Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Ebook983 pages12 hours
Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs, from Communism to Al-Qaeda
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
An unprecedented history of the CIA's secret and amazing gadgetry behind the art of espionage
In this look at the CIA’s most secretive operations and the devices that made them possible, Spycraft tells gripping life-and-death stories about a group of spytechs—much of it never previously revealed and with images never before seen by the public.
The CIA’s Office of Technical Service is the ultrasecret department that grappled with challenges such as:
What does it take to build a quiet helicopter?
How does one embed a listening device in a cat?
What is an invisible photo used for?
These amazingly inventive devices were created and employed against a backdrop of geopolitical tensions—including the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and continuing terrorist threats. Written by Robert Wallace, the former director of the Office of Technical Service, and internationally renowned intelligence historian Keith Melton, Spycraft is both a fantastic encyclopedia of gadgetry and a revealing primer on the fundamentals of high-tech espionage.
“The first comprehensive look at the technical achievements of American espionage from the 1940s to the present.”—Wired
“Reveals more concrete information about CIA tradecraft than any book.”—The Washington Times
“This is a story I thought could never be told.”—JAMES M. OLSON, former chief of CIA counterintelligence
In this look at the CIA’s most secretive operations and the devices that made them possible, Spycraft tells gripping life-and-death stories about a group of spytechs—much of it never previously revealed and with images never before seen by the public.
The CIA’s Office of Technical Service is the ultrasecret department that grappled with challenges such as:
What does it take to build a quiet helicopter?
How does one embed a listening device in a cat?
What is an invisible photo used for?
These amazingly inventive devices were created and employed against a backdrop of geopolitical tensions—including the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and continuing terrorist threats. Written by Robert Wallace, the former director of the Office of Technical Service, and internationally renowned intelligence historian Keith Melton, Spycraft is both a fantastic encyclopedia of gadgetry and a revealing primer on the fundamentals of high-tech espionage.
“The first comprehensive look at the technical achievements of American espionage from the 1940s to the present.”—Wired
“Reveals more concrete information about CIA tradecraft than any book.”—The Washington Times
“This is a story I thought could never be told.”—JAMES M. OLSON, former chief of CIA counterintelligence
Unavailable
Author
Robert Wallace
Robert Wallace retired from the CIA in 2003 with thirty-two years of service as an operations officer and senior executive, including an assignment as director of the Office of Technical Services. Wallace is coauthor, with H. Keith Melton, of Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs from Communism to Al-Qaeda.
Read more from Robert Wallace
The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Pulp Fiction Megapack: 25 Classic Pulp Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Doctrines of Predestination, Reprobation, and Election Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Use Money Understanding The Function And Structural Reasons Behind The Use Of Money Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFangs of Murder: Phantom Detective Saga Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEmpire of Terror Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTycoon of Crime: Richard Curtis Van Loan Detective Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Phantom Detective: 5 Murder Mysteries in One Volume Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Phantom Detective: Fangs of Murder: Fangs of Murder Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEmpire of Terror: Phantom Detective Saga Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeath Flight Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFangs of Murder Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Phantom Detective: Tycoon of Crime: Tycoon of Crime Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGeorge Buchanan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTycoon of Crime: Phantom Detective Saga Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Spycraft
Related ebooks
Big Intel: How the CIA and FBI Went from Cold War Heroes to Deep State Villains Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Swamp: Deceit and Corruption in the CIA (An Elizabeth Petrov Thriller, Book 1) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpycraft: Essentials: SPYCRAFT, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSix Days of the Condor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5PSI Spies: The True Story of America's Psychic Warfare Program Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Plot to Hack America: How Putin's Cyberspies and WikiLeaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not in Your Lifetime: The Defining Book on the J.F.K. Assassination Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981-1987 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Jerusalem Assassin: A Marcus Ryker Series Political and Military Action Thriller: (Book 3) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alger Hiss: Why He Chose Treason Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMafia Spies: The Inside Story of the CIA, Gangsters, JFK, and Castro Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inside Canadian Intelligence: Exposing the New Realities of Espionage and International Terrorism, 2nd Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT: Beyond the X-Files Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Covert Colour Line: The