Vietnam and the “War on Terror”
The Phoenix Program in Vietnam in many ways provides a blue print for our own times. Assassinations and torture are the essence of the war on terror. As are death squads and false flag terror attacks. As are mass surveillance of the populace. Thanks to the work of Douglas Valentine in his classic book “The Phoenix…
The Espionage Economy
U.S. firms are making billions selling spyware to dictators. By James Bamford Ricardo Martinelli resides in a condo at the Atlantis, a luxury high-rise on Florida’s Biscayne Bay made famous by the TV series Miami Vice. A hefty, white-haired billionaire, Martinelli, 63, was viewed just a few years ago as one of Latin America’s most…
Security Firm Warns of NEW Chinese Cyber Attacks
China is stepping up their game and timeline for War. -SF China’s cyber attacks against U.S. government and private sector databases are part of a major intelligence-gathering operation and are likely to continue, according to a new report by a cyber security firm. Chinese hackers stole health care data pertaining to some 80 million Americans…
Can China be Deterred in Cyber-Space?
Deterring state actors from attacks that do not reach the level of force is difficult. If we look at the cyber realm, the effectiveness of deterrence depends on who (state or non-state) one tries to deter and which of their behaviors. Ironically, deterring major states like China from acts of force may be easier than…
Espionage Files: “Eyewash” and How the CIA deceives it’s Own Workforce about Ops
Senior CIA officials have for years intentionally deceived parts of the agency workforce by transmitting internal memos that contain false information about operations and sources overseas, according to current and former U.S. officials who said the practice is known by the term “eyewash.” Agency veterans described the tactic as an infrequent but important security measure,…
Espionage Files: From Pacifist Sheep Farmer to One of Britains Greatest Secret Agents
Occupied France, 1944. Francis Cammaerts stepped from a train onto the railway station platform in Avignon. Almost immediately, German security forces at a checkpoint became suspicious and asked for his papers. The son of a Belgian poet and English actress, he was everything you would never expect in a secret agent. Cammaerts had been a pacifist and conscientious objector…