Shrimpton - Spyhunter : the secret history of German intelligence

Michael Shrimptons Spyhunter is an importantbook, which if its lesson is learned, should change the course of history. Itssubject is the conspiratorial means employed by Germany to achieve its goalsfrom its founding in 1870 until the present day.

War has been the non-conspiratorial means employedby Germany: - World War II preceded by World War I, preceded by theFranco-Prussian War, preceded the war with Austria, preceded by war withDenmark. In Spyhunter, Shrimpton focuses on Germanys conspiracies -pre-war, wartime, post-war and peace time.

In recent decades conspiracy has got a bad name,often confusedly equated with conspiracy theory. Conspiracy theory, a termwhich since the mid-1960s has acquired a somewhat derogatory meaning, implyinga paranoid tendency to see the influence of some malign covert agency inevents, serves as a label to be slapped onto an alleged conspiracy in order todiscredit it regardless of the evidence for its existence. A respectedprofessor of history at a Boston university demonstrated this when he told meI dont believe in conspiracies. Clearly this professor did not really meanwhat he said. As a professor of modern European history he has taught about theDreyfus Affair, in which French army leaders conspired to convictCaptain Alfred Dreyfus of treason and conspired to prevent properjudicial review of the case, and has taught about the outbreak of World War Iin which a small group of German leaders conspired to launch a war ofaggression while making it appear to be a war of defense.

A conspiracy is a plan of action to do evilconcocted in secret by a relatively few individuals. In contrast conspiracytheory refers to a supposed conspiracy for which there is no reliable or evenplausible evidence. The fact that the subject of Spyhunter is conspiracywill lead some, including, of course, those directly or indirectly in the payof Germany, to dismiss it out of hand as conspiracy theory.

Mr Shrimptons book may have difficulty receivingthe attention it deserves due to the fact that it is an intelligence history.In contrast with the familiar academic histories, which cite sources that arepublicly available such as books, newspapers, archives, letters, diaries aswell as interviews of identified sources, intelligence history relies onunidentified or partially unidentified sources who as a condition forcommunicating with the author, require that their identity not be disclosed.

Intelligence histories are relatively rare. I canrecall reading only three - John Loftuss The Secret War Against the Jews,Cees Wiebes Intelligence in the War in Bosnia, 1992-1995 and nowMichael Shrimptons Spyhunter. Wiebes work is highly respected and Irefer to it as a source myself.

Regarding the question of whether the government oftodays Germany maintains Germanys goals of the past or has given them up,Shrimpton differs sharply from the common view. It is easily understood that leaders of Germany would want othersto believe that its present aims differ from those of the past whether in factthey do or do not. Awareness of this should help those who are interested inthe question discerning discrepancies between the impression German leaderswould like to convey and the goals which, in fact, they pursue; motives may bediscerned if looked for with care.