Robert Wallace (11)Besprekingen

One of the better books about the intelligence community -- focused on Office of Technical Services and the technologies they developed and fielded, as well as some of the basics of spying and why those technologies were useful.

Inner workings of CIA technicians

A 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.

There 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.

A fascinating description of both the hardware and "tradecraft" used by the US from the end of WWII to the present. It demonstrates that the hardware was essential in enabling the agent and his handlers to accomplish their tasks. It also showed how the human element could make a technologically brilliant piece of hardware useless. And that "low tech" solutions are often the optimum solution to a situation. All in all, a wonderful read.

History of the more technical aspects of the CIA. Very interesting stories, although a bit repetitive at times.

The work presents a largely successful and professionally run organization in contrast to other works about CIA. Although the work covers a unique topic, in many ways, much of the information, illustrations, and examples appear dated and because many of the operatives are anonymous, it appears that the information should be taken with a grain of salt. I can understand that due to the sensitive nature of the topic much of the information can not be revealed but in that case neither can the accuracy of the work be confirmed through additional sources. Since other works on CIA are far more critical it appears here that the information in the book is overly optimistic. The assurance that CIA is in good hands and their work should be appreciated since the best work is unconfirmed will not reassure a skeptical reader.

Cf. Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner, http://www.librarything.com/work/3374621/38425425; The Secret History of the CIA by Joseph J. Trento, http://www.librarything.com/work/578078/edit/39377565.

The work may be compared to others on CIA:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/gmicksmith&deepsearch=cia

In 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.