(Part 2) Top products from r/Intelligence

Markus Wolf, Man without a face About east german intelligence

Ion Pacepa, Red Horizons: The Extraordinary Memoirs of a Communist Spy Chief About rumanian intelligence in the communist era.

He also wrote the Kremlin's legacy, but that is more speculative and about the political changes, still a good book.

Pacepa has a trilogy: The Black Book of the Securitate from 1999, and recently (3 weeks ago) published: Disinformation: Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategy for Undermining Freedom, Attacking Religion, and Promoting Terrorism, but I haven't read these, if anyone has an opinion on them, please share them here or in pm please!


U/animalfarmpig already mentioned Psychology of Intelligence Analysis, but you just can't stress enough the importance of that book, it discusses the very basics of analysis so well, that this should be the first anyone reads and if I may: this book should be at the very top of the suggested reading list.

Arthashastra by Kautilya.

This is a really old book, and a lot of the technical terms, such as the denotation of currency, demand some meandering of imagination, but it does make an interesting read. What I found most fascinating about this (some 2000 year old text) is how sophisticated their tactics of surveillance, secrecy and deception were - and the parallels that exist in society today. It helps unearth the principles and techniques from the gizmos.

EDIT: Formatting.

Oh, fuck off. How great could they be if they got caught? James Angleton said it best:

>"You will never read about successful spies in the newspaper or watch them being interviewed on TV talk shows. Only failure makes a spy famous. Success guarantees that the public will never know the spy's name--and neither will the victims who suffered the results of his efforts."

You really have to wonder what's up with with an agency that glamorizes the idea of betraying people's trust for a living. Getting manipulated into doing somebody else's dirty work while being run by a handler is one of the shittier jobs I can imagine--but all the "strategic messaging" being pushed through movies, TV and video games makes being an expendable patsy seem downright awesome.

And when you have serious, well-respected senior defense analysts being script advisers for crappy "comedies" like The Interview? JFC! It's really the icing on the cake. Wisner's Might Wulitzer delivers.

All these fucking Cheese Wizards are really outdoing themselves lately, I tell you what. lol
^^^.

Recommended reading: The Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion.

>Americans create 57% of the world's advertising while representing only 6% of its population; half of our waking hours are spent immersed in the mass media. Persuasion has always been integral to the democratic process, but increasingly, thoughtful discussion is being replaced with simplistic soundbites and manipulative messages.Drawing on the history of propaganda as well as on contemporary research in social psychology, Age of Propaganda shows how the tactics used by political campaigners, sales agents, advertisers, televangelists, demagogues, and others often take advantage of our emotions by appealing to our deepest fears and most irrational hopes, creating a distorted vision of the world we live in.


Bonus track: George Formby on the MidiTizer: When I'm Cleanin' Windows. lol

Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency - (2001) James Bamford

This was the first book I read about the NSA. Up until this point, I knew next to nothing about them. This book did a great job of showing the NSA's systematic crippling of industry encryption standards by infiltration, blackmail, exploitation, politics, etc. Their infiltration of RSA and attempted infiltration of PGP were some of the best parts of the book, as it showed that the NSA was looking beyond code breaking, and specifically at introducing mathematical weaknesses in standard encryption systems.

He didn't officially work the government? Do you have a source for that? Because he was in the US Army, then an employee of the CIA, before becoming a civilian contractor. Sources are as follows:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7


Additionally, even Russia has admitted that he was an agent under their control. Although his original intention may have been noble, it is an utter impossibility that he would be granted a visa, despite the high-profile manhunt, unless he agreed to concessions and, at the very least, a thorough debrief with FSB officials.

Source:
1

Here's the thing about the world of counterintelligence: it has the effect of making people seem delusional after a while.

I agree that USG often puts spins on stories to assist the media in creating their biased interpretation of a "fact-based narrative" (HR 6393, Title V, Sec. 501 (1) (C) lead to legalizing counterintelligence propaganda against certain countries to be used on American Citizens, for instance (signed in 2016, became effective 2017)), however, I think you should realize that sometimes these spins are one step ahead of your thoughts--such as to make you seem a fool of yourself (again, please refer to this book).

Often times, facts are mixed with lies. For you to say that the government has 'created extremism' and 'did 9/11', for instance, is a conspiracy theory--a word propagated by the USG to refer to someone who is often paranoid or delusional. That's what you seem to be when you say these things, and that's why no one will take it seriously. 10% of whistleblowers are said to be diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia (I forgot where I got that statistic, I'll go find it if you ask me to though).

Alex Jones, for instance, is very often mentioned in conversations of intelligence within the intelligence community (also depending on the job and the operation, but namely psychological and/or informational ones as far as I'm aware).

My point is, Orwellian governments are very real and current, but just be careful about what how you go about assuming things. I really recommend you read this book.

A Century of Spies, by Jeffrey Richelson might be worth checking out. In general, Richelson has done a fair amount of "history of American Intelligence" types of books.

http://www.amazon.com/Century-Spies-Intelligence-Twentieth/dp/019511390X/ref=la_B000APNPG6_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406137379&sr=1-8

This is probably not what you are looking for, but John Stockwell was a CIA officer and the Chief of the Angola Task Force during its 1975 covert operations. He later became a whistleblower. Here a video for those who are interested in what he did for the CIA in Angola.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqx_dijObjA

You probably have both Stockwells book In Search of Enemies and John A. Marcums book Angolan Revolution - Vol. 2: Exile Politics and Guerilla Warfare, 1962-1976.

