George Washington, Father Of American Intelligence: Peter Earnest On AMC's Historical Spy Drama "Turn"

Peter Earnest, former CIA officer and the executive director of the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., was interviewed at amctv.com about the upcoming historical spy drama Turn.

Q: George Washington is considered to be one of the founders of American spycraft. What did he do to earn this legacy?

A: Washington is considered the father of American intelligence because he had a very keen sense of intelligence, of what it is and how to use it. He readily embraced gathering intelligence because he was commanding a very meager force. Great Britain had the most powerful military in the world, and they were here in a colony dealing with these colonials, who they looked down on. The Americans were the insurgents. The “war of the flea” is a phrase that’s used when a small force is battling an overwhelmingly large one, and that’s what Washington was up against. So he had to make the most of what he had. Interestingly, Washington recruited spies personally and questioned them personally about their operation. He didn’t just push it down for someone else to do.

You can read the rest of the interview via the below link:

http://blogs.amctv.com/turn/2014/03/qa-peter-earnest-international-spy-museum-executive-director/

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine interview with Peter Earnest on the myth, the mystique, and the history of espionage via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/06/a-look-back-at-myth-mystique-and.html

The AMC miniseries Turn is based on Alexander Rose's Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring. 

George Washington's Spy Letter Returns To International Spy Museum

The International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. is offering a glimpse at the letter from America's first spymaster - General George Washington.

The museum released the below:

WASHINGTON—In annual recognition of America’s first Spymaster, the International Spy Museum has re-installed one of the institution’s most revered and guarded artifacts: an original letter written by George Washington initiating a fledgling nation’s first spy network.

The letter, which is privately stored offsite ten months out of the year – with an exact replica in its place – to preserve its fragile state, is now once again on public display just in time for President’s Day Weekend.

Penned on February 4, 1777 while he served as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, then-General Washington engaged his covert request to trusted confidant Nathaniel Sackett, commissioning the New York merchant to spy for his country as Washington’s “intelligence director.”

Sackett was enlisted at the price of $50 per month to create a spy network in New York – for which he was awarded a $500 bonus upfront – to pass along disinformation to British intelligence and collectively harass the enemy. It was this letter, written 237 years ago this month, which served as the launching point for an intricate and secretive intelligence network known as the Culper Spy Ring that would in large part save the American Revolution.

For the scores of decades since it was written, the document remained in Nathaniel Sackett’s family until it was acquired by the International Spy Museum and publicly exhibited for the first time in 2002. To insure its preservation for future generations, the letter has undergone extensive conservation treatments over a 12-month period. Due to its age and fragility, it is exhibited under a low light and can be displayed for only two months each year.

To allow visitors the opportunity to experience this rare artifact while time lasts, the Museum is extending public hours this President’s Day Weekend: February 15-16, 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.; and February 17, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

General admission tickets can be purchased online at spymuseum.org/tickets.

For more information, please visit spymuseum.org. 

You can read more about the International Spy Museum in two of my Counterterrorism magazine pieces via the below links:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/06/a-look-back-at-myth-mystique-and.html

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2010/03/weapons-of-mass-disruption-cyber.html  

My Philadelphia Inquirer Review Of 'I Lie For A Living: Greatest Spies Of All Time'

My review of I Lie For a Living: Greatest Spies of All Time appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2006.

I Lie for a Living: Greatest Spies of All Time is a timely book that concisely presents the best spies and covert operators known to history. Published by National Geographic with the International Spy Museum, the small book contains photos an profiles of the patriots, traitors, adventurers and poets that have dealt in the dark trade of espionage. They lie, cheat, steal and sometimes kill in the name of love, country, ideology and money. Students of history and fans of spy thrillers will enjoy this book.

You can read the rest of the review below:

Note: You can click on the above to enlarge.

The Myth, The Mystique And The History Of Espionage: My Piece On The International Spy Museum

A while back I wrote a piece on the International Spy Museum and the history of espionage for  Counterterrorism magazine.

You can read the piece above and below:

FX's New Soviet Spy Drama 'The Americans' Is Great - But Is It Realistic?

Adam Taylor at the Business Insider asks former CIA officer Peter Earnest for his take on the TV spy program The Americans.

"The Americans," a Soviet spy drama currently airing on FX, has been earning plaudits since it debuted in January.

The show follows the lives of Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, a seemingly all-American couple living in D.C. with two kids in the early '80s, who are really Russian-born Soviet spies.

It's a great story, but the question on everyone's mind after watching the show is whether anything like this actually happened.

To answer this question, we asked Peter Earnest, the founding executive director of D.C.'s International Spy Museum and a 35-year CIA spy veteran. He spent 25 years as a case officer in the agency's Clandestine Service, conducting intelligence collection and covert action operations.

