Barron, John. Breaking the Ring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987. 244 pages.
This book is the story of the spy case involving John Walker, his family, and Jerry Whitworth. Walker began spying for the Soviets in 1968, and until the arrests of 1985, Walker's spy ring had furnished the Soviets with over a million messages and the keys to decipher them. When Vitaly Yurchenko defected briefly in 1985, he said that the KGB, which regarded the Walker-Whitworth case as the greatest in its history, couldn't believe that his wife had turned him in; they figured the U.S. must be protecting some counterintelligence assets that they didn't know about. But Walker himself once said that K-Mart has better security than the Navy.John Barron was a naval intelligence officer in the 1950s, and since then has written two books on the KGB, with assistance from his sources in the CIA. His reputation as a U.S. intelligence booster allowed him excellent access to the FBI agents who built the case against Walker and Whitworth, as well as to some intelligence specialists who were concerned with damage assessment. He also interviewed Walker, who turned state's evidence, and attended Whitworth's trial.
Blitzer, Wolf. Territory of Lies: The Rise, Fall, and Betrayal of Jonathan Jay Pollard. New York: Harper Paperbacks, 1990. 342 pages.
Israel has long enjoyed a special relationship with the United States, which derives mainly from a well-organized Jewish community in America. The two country's intelligence services are also close. Beginning in 1951, James Angleton made many visits to Israel, and was the CIA's principal liaison with Mossad for the rest of his career. There's a plaque outside of Jerusalem with his name on it in English and Hebrew, commemorating the "Memory of a Good Friend." William Casey picked up where Angleton left off.When the arrest of Jonathan Pollard hit the headlines in November, 1985, it threw a wrench in the "special relationship." Pollard was an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Navy who had been giving thousands of pages of classified documents to his handlers from Israeli intelligence, Aviem Sella and Sella's boss Rafi Eitan. Defense secretary Caspar Weinberger told the Israeli ambassador that "Pollard should have been shot," but then contented himself with a 46-page memorandum to the judge that spelled out the damage to national security. This got Pollard a life sentence. Next, Israel tactlessly promoted Aviem Sella, whereupon angry U.S. authorities responded by indicting him. American Jews were starting to wonder if they should pick sides. As for Pollard himself, he was motivated by his love of Israel, but also enjoyed spending the money Israel paid him for his spying.
Goulden, Joseph C. The Death Merchant: The Rise and Fall of Edwin P. Wilson. New York: Bantam Books, 1985. 438 pages.
Maas, Peter. Manhunt: The Incredible Pursuit of a CIA Agent Turned Terrorist. New York: Random House, 1986. 301 pages.
These books detail the activities of Edwin Wilson, from a CIA contract agent to an arms dealer and terrorist for Libya. While working for the CIA Wilson became an expert at creating and organizing CIA front companies, most of which were engaged in the transport of weapons by cargo ships. Wilson was fired by the CIA in 1971 and began working for the U.S. Navy's secret Task Force 157, but was fired in 1976 after Bobby Inman pulled the plug on his budget.Next the ever-resourceful Wilson used his contacts to begin sales of arms and C-4 plastique to Libya. His services to Libya later involved a more direct approach to terrorism when he attempted to have a Libyan dissident assassinated. Wilson was finally imprisoned for his activities, but argued at his trial that he was still working for the CIA while engaged in arms smuggling. (This "CIA defense" was later used by contra supporters and drug smugglers who felt that their services entitled them to a "get out of jail free card.") Also featured in this book is ex-CIA officer Frank Terpil who worked with Wilson in Libya. Terpil, a well known confidant with Middle East terrorists, had also worked for the infamous Idi Amin of Uganda.
-- Wendell Minnick
Kessler, Ronald. Escape from the CIA: How the CIA Won and Lost the Most Important KGB Spy Ever to Defect to the U.S. New York: Pocket Books, 1991. 210 pages.
On November 2, 1985, Vitaly Yurchenko walked away from his CIA guard and returned to the Soviet Embassy after three months of spilling secrets to the CIA's debriefers. If he were a real defector, presumably he'd be taking a massive risk by returning to the clutches of the KGB. After all, some of his information helped the CIA identify Ronald Pelton, a spy in the NSA, and Edward Lee Howard, a former CIA officer who spied for the Soviets. Not only wasn't Yurchenko shot, but he wasn't even fired; in 1989 Ronald Kessler was able to interview him in Moscow. What to make of this case?Professional opinion is split on the issue. Many feel that Yurchenko was a false defector who gave up Pelton and Howard because these two no longer had access, and their exposure might satisfy the CIA as to why their spies in the USSR had fared so poorly. In other words, throw the CIA a couple of crumbs so that they stop looking for the rest of the loaf. The 1994 arrest of CIA mole Aldrich Ames has added considerable currency to this view. Others feel that Yurchenko was genuine, but couldn't put up with the shabby treatment he experienced at the hands of the CIA. Certainly the CIA was less professional than the FBI in this regard. In any event, Yurchenko and the KGB seem content to keep us all guessing.