Racialised Politics of Western State Intelligence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUFOs and the National Security State: Chronology of a Cover-up, 1941–1973 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Spy's Guide to Santa Fe and Albuquerque Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inside the CIA Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Plot to Destroy Trump: The Deep State Conspiracy to Overthrow the President Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Privacy Wars: A Cybertech Thriller Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Manchurian Journalist: Lawrence Wright, the CIA, and the Corruption of American Journalism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Plot to Destroy Trump: How the Deep State Fabricated the Russian Dossier to Subvert the President Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Tangible Theory on God Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKings, Conquerors, Psychopaths: From Alexander to Hitler to the Corporation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Politics For You
The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Daily Stoic: A Daily Journal On Meditation, Stoicism, Wisdom and Philosophy to Improve Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on the U.S.-Israeli War on the Palestinians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ever Wonder Why?: and Other Controversial Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Capitalism and Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5On Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fear: Trump in the White House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The U.S. Constitution with The Declaration of Independence and The Articles of Confederation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race: The Sunday Times Bestseller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Closing of the American Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Essential Chomsky Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Humanity Archive: Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Spycraft
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
4 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A very interesting book. It's written from the perspective of a former CIA chief, so the author is cheerily enthusiastic about the CIA's successes with technology, but he also talks a lot about their failures. If you've ever wondered if there's any truth to the gadgets seen in movies, this book explains it all, from installing tiny microphones to breaking into the KGB's lead-encased sewer pipe wires in downtown Moscow.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5There was definitely a lot of interesting information in this book, but it suffers from strange organization, and from incomplete information.The technological achievements of the CIA and the KGB are quite impressive, and it was fascinating reading about some of the things they created and how they used them. However, the book is very anecdotal, and a lot of the anecdotes peter out at the end... whether that's because the climactic ending is classified, or because Wallace sets them up to be more interesting than they really are is hard to say.The book suffers from what appear to be several overlapping organizational structures. Sometimes it is chronological, sometimes it is thematic, and sometimes it feels like a bunch of old guys sitting around swapping whatever war stories come to mind. The last few chapters are an overview of spy techniques and how spies use technology, which is really weird - those chapters would have been much more useful at the beginning of the book, but because they were at the end, they re-explain information that has already been covered earlier in the book.What bothered me the most about the book, though, was the information that was not in it. Perhaps some of this is just my personal agenda, but I would have liked more information about the overall impact of the technology developed and the information intercepted with that technology - in other words, was all of this time and money worth the bother? The book also dropped some tantalizing details (for instance, there is a section that talks about small bombs they developed that could, for instance, go off if suddenly plunged into darkness, so that if they were attached to a train, they would blow the train up when it entered a tunnel), but then didn't talk about how much the technology was actually used (how many trains did we blow up? why?). The book also came across as rather defensive at times - for instance, there are several pages about what MKULTRA was not, but very little information about what it actually was, and whether or not the psychological experiments damaged anyone.All in all, the book is interesting, but definitely feels like the "official line" and I found the lack of big picture to be unsatisfying.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5History of the more technical aspects of the CIA. Very interesting stories, although a bit repetitive at times.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In 500 non-encrypted pages, the reader learns the basic elements of espionage and the real history of the first 50 years of the CIA's Office of Technical Services. The tools of espionage were always at the cutting edge of technology. Sometimes, commercially-produced electronics were the basis for a CIA device, but more often, the demands of our spies drove the developments that would later give us pagers and miniature digital cameras. James Bond's toys were more realistic than most people ever realized. Behind them was a dedicated group of clever, driven technologists who supplied agents with better means of surveillance and covert communications. More than just a guide to gadgets, this book tells a meaningful story about the importance of intelligence to national security, and the unfortunate events that occur when the intelligence network is compromised.