Reading 'Tradecraft, Tactics And Dirty Tricks: Russian Intelligence And Putin's Secret War'

I’ve begun reading Sean M. Wiswesser’s most interesting book, Tradecraft, Tactics and Dirty Tricks: Russian Intelligence and Putin’s Secret War, which is published by the Naval Institute Press.

The book is a primer on Russian intelligence operations and should be read by every American concerned with America’s adversary and the dictator Vladimir Putin.   

Wiswesser (seen in the above photo), a former CIA senior operations officer and fluent Russian speaker, served on multiple overseas tours and many other deployments on temporary duty, including war-zone service. He has also served as a CIA chief of station and had multiple joint-duty assignments with other intelligence agencies. 

Sean M. Wiswesser knows Russia, and he knows Russian intelligence. 

My interest in Russian intelligence operations began when I was a teenager in the 1960s and read Ian Fleming’s James Bond thrillers after seeing the movies Dr. No and From Russia with Love. I was pleased to discover that the Fleming novels were darker and more complex than the films. The Bond novels lead me to read espionage nonfiction and history books about the Cold War.

I enlisted in the U.S. Navy when I was 17 in 1970 and served on the USS Kitty Hawk as the aircraft carrier operated on “Yankee Station” in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam. I worked in the Radio Communications Division performing administrative security tasks, and I was able to read classified traffic messages about the war. I was most interested in reading traffic about how Soviet intelligence was aiding the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong. 

When the carrier was not launching and recovering aircraft, I would go up on the flight deck, and looking through binoculars, I saw the ubiquitous Soviet trawler off our stern. The trawler, using a transparent cover as a commercial fishing vessel, was an intelligence gathering ship that shadowed the aircraft carriers.

After my Navy service, I did security work as a Defense Department civilian. I was trained to guard our secrets from the Soviet’s GRU and the KGB, and I received regular briefings from the CIA, the FBI, the NSA, the DIA and other agencies from the intelligence community on the Soviet threat. I also read such valuable books as John Barron’s KGB: The Secret Work of Soviet Secret Agents, Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin’s The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB, and other illuminating book on Russian intelligence. 

Later, as a writer, I interviewed many FBI special agents, CIA officers, and other Soviet/Russian experts, including the CIA’s former director of the National Clandestine Service, Michael J. Sulick (seen in the above photo), who wrote the introduction to Mr. Wiswesser’s book. I also met briefly Russian defector and former KGB General Oleg Kalugin at the Spy Museum in Washington D.C.

Yet, even with my lifelong interest and fair knowledge of Russian intelligence operations, there is much I’m learning from Mr. Wiswesser’s book.

Once I've finished reading his book, I plan to interview Sean M. Wiswesser for Counterterrorism magazine. I'll post the interview here once it comes out.   

You can read more about Trdecraft, Tactics and Dirty Tricks: Russian Intelligence and Putin’s Secret War by visiting the Naval Institute Press via the link below:

 Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks | U.S. Naval Institute

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine with former CIA official Michael J. Sulick via the link below: 

 Paul Davis On Crime: My Q&A With Michael Sulick, Former Director Of The CIA's National Clandestine Service & Author Of 'Spying In America'

The Assets: ABC's Dropped Drama Based On The True Story Of The Uncovering of CIA Spy And Traitor Aldrich Ames Now On ABC On Demand

I was sorry to learn that ABC canceled The Assets, which dramatized the CIA's search for a spy and traitor who gave up all of the top Soviet "assets," after only two episodes.

The spy and traitor turned out to be CIA officer Aldrich Ames. Many of the assets, also known as agents, Ames betrayed were later executed by the Soviet KGB.

I suspect ABC expected to bring in ratings like the fictional espionage series The Americans and were disappointed when they did not.

Thankfully, ABC On Demand is now offering the rest of The Assets on Comcast Cable. I watched the rest of the series and I enjoyed it.

So if you have ABC On Demand and you're interested in the history of espionage and/or enjoy a good true spy story, then you might want to watch The Assets.

One of the spy hunters, and the co-author of Circle of Treason, the book the series is based on, is former CIA officer Sandra Grimes.