Wise, David. Nightmover: How Aldrich Ames Sold the CIA to the KGB for $4.6 Million. New York: HarperCollins, 1995. 356 pages.
America's premier CIA-watching journalist has exceeded my expectations with this book, which I consider his best since he started CIA-watching in 1964 with "The Invisible Government." I am flattered to be included in Wise's acknowledgements, and hope that the use of NameBase saved him at least a little bit of shoe leather. That still leaves a few pairs of worn- out shoes. Wise digs out the names of CIA officials high and low, and except for sources who were promised confidentiality, he prints these names. (Too many journalists pretend to be intimidated by a 1982 law about naming names that they've never bothered to read, and hide behind this as an excuse for their reportorial laziness.)Wise reports the story without moralizing and without obvious outrage; he lets the reader draw his own conclusions. I conclude from this book that secret agencies are destined to fail in the long run. Secrecy precludes accountability; it's an ultimate form of power that eventually turns little mistakes into disasters. Secret agencies commit major sins and do tremendous damage without realizing it; their inbred culture encourages deniability and above-the-law elitism. Hegel would say that history always generates its own contradictions from within. But secret history, it would appear, is on a fast track to self-destruction. -- D.Brandt
Wise, David. The Spy Who Got Away. New York: Random House, 1988. 289 pages.
The subtitle reads, "The Inside Story of Edward Lee Howard, the CIA Agent Who Betrayed His Country's Secrets and Escaped to Moscow." Wise was able to interview Howard, who defected to the USSR in 1985 while under FBI suspicion and surveillance for espionage. Wise also took full advantage of his many contacts in U.S. intelligence and counterintelligence to fill out the story, making the book particularly valuable for the names he included.With all of the literature about the CIA over the past two decades, it is easy to forget that for the first half of the Agency's history, almost nothing was in the public domain. Washington journalist David Wise changed all of that with "The Invisible Government" in 1964. CIA director John McCone called in Wise and co-author Thomas Ross to demand deletions on the basis of galleys the CIA had secretly obtained. When that didn't work, the CIA formed a special group to deal with the book and tried to secure bad reviews, even though the CIA's legal counsel had found the book "uncannily accurate." As the unofficial dean of intelligence journalists, Wise is still working on future books from his Washington office.
Here are the names most frequently mentioned in the above books:
ADAMS PAUL (TASK FORCE 157) AGCA MEHMET ALI AGEE JERRY ALDHIZER JOHN T (JAY) ALEXANDROV VLADIMIR V ALSUP JAMES AMERICAN ELECTRONIC LABORATORIES AMERICAN ISRAEL PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE AMES ALDRICH HAZEN AMES CARLETON CECIL AMES NANCY SEGEBARTH AMES ROSARIO ANDERSON FRANK RAY ANDERSON JACK (COLUMNIST) ANDRESS BEVERLY ANDROSOV STANISLAV A ANGLETON JAMES JESUS ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE B'NAI B'RITH API DISTRIBUTORS INC ARENS MOSHE ARMACOST MICHAEL HAYDEN AROUNDWORLD SHIPPING INC BARCELLA E LAWRENCE BARNES ROBERTA JEAN (BOBBI) BARNETT DAVID HENRY BAST RICHARD BAUM PHILIP BEARDEN MILTON A BECK KENNETH G BEYRLE JOHN R BIALKIN KENNETH J BITOV OLEG G BITTMAN WILLIAM O BLEE DAVID HENRY BLOOM EDWARD J BOECKENHAUPT HERBERT W BOGATY ANATOLY BOKHAN SERGEI I BOOKBINDER HYMAN BOSCH VICTORIA BOSCH WILLIAM GEORGE BRANDON HARRY B (SKIP) BROCE REID P BROWER JEROME S BROWN GERALD B BROWN JERRY G BRYANT ROBERT M (BEAR) BRYEN STEPHEN DAVID BURNS JAMES B CACHERIS PLATO CAPPUCCI JOSEPH J (GEN) CARLSON RODNEY W CARLUCCI FRANK CHARLES CARTER BILLY (BROTHER OF JIMMY) CARUSO TIM CASEY WILLIAM JOSEPH CASPI RAM CATHERWOOD CUMMINS SR CATHERWOOD FOUNDATION CHARNEY LEON H CHAVEZ RICARDO CHEBRIKOV VIKTOR M CHERKASHIN VIKTOR I CHIN LARRY WU-TAI CHUVAKHIN SERGEI D CLARRIDGE DUANE R (DEWEY) CLINES THOMAS G COFFEE GORDON A COLVERT BARRY CONKLIN KENNETH E CONRAD CLYDE LEE CONSULTANTS INTERNATIONAL INC COPAKEN RICHARD D COSTA ALEXANDRA (DEFECTOR) COUGHLIN EDWARD J CRAM CLEVELAND C CROCKER LANE W JR CUMMINGS WILLIAM B CYR PAUL DANILOFF NICHOLAS S DE CONCINI DENNIS (D-AZ) DE TOLEDANO RALPH DEAN JAMES CLINTON DELEX INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION DERSHOWITZ ALAN M DEVINE JOHN J DI GENOVA JOSEPH E DINE THOMAS ALAN DION JOHN J DIVILKOVSKY SERGEI I DONNAY ARMAND DONNER MICHAEL A DORITTY GEORGE DRAKE DANIEL S DRUMMOND NELSON CORNELIUS DUBBERSTEIN WALDO H DUNLAP JACK EDWARD DUTCHER JOHN EBAN ABBA EDGER DAVID N EGYPTIAN-AMERICAN TRANSPORT SERVICE COMPANY EITAN RAFI (MOSSAD) EIZENSTAT STUART E ENGER VLADIK A ERB IRIT FAHEY HELEN F FARMER WILLIAM S JR FAULKNER DAVID E FEDORENKO SERGEI FEDOTOV VASILY FEEN RICHARD FIERS ALAN D JR FILKINS THOMAS FITZHERBERT GILES EDEN FITZWATER HARRY E FITZWATER MARLIN FLETCHER SCHOOL LAW AND DIPLOMACY FORBES MARY LOU FORDEN DAVID WARNER FOURNIER JANET FOURNIER PIERRE D FRAUENKNECHT ALFRED FRIEDMAN THOMAS L GAINOR EDWARD GARBLER PAUL GARMENT LEONARD GEER JAMES H GENESON DAVID GEORGE CLAIR ELROY GERBER BURTON LEE GLANZER SEYMOUR GOMEZ SOTO JOSE ROBERT GORDIEVSKY OLEG A GOULDING PETER R GOWER JOHN P GRAY ROBERT KEITH GRIEGO ROBERT GRIMES SANDY GUERIN RUDY GUNDAREV VIKTOR P HAASE JAMES DUDLEY HAKIM ALBERT HANNAH THOMAS HAREL ISSER HARPER EULA HARPER JAMES DURWARD HARPER JOHN HENRY (I.W.) HATHAWAY GARDNER RUGG (GUS) HAUSMANN CYNTHIA J HAVER RICHARD L HEATH JOHN HERSH SEYMOUR M HEYDT FRANCIS HIBEY JAMES HILTON CLAUDE M HITCHMAN ROBERT W III HITT KEITH HITZ FREDERICK PORTER HODGSON DUDLEY F.B. HOLT JAMES (FBI) HOSINSKI JOHN HOWARD EDWARD LEE HOWARD MARY HULKOWER MARK J HUME JOHN P (U.S.ATTORNEY) HUNTER ROBERT W INMAN BOBBY RAY INTER-TECHNOLOGY INC INTERCONTINENTAL TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH TRADE JACKSON SANDRA JAN JAMESON DONALD F.B. (JAMIE) JAMESTOWN FOUNDATION JOYCE EDWARD H (FBI) KALUGIN OLEG D KANUNI IBRAHIM EL KARETKIN YURI KASI MIR AIMAL KEATS JOHN KEISER ERNEST KHRENKOV ALEKSEI KLINK WALLACE LLOYD KOCHNOV IGOR P KOECHER KARL F KOLESNICHENKO THOMAS KOLOUCH JAMES L KORKALA GEORGE GREGARY KOROMILAS PETER KRYUCHKOV VLADIMIR ALEKSANDROVICH KULAK ALEKSEI I LAPIDOT AMOS LARSON YOLANDA M LAUDER GEORGE V LAVON PINCHAS LEAVITT JOHN H LEEPER CHARLES LEFFLER RODNEY L LEHMAN JOHN FRANCIS JR LEVCHENKO STANISLAV A LEVI MOSHE MOUSSA LEWIS JOHN F JR (FBI) LOHBECK KURT LONETREE CLAYTON J LOOMIS JOANNE LOOMIS PATRY E LOWE A.JACKSON MABEY JOHN F MACDONALD FRANCIS COTE MACGAFFIN JOHN (NORMAN JOHN III) MAGEN DAVID (TED CROSS) MAJOR DAVID G MALLOY BERNARD MATHIS MARTIN JOHN L MARTINOV VALERY F MCCULLAH LANNY E MCELROY JOSEPH GERALD MCELWEE MICHAEL MCMAHON JOHN NORMAN MCMILLAN HUGH J MECHULAYEV VLADIMIR MEISTEN JOHN N MIRON MURRAY S MOORE EDWIN GIBBONS MORTON MICHAEL (FBI) MOTORIN SERGEI M MULCAHY DONALD V MULCAHY KEVIN PATRICK NATIRBOFF MURAT NIELSEN DONALD E NOLTKAMPER EUGENE OMALLEY EDWARD J PAPICH SAM J PARKER PHILLIP A PAYNE DAN (CIA) PEACE CORPS PELTON RONALD WILLIAM PEPPER BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PERES SHIMON PETERSON JOHN (FBI) PETERSON MARTHA D PIGUZOV VLADIMIR M POLLARD ANNE HENDERSON POLLARD JONATHAN JAY POLLARD MORRIS POLYAKOV DMITRI FEDOROVICH POPADIUK ROMAN PORETZ BARRY R POTASHOV VLADIMIR V PRICE HUGH E (TED) PRIMAKOV YEVGENI M PROPPER EUGENE M QADDAFADAM SAYED QUINTERO RAFAEL (CHI CHI) RABIN YITZHAK RAFFIO ALEXANDER W RAVID ILAN REDMOND PAUL J JR RINGLAND PETER ROCHFORD MICHAEL T ROCKFORD BRAD ROSENNE MEIR RUBENSTEIN A IRWIN RUBINSTEIN ELYAKIM RYBKIN PAVEL SAKHAROV VLADIMIR N SALEM HUSSEIN K.E.I. SAMSON DAVID TORREY SCHLACHTER DOUGLAS M JR SCHOGGEN LEIDA SCHWARTZ ROBERT HILL SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATIONS INC SECORD RICHARD V SEDDIO ALEX SELLA AVIEM SHACKLEY THEODORE GEORGE SHADRIN EWA SHADRIN NICHOLAS GEORGE SHAMIR YITZHAK SHANNON KATHERINE (PSEUDONYM) SHEVCHENKO ARKADY N SHEYMOV VICTOR I SHURYGIN IGOR I SIVESS PETER SLOCOMBE REGINALD SMITS WILLIAM H SOBELEV NIKOLAI P SOFAER ABRAHAM DAVID STANFORD TECHNOLOGY STEIN JOHN HENRY STEINIGER WOLFGANG STERN STEVEN E STOLZ RICHARD FAURS JR STOMBAUGH PAUL M JR (SKIP) STREETER STEVE STUDEMAN WILLIAM O (ADM) SWALLOW ROBERT EARL SYSTEMS SERVICES INTERNATIONAL SZADY DAVID W TAFOYA BETTY JO TAFOYA EUGENE A TASK FORCE 157 TAUB WILLIAM L TERPIL FRANK EDWARD THOMPSON COLIN R THOMPSON LUKE THURMAN J RICHARD TKACHENKO ALEKSEI G TOLKACHEV ADOLF G TURNER STANSFIELD UMANA DE BRIGARD IGNACIO VARENIK GENNADI G VASILYEV VLADIMIR M VERTEFEUILLE JEANNE R VILLAVERDE RAFAEL VILLAVERDE RAUL VON MARBOD ERICH FRITZ WADE ROBERT B WALKER ARTHUR J WALKER BARBARA WALKER JOHN ANTHONY JR WALKER LAURA WALKER MICHAEL LANCE WALSH NICHOLAS J WALTERS FREDERICK WATSON R PATRICK WEBSTER WILLIAM HEDGCOCK WEDEMEYER ALBERT D WEINBERGER CASPAR W WEISENBURGER WILLIAM WHITWORTH JERRY ALFRED WILSON DENNIS J WILSON EDWIN PAUL WISER LESLIE G JR WOLFE ALAN DOUGLAS WOLFINGER JOSEPH R WOODRUFF FRED WOOLSEY R JAMES WRIGHT LAWRENCE M (CIA) YAGUR YOSEF YOSSI YAKUSHKIN DMITRI I YERESKOVSKY ALEKSANDR S YERESKOVSKY VALENTINA S YURCHENKO VITALY S YUZHIN BORIS G ZIGROSSI NORMAN A
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