He's also a fan of "The Americans," telling us he DVRs the episodes.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-realistic-is-the-americans-2013-4

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine interview with Peter Earnest on the myth, mystique and history of espionage via the below links:

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/SpyMuseum1.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/SpyMuseum2.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/SpyMuseum3.jpg

The Zimmermann Telegram: Intelligence, Diplomacy And America's Entry Into World War I

Joseph C. Goulden offers a good review in the Washington Times of an interesting book by Thomas Boghardt called The Zimmermann Telegram.

On the morning of March 1, 1917, virtually every American newspaper published a bombshell story: a report on a telegram from the German foreign secretary,Arthur Zimmermann, proposing an alliance with Mexico. He offered his country’s support to Mexico for reconquering “the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona” in exchange for a Mexican attack on the United States should the Americans enter the war on the side of the Allies.

World War I had entered a crucial state in the winter of 1916-17, with neither the Allies nor the Central Powers having the resources to push through to victory. To be sure, the Allies had more soldiers on the battlefield. Nonetheless, the German army remained deep in French and Russian territory, and deadly submarine warfare deprived millions of people of the substances of life. War-weary populaces on both sides yearned for an end of watching their youth fed through bloody meat grinders.

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/nov/20/book-review-the-zimmermann-telegram/

I interviewed author and historian Thomas Boghardt (seen in the above photo) about the history of cyber warfare a while back for Counterterrorism magazine.

You can read the interview via the below links:

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/QAThomasBoghardt1.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/QAThomasBoghardt2.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/QAThomasBoghardt3.jpg

The Dictionary of Espionage: Spyspeak Into English

James Srodes, the author of a good book on legendary CIA director Allen Dulles, wrote a good review of Joseph C. Goulden's The Dictionary of Espionage: Spyspeak into English (Dover Publications) for the Washington Times.

In this accessibly written book, Washington author Joseph C. Goulden illuminates and defines much of the standard jargon of the intelligence community with refreshing asides about many of spying’s urban legends - many of which may or may not be true. Informed by remarkable access to the intelligence community, the book, first issued in 1986, has been significantly updated and contains a foreword by Peter Earnest, the founding executive director of the International Spy Museum in Washington and a former CIA operations officer.   

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/2/spy-worlds-lingo-legacy/

Note: I recently interviewed Joseph C. Goulden for Counterterrorism magazine. The Q & A will appear in the next issue of the quarterly publication.

I previously interviewed Mr. Goulden, as well as Peter Earnest, for a piece on espionage and the International Spy Museum that appeared in Counterterrorism magazine a few years back.

You can read the piece via the below links:

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/SpyMuseum1.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/SpyMuseum2.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/SpyMuseum3.jpg

Combating Threats In The Cyber World: FBI Director On Outsmarting Terrorists, Hackers And Spies

Robert Mueller, III, the director of the FBI (seen in the above official FBI photo), addressed the RSA Cyber Security Conference in San Francisco on March 1st.

"Terrorism remains the FBI's top priority," Mueller told the conference attendees. "But in the not too distant future , we anticipate that the cyber threat will pose the number one threat to the country."

You can read the rest of of Mueller's speech via the link below to the FBI's web site:

http://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/combating-threats-in-the-cyber-world-outsmarting-terrorists-hackers-and-spies?utm_campaign=email-Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=executive-speeches&utm_content=75784

You can also read my two-part piece on the FBI's Infragard program via the below links:

http://www.allbusiness.com/operations/16739399-1.html

http://www.allbusiness.com/operations/16739400-1.html

A couple of years back I covered the opening of the International Spy Museum's Weapons of Mass Disruption Gallery for Counterterrorism magazine.

In the audience were a virtual who's who of modern intelligence history, including several former CIA directors, a former FBI director, a former British MI5 chief, and a former KGB general.

You can read the piece via the below links: 

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/WeaponsMassDisruption1.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/WeaponsMassDisruption2.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/WeaponsMassDisruption2.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/QAThomasBoghardt1.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/QAThomasBoghardt2.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/QAThomasBoghardt3.jpg

Cyber Threat Grows More Destructive, Deputy Defense Secretary Lynn Says

The American Forces Press Service released the below piece yesterday:

By Karen Parrish, American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, July 15, 2011 - The cyber threat the United States faces is increasing in severity and is accessible to a wide range of enemies, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III said in a television interview broadcast last night.

"Most of what we see today is exploitation -- that's theft, stealing secrets, either commercial or military," Lynn told Ray Suarez on "PBS Newshour." "[But] we know the tools exist to destroy things, to destroy physical property, to destroy networks, to destroy data, maybe even take human lives."

Lynn said nation-states currently are the sole possessors of sophisticated cyber tools, but the capability will spread over time.

"It's going to migrate to rogue states, and it's going to migrate to, eventually, terrorist groups," he said. "At some point, you're going to see a marriage of capability and intent, and that is what we should truly worry about."

