“There’s a man who leads a life of danger To everyone he meets he stays a stranger With every move he makes another chance he takes Odds are he won’t live to see tomorrow Secret agent man, secret agent man” So said Johnny Rivers in the theme to the ’60s show Secret Agent. Mark Riebling…
Category: Military Intelligence History
Espionage Files: U.S. Naval Officer Accused of Passing Secrets to China
The U.S. Navy held a preliminary hearing to review criminal charges against one of its officers on Friday. According to a redacted report obtained by USNI News, investigators suspect the seaman of two counts of espionage and three counts of attempted espionage. The Navy didn’t release the name of the officer but sources close to…
Cold War Files: What If Japan Had Built an Atomic Bomb?
During the Cold War, the United States supported selective nuclear proliferation as a means of deterring a Soviet invasion of Europe. The Russians might not believe that the United States would trade Berlin for New York, but they might find a British or French threat more credible. Washington did not pursue the same strategy in…
Espionage Files: The Strange Trip Surrounding MK-Ultra
Ten scientists, some from the CIA, gathered in a cabin in Maryland for their semiannual review and conference in November 1953. On day two, a bottle of Cointreau — spiked with LSD — appeared; after it was emptied, Sidney Gottlieb, a CIA program director, informed his colleagues that they were in for a wild ride….
Espionage and Cold War Files: Extraordinary Lecture by Legendary Soviet Mole and Spy Kim Philby Emerges
A videotaped lecture by Kim Philby, one of the Cold War’s most recognizable espionage figures, has been unearthed in the archives of the Stasi, the Ministry of State Security of the former East Germany. During the one-hour lecture, filmed in 1981, Philby addresses a select audience of Stasi operations officers and offers them advice on…
Espionage Files: A CIA Officer’s Long, Futile Secret War
WASHINGTON — In Douglas Laux’s final days as a CIA officer, the futility of his mission prompted him to quote George Orwell to his boss. Laux had spent months in 2012 working with various Middle Eastern nations that were trying to ship arms to Syria to help disparate rebel groups there. But it had become…
World War Two History: The Secret Speeches Ike Never Had To Give
Despite the seeming inevitability of an Allied triumph, the success of the cross-channel invasion in 1944 seemed like anything but a foregone conclusion.” “SOLDIERS, SAILORS AND AIRMEN of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon…
Espionage Files: CIA Trained Spy Allegedly Arrested in Russia
The Russian government says it has arrested a senior Ukrainian intelligence officer, who was allegedly trained by the United States Central Intelligence Agency and tasked with infiltrating the Russian secret services. In a statement published on Thursday, Russia’s Federal Security Service, known as FSB, said the alleged infiltrator is a “senior level employee” of the…
Espionage Files: More Foreign Spies in U.S. Now Than At Any Other Time in History
There are currently more foreign intelligence operatives in the United States than at any point in the country’s history, the former head of the House Intelligence Committee claimed on Wednesday. “There are more spies in the United States today from foreign nation states that at any time in our history — including the Cold War,”…
Military Defense News: After Benghazi, USMC Marks New Approach to Embassy Security in Africa
Close to the third anniversary of the infamous Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, a small detachment of Marines descended on the U.S. Embassy in Bamako, Mali, on the other side of the African continent. The little-publicized 48-hour operation took about 200 Marines attached to Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground…