Robert Wallace - Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIAs Spytechs, from Communism to Al-Qaeda

A PLUME BOOK

SPYCRAFT

ROBERT WALLACE is the former director of the CIAs Office of Technical Service and lives in Virginia. A recipient of the CIAs Intelligence Medal of Merit, Wallace founded the Artemus Consulting Group in 2004, providing management and intelligence counsel to corporate and government clients. He is also a contributor to the oral history program of CIAs Center for the Study of Intelligence.

H . KEITH MELTON is an internationally recognized author, historian, and expert on clandestine devices and technology. He is the technical tradecraft historian at the Interagency Training Center in Washington, D.C. He has assembled the worlds largest collection of espionage devices and lectures widely throughout the U.S. intelligence community and abroad. He resides in Florida.

HENRY ROBERT SCHLESINGER is an author and journalist who has covered intelligence technologies, counterterrorism, and law enforcement. His work has appeared in Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Technology Review, and Smithsonian magazine. He lives in New York City.

The authors can be contacted through their Web site at www.ciaspycraft.com.

Praise for Spycraft

Their tales will leave you shaken, if not stirred.

Discover magazine

Full of neat gadgets.

Chicago Tribune

Hollywoods early depiction of spy gadgets is not far from reality.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A fascinating and often funny compendium of spook contraptions.

The Miami Herald

007 and actual spies do have one thing in common: Q, the gadget maker, who in real life was played by Wallace.

New York Post

History-making, patent-never-pending objects of espionage.

Boston Herald

Spycraft portrays the ingenuity of the CIA, the success of its operations, and the bravery of its officers.

Ronald Kessler on Newsmax.com

Mind-boggling, high-tech spy gear.

Knoxville News-Sentinel

Exciting content and slam-bang style.

Publishers Weekly

Well-written accountThe details of operational activity are as engrossing as the descriptions of the equipment, military and otherwisee.g., miniature cameras and radios, obscure drugs, tiny weapons, secret compartments, and forged documentsdepicted here in 100-plus fascinating diagrams and photographs.

Library Journal

Regaling readers with the paraphernalia CIA case officers use in running their agentsaudio devices, miniature cameras, secret writing, disguises, codes, dead drops, etc.Wallace and his coauthors well capture the spy-versus-spy dynamic.

Booklist

Wallace and Melton provide an in-depth account of not only the wizardry of OTS technology but also the innovative and often heroic application of this technology to support clandestine operations. For me, it has been a distinct honor and privilege to have had the opportunity to serve with the men and women of OTS. Their creativity and dedication to service continues to significantly contribute to U.S. national security.

James R. Gosler, former director, Clandestine Information Technology Office, Central Intelligence Agency

Spycraft is one of the best, if not the best and most revealing books on intelligence ever written. It is a must-read for anyone interested in intelligence, whether the reader is an historian, an aficionado, or someone seeking an understanding of the profession. If only we had had some of those tools when I was a young ops officer.

Larry Devlin, author of Chief of Station, Congo and former chief, CIA Africa Division

This book is absolutely the best Ive ever read about the CIAs spy-techs and the critical role they have played.A must-read for anyone interested in how the clever use of technology gives Americas intelligence services a decisive advantage in the espionage wars.

Pete Earley, author of Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russias Master Spy After the End of the Cold War

Just amazing! Page after page of jaw-dropping revelations about incredible cases and amazing technology. There has never been anything like this book.

Richard Gid Powers, author of Secrecy and Power: The Life of J. Edgar Hoover

A must-read for anyone interested in the world of CIA clandestine operations. The authors open a door on a hidden area that even those of us who have served in the agency rarely see.Incredible research and great writing make this a fun ride through the history of this until now overlooked secret world deep inside the CIA.The authors are finally able to bring the long overdue story of this critical side of the agency operations to light. Let our enemies around the world see why they can run, but they cannot hide.

Gary C. Schroen, author of First In

This is a story I thought could never be told. The CIAs super-secret gadgets and technical operations were the difference maker in the espionage wars.Behind all of us who did the front line spying for the CIA stood some remarkable and unsung heroes, the scientists and engineers of OTS. It was a beautiful partnership. Dont miss this book. Nothing like it has been written before.

James M. Olson, former chief of CIA counterintelligence and author of Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying

Stuffed with stories about chemical taggants, forged documents, physical and psychological disguises, software beacons that reveal the location of a cell phone or a laptop, about long-range surveillance cameras and ivory letter-opening knives, this extraordinary, detailed, accurate book tells more about what spies really do, the risks they run and their schemes to avoid them, than all the James Bond stories put together. Essential for any serious student of spycraft.

David Kahn, author of The Codebreakers

Spycraft is the inside story of how the wizards of Langley exploited science and technology to level and then dominate the battlefield in CIAs spy wars with the KGB. As a CIA historian, I wrote the classified history of OTS at the request of Spycraft author and former OTS director Robert Wallace. Spycraft omits very few details of the classified history while adding many more fascinating accounts based on interviews with the men and woman who performed OTSs wizardry and helped win the Cold War.

Benjamin B. Fischer, former CIA chief historian

A comprehensive and historic work that is both captivating and enlightening. Impeccably researched and written with authority by these masters of intelligence, Spycraft offers the greatest of spy storiestrue tales of espionage that are often more compelling than our favorite movie spy thrillers.

Danny Biederman, author of The Incredible World of SPY-Fi, writer/director of Hollywood SpyTek, executive director of SPY-Fi Archives

Reliable, readable, indeed often fascinating account of the CIAs use of high-tech gadgets and machines to acquire secrets overseas. A must for the intelligence library, as well as for anyone interested in the security of the United States.

Loch K. Johnson, Regents Professor, University of Georgia, and senior editor of the international journal Intelligence and National Security

A classic and no one who pretends to know anything about intelligence operations can afford not to read it.

James F. Morris, Major U.S. Army (Ret.), author of War Story and The Devils Secret Name

Aptly describes the history of OTS and the many exciting, important, and, at times, dangerous work of OTS officers who work hand in hand with agency operations officers in the clandestine world of espionage. This is an excellent book that often reads like a spy novel. All the better because it is true!