Ken Conboy - Intel: Inside Indonesias Intelligence Service

IN A COUNTRY where talk of conspiracies is often a national pastime, the deepest, sometimes darkest, secrets have long been held by Indonesias State Intelligence Agency (Badan Intelijen Negara, or BIN). Whether targeting communist diplomats, foreign terrorists, or domestic dissidents, BIN and its precursor organizations have been the covert spearhead of the nations security policy. Here, for the first time, this secretive agency is exposed in INTEL: Inside Indonesias Intelligence Service by noted author Ken Conboy. Drawing from exclusive access to BINs personnel and operational archives, Conboy examines the agents and their operations since BINs founding fifty years ago, and sheds new light on Indonesias role in the Cold War with case studies of North Korean, Soviet, and Vietnamese operations across the archipelago and BINs current position at the forefront on the war against terrorism. From the activities and subsequent captures of both Faruq and Hambali to the Indonesian operations of al-Qaeda, this book provides far more detail and insight than previously available. Understanding BIN is an integral part of understanding the politics and security of Indonesia, and INTEL is essential reading for anyone interested in intelligence operations, contemporary Indonesian history, and international terrorism.KEN CONBOY is country manager for Risk Management Advisory, a private security consultancy in Jakarta. Prior to that, he served as deputy director at the Asian Studies Center, an influential Washington-based think tank, where his duties including writing policy papers for the U.S. Congress and Executive on economic and strategic relations with the nations of South and Southeast Asia. The author of a dozen books about Asian military history and intelligence operations, Conboys most recent title, Spies in the Himalayas, has earned praise as an intriguing account of high-altitude mountaineering and covert missions. A graduate of Georgetown Universitys School of Foreign Service and of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Conboy was also a visiting fellow at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and has lived in Indonesia since 1992.