DOD is working both to defend its own networks and support the Department of Homeland Security's mission to protect systems important to national security, Lynn said.

Pentagon officials yesterday released the Defense Department's first strategy aimed at countering the cyber threat. The strategy document charts the increase of Internet usage since 2000, when there were 360 global users, to 2010's 2 billion. DOD alone has 15,000 networks and more than 7 million computing devices.

"In the first instance, we're protecting those military capabilities," Lynn said. "But we need to go further. Working through the Department of Homeland Security, we need to think about how we might use better defensive capabilities to protect ... the power grid, the transportation network, the financial sector."

DOD is not committing to protecting the entire Internet, Lynn said.

"We're talking with our allies about how we have a collective defense," he said. "We're working with them to share technologies, to share understandings of the threat, so that we have a collective defense approach to this important problem."

Most cyber attacks happening now are malicious activity, some are criminal, and some reach the level of espionage, Lynn said.

We have seen a few cases ... where it goes above that and degrades networks themselves," he said, noting the 2007 attack on Estonia and the 2008 cyber assault on the republic of Georgia.

Defending the cyber domain requires a new way of thinking, Lynn said. 

"It's different than land, sea, air and space," he noted. "It's largely privately owned. It crosses borders. It doesn't respect sovereignty. And the speed at which it moves, keystrokes on one side of the globe can have an impact on the other in the blink of an eye."

U.S. Cyber Command is responsible for organizing DOD's efforts in the cyber domain, the deputy secretary said.

"They're out hiring people, both in uniform and as civilians, with ... [the] cyber skills that we need," he added. "They're different kinds of skills than we might need with conventional soldiers, but they're equally important."

DOD doesn't monitor or scan commercial networks in the United States, Lynn said.

"We're trying to work with the appropriate agencies, the FBI, with law enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security, for protection of critical infrastructure to provide capabilities ... that the Defense Department has that might be used for those critical missions," he said. "But we don't have the primary role." 

**********

To learn more about the cyber threat, you can read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on a gathering of current and former intelligence chiefs who discussed the threat of spies, terrorists and criminals using cyber warfare via the below links:

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/WeaponsMassDisruption1.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/WeaponsMassDisruption2.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/WeaponsMassDisruption3.jpg

You can also read my interview with Thomas Boghardt, the International Spy Museum's historian, about the history of cyber wafare via the below link:

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/QAThomasBoghardt1.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/QAThomasBoghardt2.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/QAThomasBoghardt3.jpg

My Threatcon Column: A History of Spies, Traitors & Saboteurs On Display At The National Constitution Center In Philadelphia

‘Spies, Traitors & Saboteurs: Fear and Freedom in America,” is an exhibition currently on display at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The exhibit was created by the International Spy Museum in Washington D. C.

The exhibition has toured the country since 2006 and will remain on display in Philadelphia until August 21st. The exhibit may be appearing at a site near you in the future.

The National Constitution Center said that the exhibition dramatically illustrates the challenge of securing our nation without compromising the civil liberties upon which it was founded.

“Through artifacts, multimedia elements, and interactive exhibits, visitors will uncover stories of espionage, treason, and deception in the United States from 1776 to today,” the center announced. “Visitors will discover little-known accounts of foreign agents, militias, and radicals, and learn how responses to domestic attacks have driven counterintelligence measures that continue to affect our everyday lives.”

I attended the press preview of the Spies, Traitors & Saboteurs exhibit back in March.

One of the speakers at the press preview was James Doolin, the assistant special agent-in-charge for counterterrorism, counterintelligence and weapons of mass destruction programs for the FBI office in Philadelphia.

“I’ve served 25 years as an agent in the field, overseas and at headquarters,” Doolin said. “In those 25 years I’ve seen a lot of changes but none as dramatic as those in the almost ten years since 9/11.

Doolin went on to say that throughout American history and continuing today, we have dealt with threats against our national security.

“These threats come from outside the country, from groups like al-Qaeda and their affiliates, and they are also coming from inside our borders from our home-grown individual groups,” Doolin said.

Doolin noted that the Internet provides a vehicle for terrorists to spread propaganda, to recruit and to have people act on their behalf.

‘Since 2001 we have tripled our joint terrorism task force,” Doolin said. “These task forces are made up of not just FBI but our intelligence community members, our military, and our state and local law enforcement agencies. The tasks forces have the responsibility to stop the next terrorist attack.”

“You have civil liberties, but you should also have the right not to live in fear of people and organizations committing terrorist attacks,” Doolin said.

“In the FBI we don’t see this as a tension or a conflict; we see it as a balance. An important balance we see day-in-day-out balancing of civil liberties and individual rights with the need to protect this country.”

Another speaker was Peter Earnest, the International Spy Museum’s founding executive director. Earnest previously served 35 years in the CIA.