I interviewed Sandra Grimes for Counterterrorism magazine before the TV series aired. You can read my interview with her via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2014/02/the-ames-mole-hunt-my-q-with-sandra.html

The Ames Mole Hunt: My Q & A With Sandra Grimes, Former CIA Officer, Mole Hunter, And Author Of "Circle Of Treason"

My interview with Sandra V. Grimes, one of a team of CIA officers who helped uncover spy and traitor Aldrich Ames, appears in the current issue of Counterterrorism magazine.

Circle of Treason is an account of the "Ames Mole Hunt" written by two former CIA officers who were key members of the CIA team that conducted the hunt for a spy within the CIA.

Sandra V. Grimes and Jeanne Vertefeuille were two of the five principals of the CIA team tasked with hunting one of their own and were directly responsible for identifying Ames as the mole, leading to his arrest and conviction.

Aldrich Ames has been called one of the most destructive traitors in American history and the CIA's notorious traitor. The CIA officer provided information to the Soviet Union that contributed to the deaths of at least ten Soviet intelligence officers who spied for the United States.

You can read the interview below:

Note: The above photos were provided by the Naval Institute Press. 

You can click on the above photos to enlarge.

A Look Back At The CIA Traitor And Soviet Spy Aldrich Ames

ABCNews offers a look back at Aldrich Ames, the CIA officer who became a traitor and Soviet spy. (He is seen in the above photo with his wife Rosario). Ames gave up the names of several "assets" in Russia who subsequently executed.

You can watch the broadcast via the below link:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/feb-24-1994-aldrich-ames-arrested-espionage-21372905

I recently interviewed former CIA officer Sandra V. Grimes for Counterterrorism magazine. Sandra Grimes was one of the CIA officers who uncovered Aldrich Ames (she is seen in the above team photo on the left).

Grimes and  Jeanne Vertefuille (seen in the center of the above photo) wrote an account of their "mole hunt" in the CIA, which lead to their uncovering Ames as a spy called Circle of Treason (Naval Institute Press).

I'll post the Sandra Grimes interview here when it is published.

Note: The above photos were provided by the Naval Institute Press.

Two Women CIA Officers Who Brought Down The Traitor Aldrich Ames

Susan Reimer at the Baltimore Sun wrote an interesting column about an interesting book called  Circle of Treason: A CIA Account of Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed (Naval Institute Press). 

Jeanne Vertefeuille and Sandra Grimes could be George Smiley's people.

They were recruited on their college campuses by the Central Intelligence Agency during the height of the Cold War. Jeanne wanted travel and adventure. Sandy didn't know much about the CIA; she just needed a job.

Jeanne and Sandy. That's how they refer to themselves in the book they co-authored, "Circle of Treason."

It tells the story of these two women — Jeanne worked her way up from the equivalent of the steno pool, while Sandy was immediately in the Soviet division (and over her head) because she could speak Russian — and how they brought down the most devastating traitor in the history of the agency: Aldrich Ames.

Their meticulous investigation and combing of records also revealed losses that could not have come from Mr. Ames. They pointed more to the FBI and eventually led to a traitor in its midst, Robert Hanssen, who spied for the Soviets for 22 years, doing damage that more than rivaled that done by Mr. Ames. Both men are serving life terms for espionage. Those they betrayed were executed.
"Circle of Treason" is the first book about the decade-long mole hunt not written by academics or journalists but by members of the team that uncovered the spying of Messrs. Ames and Hanssen.

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

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-reimer-aldrich-ames-20121217,0,3484978.column

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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

My Q & A With CIA Veteran Stuart E. Methven, Author of 'Laughter in the Shadows: A CIA Memoir'

Just out is the latest issue of Counterterrorism, The Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International, a magazine for law enforcement, government and the military world-wide.

I'm a contributing editor to the magazine and my Q&A with veteran CIA officer Stuart E. Methven appears in the current issue.

Methven, 81, is the author of Laughter in the Shadows: A CIA Memoir (Naval Institute Press).

You can read the piece below:

Note: You can click on the above to enlarge.