I believe the footnotes of those books might be helpful.

check also
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/history/johnson/diph_3.pdf

http://www.cnss.org/data/files/resources/FirstPrinciples/FirstPrinciplesVol11No3.pdf

Gideon's Spies

By Gordon Thomas

Fantastic book on the Mossad. Shin Bet is showcased a bit as well. Gives an outsider a good idea of just how cutthroat the agency is.

There was a book about the E. German Stasi that came out sometime in the 1990's, but I cannot remember the title for the life of me.

You need a British spy to regurgitate what Kevin Trudeau published in 1987 - [Mega Memory] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0688153879/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_aHfgAbTRQX302)? Seriously, the article is wholesale ripping off the book and cassette tape publication, which in 1987 wasn't anything new. It does work pretty well though.

Edit - added link

Recommended reads (note: I tried to be objective/neutral in selection and ordering):

• Wikipedia, JASON (advisory group)
  
• Science Magazine, April 2019 ($, article): Supporters scramble to rescue storied Jason advisory group
  
• HN thread on NPR piece, April 2019: After Pentagon Ends Contract, Top-Secret Scientists Group Vows To Carry On
  
• Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, April 2019 (comment by editor-in-chief:) Why did Defense end its contract with the legendary Jason group?
  
• Defense News, April 2019 (opinion of an editor): Pentagon’s Jason group is not worth mourning
  
• News Scientist, April 2019 ($, opinion): Scientists Must Worry In Public About The Dangers of Their Creations
  
• Nature, May 2019 (editorial): Support the JASON science-advisory group
  
  Some history/background reads (eclectic:
  
  
• Vice, January 2017 (article): Elite Scientists Have Told the Pentagon That AI Won't Threaten Humanity
  
• Scientific American, 2011 (article): Elite Scientific Advisory Panel Says New Technology is Needed to Verify Emissions Cuts
  
• Ann Finkbeiner, 2007 (book; book review in NYT): The Jasons: The Secret History of Science's Postwar Elite
  
• SESPA (a political action group of scientists & engineers), 1972 (book): Science Against The People (.pdf)
  
  I welcome further suggestions.

if you haven't read it already, I'd recommend Fiasco by Thomas Ricks

Chinese Intelligence Operations

Terrorist Recognition Handbook: A Practitioner's Manual for Predicting and Identifying Terrorist Activities

Ghost Plane

State of War

U.S. Army Counterintelligence Handbook

The Psychology of intelligence Analysis

http://www.amazon.com/Spycraft-History-Spytechs-Communism-Al-Qaeda/dp/0452295475

You can read more about the Mitrokhin files (concerning Israel) in this story: http://www.ynetnews.com/home/0,7340,L-13181,00.html

Or in the books written by Prof. Christopher Andrew in cooperation with Mitrokhin himsef: https://www.amazon.com/Sword-Shield-Mitrokhin-Archive-History/dp/0465003125/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1476826988&sr=1-1&keywords=the+sword+and+the+shield+the+mitrokhin+archive
Or: https://www.amazon.com/Mitrokhin-Archive-II-KGB-World/dp/0713993596

By Way of Deception, The Big White Lie, Reluctant Spy, and The Devil's Chessboard are a few that come to mind immediately.

Sorry can't edit in my phone, here's a link
https://www.amazon.com/Big-Boys-Rules-Struggle-Against/dp/0571168094

Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner is the history of the CIA from WWII through anti-terrorist policies post-9/11. Weiner interviewed former CIA bosses but the most attractive part might be the Agency's dismissive review:

"What could have been a serious historical critique illuminating the lessons of the past is undermined by dubious assertions, sweeping judgments based on too few examples, selective or outright misuse of citations, a drama-driven narrative, and a tendentious and nearly exclusive focus on failure that overlooks, downplays, or explains away significant successes."

If that's not a recipe for an entertaining read I don't know what is.

I don't know, you could always google "Odebrecht - US Department of Justice" and do some reading. One of the docs said the FBI New York Field Office is conducting the investigation. If you think you have something new, put together the documentation as thoroughly as you can and send it to them here:

26 Federal Plaza, 23rd Floor

New York, NY 10278-0004

(212) 384-1000

It looks like they're being discreet themselves, so who knows. Odds are they're already on it, so I'm not sure getting yourself involved would accomplish anything--but it's your call, not mine.

>well I just don't want to see my country crash and burn im genuinely concerned about what's happening, and I have no idea how to help.

Yep. It sure sucks, doesn't it. You have to remember corruption flourishes because critics are coerced into silence and often lose their lives for it. Oh well, nothing new there:

Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero

>Dying Every Day is a portrait of Seneca’s moral struggle in the midst of madness and excess. In his treatises, Seneca preached a rigorous ethical creed, exalting heroes who defied danger to do what was right or embrace a noble death. As Nero’s adviser, Seneca was presented with a more complex set of choices, as the only man capable of summoning the better aspect of Nero’s nature, yet, remaining at Nero’s side and colluding in the evil regime he created.

>Dying Every Day is the first book to tell the compelling and nightmarish story of the philosopher-poet who was almost a king, tied to a tyrant—as Seneca, the paragon of reason, watched his student spiral into madness and whose descent saw five family murders, the Fire of Rome, and a savage purge that destroyed the supreme minds of the Senate’s golden age.

Food for thought. :-|