DELUDED BY INTELLIGENCE

We like to believe that ‘intelligence is based on objective analysis of hard data, albeit gleaned from secret sources and that the final product of that analysis is a factual account of what is actually happening out there in the real world. And that real world can be a potentially hostile nation (sometimes it can […]

DELUDED BY INTELLIGENCE

We like to believe that ‘intelligence is based on objective analysis of hard data, albeit gleaned from secret sources and that the final product of that analysis is a factual account of what is actually happening out there in the real world. And that real world can be a potentially hostile nation (sometimes it can […]

JFK New Files

RELEASE OF THE JFK FILES: NO END OF CONSPIRACY IN SIGHT Last month over 2,800 files, previously restricted for a variety of reasons, including those of ‘national security,’ were released relating to the assassination of President John. F. Kennedy. These files add to the millions of words and thousands of books which have been written […]

Review of Le Carre

REVIEW OF A LEGACY OF SPIES BY JOHN LE CARRE PUBLISHED BY PENGUIN VIKING £20 I don’t think it’s overstated to say that when his third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, was published at the height of the Cold War in 1963 (the year after the Cuban Missile Crisis) John Le […]

PUT TERROR IN PERSPECTIVE

The recent terrorist attacks in Barcelona, Cambills and Turku in Finland provide a constant reminder of how vulnerable we all are to becoming victims of terrorism. Driving van or cars into people or stabbing them at random on busy city streets is the ‘softest’ of all ‘soft targets.” Although all attacks perpetrated by groups carrying […]

THE PARADOXES OF SPYING PART 3

Imagine the following scenario: A police drugs unit is about to embark on a raid in a major city. They have in their sights a top-level dealer distributing considerable quantities of heroin and other drugs into a deprived community. The case against the dealer has been prepared for months and has involved intensive surveillance, including […]

THE PARADOXES OF SPYING 2

In the last blog I explored how keeping a spy or mole in place is a complex and quite murky pursuit. The instant you act on your mole’s information you alert your opponent you have a mole in his ranks, so information derived from the mole has to be heavily disguised to avoid detection of […]