Table Of ContentTable of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Foreword
Preface
SECTION I - AT THE BEGINNING
CHAPTER 1 - My Hair Stood on End
CHAPTER 2 - We Must Be Ruthless
SECTION II - PLAYING CATCH-UP
CHAPTER 3 - The Penkovsky Era
CHAPTER 4 - Beyond Penkovsky
CHAPTER 5 - Bring in the Engineers
CHAPTER 6 - Building Better Gadgets
SECTION III - IN THE PASSING LANE
CHAPTER 7 - Moving Through the Gap
CHAPTER 8 - The Pen Is Mightier Than the Sword (and Shield)
CHAPTER 9 - Fire in the Arctic
CHAPTER 10 - A Dissident at Heart
CHAPTER 11 - An Operation Called CKTAW
SECTION IV - LET THE WALLS HAVE EARS
CHAPTER 12 - Cold Beer, Cheap Hotels, and a Voltmeter
CHAPTER 13 - Progress in a New Era
CHAPTER 14 - The Age of Bond Arrives
CHAPTER 15 - Genius Is Where You Find It
SECTION V - PRISON, BULLET, PASSPORT, BOMB
CHAPTER 16 - Conspicuous Fortitude, Exemplary Courage in a Cuban Jail
CHAPTER 17 - War by Any Other Name
CHAPTER 18 - Con Men, Fabricators, and Forgers
CHAPTER 19 - Tracking Terrorist Snakes
SECTION VI - FUNDAMENTALS OF TRADECRAFT
CHAPTER 20 - Assessment
CHAPTER 21 - Cover and Disguise
CHAPTER 22 - Concealments
CHAPTER 23 - Clandestine Surveillance
CHAPTER 24 - Covert Communications
CHAPTER 25 - Spies and the Age of Information
EPILOGUE
Appendix A - U.S. Clandestine Services and OTS Organizational Genealogy, 1941-2008
Appendix B - Selected Chronology of OTS
Appendix C - Directors of OTS
Appendix D - CIA Trailblazers from OTS
Appendix E - Pseudonyms of CIA Officers Used
Appendix F - Instructions to Decipher the Official Message from the CIA on page xxv
Glossary
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index
About the Author
Praise for Spycraft
“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 CIA’s spy wars with the KGB. As a CIA historian, I wrote
the classified history of OTS at the request of 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 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 stories
—true 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, Hollywood SpyTek; executive director, SPY-Fi Archives
“Reliable, readable, indeed often fascinating account of the CIA’s 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 Devil’s 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!”
—Mike Howard, general manager, Microsoft Global Security,
twenty-three-year CIA veteran
“Will long stand as the definitive reference on CIA spycraft. Names, dates, and details of advanced
technical gadgetry, collection operations, covert action, and even organizational infighting—it’s all
here. Forget James Bond’s famous ‘Q’ and Hollywood; this is the most remarkable and revealing
book ever published about the history and technology of spying in the Cold War through today’s War
on Terrorism.”
—Peter Earnest, executive director, International Spy Museum
“A fascinating study of CIA espionage operations.”
—Jeffrey T. Richelson, author of The Wizards of Langley:
Inside the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology
“A significant and heretofore neglected slice of the CIA’s sixty-year ‘story.’”
—David M. Barrett, author of The CIA and Congress:
The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy
ALSO BY (OR CO-AUTHORED WITH) H. KEITH MELTON
Ultimate Spy
U.S. Government Guide to Surviving Terrorism: Compiled from Official U.S. Government
Documents
Spy’s Guide: Office Espionage
The Ultimate Spy Book
CIA Special Weapons and Equipment: Spy Devices of the Cold War
OSS Special Weapons and Equipment: Spy Devices of World War II
Clandestine Warfare: Weapons and Equipment of the SOE and OSS
ALSO BY ROBERT WALLACE
Nine from the Ninth
DUTTON
Published by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Published by Dutton, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
First printing, June 2008
Copyright © 2008 by Robert Wallace, H. Keith Melton, and Henry R. Schlesinger
All rights reserved
Photos on page 449; first insert, page 2 (bottom): courtesy of the CIA Museum. First insert, page 10 (top): courtesy of the Central
Intelligence Agency, Studies in Intelligence. All other images provided by the Melton Archive.
REGISTERED TRADEMARK — MARCA REGISTRADA
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Wallace, Robert.
Spycraft: the secret history of the CIA’s spytechs from communism to Al-Qaeda / Robert
Wallace and H. Keith Melton with Henry R. Schlesinger.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Directorate of Science and Technology—History. 2. Intelligence service—United
States. I. Melton, H. Keith (Harold Keith), 1944- II. Schlesinger, Henry R. III. Title.
JK468.I6W35 2008
327.1273—dc22 2007046734
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For the families of TSS, TSD, and OTS
who served their country with patience,
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