“Our purpose in doing the exhibit was primarily educational,” Earnest said. “We want to have people visit this exhibit, and for those who might be older, remind them of our past, remind them of what has gone on before us.”

“And for those who are younger, we wanted to say that these are the things that have happened and now it is your generation that will deal with today’s threats. History has a way of repeating,” Earnest said.

The exhibit offers a timeline that traces more than 80 acts of terror that have taken place in the United States from 1776 to today.

The events in the exhibit include the capture of the City of Washington and the burning of the White House during the War of 1812, the explosion of a munitions depot in New York Harbor in 1916 by German secret agents, aided by American collaborators, and the bombing of the Attorney General’s home in 1919 by an anarchist.

There are also displays concerning the Ku Klux Klan, the American Communist Party under Kremlin rule, the Weather Underground and the Black Liberation Army from the 1960s, and the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.

The final exhibit is called Beyond September 11th - Terrorism Today.

This exhibit offers fragments of the planes that hit the World Trade Center and the smashed front end of a New York City police car damaged in the terrorist attack.

I enjoyed the exhibit and I thought it was well-done, but I had a complaint.

The exhibit offered a photo gallery of the leaders of the white supremacy groups in America, but there was not a photo of Osama bin Laden (this was before the Navy SEAL raid that killed bin Laden), nor was there any mention of al-Qaeda, bin Laden’s group who planned and flew the planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11.

A casual observer might get the impression that the Ku Klux Klan attacked us on 9/11.

I wrote the International Spy Museum and asked if this was an oversight or simply political correctness.

Peter Earnest wrote back and stated that my point was a good one.

“When the exhibit was initially developed and displayed at the International Spy Museum in DC the conclusion contained a film titled Under Siege,” Earnest wrote. “This film, which is now six years old, did include far greater detail on the role of al-Qaeda in the 9/11 attacks. The National Constitution Center wanted to present an updated film of a less graphic nature and choose to create a locally produced piece in conjunction with their media partner, Fox 29.”

Earnest went on to state that due to the change in the film there was an inadvertent drop that can easily be corrected.

“Our exhibitions department is working together with the National Constitution Center to further update the panels and video,” Earnest wrote.

The International Spy Museum and the National Constitution Center are two fine organizations and they always offer fine exhibitions.

If you are in Philadelphia in the next two weeks, I suggest you visit the Spies, Traitors & Saboteurs exhibit. I also suggest that you visit the International Spy Museum in Washington D.C.

You can also read my piece on the International Spy Museum and the myth, the mystique and the history of espionage via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/06/a-look-back-at-myth-mystique-and.html 

Spies, Traitors & Saboteurs Exhibit At The National Constitution Center In Philadelphia

I attended a press luncheon and preview of the Spies, Traitors & Saboteurs: Fear and Freedom in America exhibit at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia last Thursday. I covered the preview for Counterterrorism magazine.

The new exhibit, which will run until May 30th, was created by the International Spy Museum and illustrates the challenges of securing our nation from threats while preserving our constitutional rights.

The Spies, Traitors & Saboteurs exhibit offers artifacts, interactive displays and themed environments that explore our country's long line of threats throughout our history.

Below is a link to a video on the exhibit that appeared on Philly.com:

http://www.philly.com/philly/video/BC814408354001.html?c=0.9148573349794802&posted=y&viewAll=y

I'm a frequent visitor to the Constitution Center and I've visited the International Spy Museum in Washington D.C. several times. Both museums offer world class exhibits.

I'll post my piece on the Spies, Traitors & Saboteurs exhibit here when it comes out.

You can also read my magazine piece on the International Spy Museum via the below links:

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/SpyMuseum1.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/SpyMuseum2.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/SpyMuseum3.jpg

Weapons of Mass Disruption: My Piece On The Cyber Warfare Discussion At The International Spy Museum

Counterterrorism, The Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International, a quarterly magazine for law enforcement, government and the military worldwide, published my piece on the deadly serious subject of cyber warfare.

I attended the opening of the International Spy Museum's Weapons of Mass Disruption gallery (seen in above photo) in Washington D.C. and I heard former intelligence officials and experts in the cyber technology field discuss the threat of cyber warfare.

The speakers included Philip Reitinger, the Deputy Under Secretary of National Protection and Programs Directorate in the Department of Homeland Security, Admiral Mike McConnell, former Director of National Intelligence, R. James Woolsey, former CIA Director, and several others.

The gallery illustrates how spies, terrorists and criminals can turn electrical power lines into battle lines. Cyber warfare can bring a nation to its knees by someone, as Spy Museum Chairman Milton Maltz put it, with a weapon no more sinister than a common laptop computer.

You can read my piece below:

You can also learn about the history of cyber warfare by reading my Q&A with Spy Museum historian Thomas Boghardt (seen in above photo). You can read the interview via below: