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Book Description - In today's business world, information is everything - and no one gathers information more effectively than spies. So why not bring real spying techniques into your workplace? The same tactics used by CIA and KGB agents can also be used at offices and corporations of any size - and these techniques will help you get ahead fast! The Spy's Guide: Office Espionage features illustrated step-by-step instructions on tapping phones, sending anonymous e-mails, disguising your identity at a trade show, and much more. The authors also share real-life stories about how these tactics have been employed by professional spies in the CIA, KGB, Fortune 500 companies, and other settings. Advance your career with espionage!

Amazon.com - The problem with memoirs by ex-secret agents is that they usually make their careers sound about as exciting as that of $6-an-hour bowling alley security guard, unless you're of the opinion that filing papers and making phone calls is the epitome of thrills. Antonio Mendez, however, has produced a tome that makes the life of a CIA agent sound every bit the slam-bang world of intrigue and skulking in the shadows that movies like Mission: Impossible make it out to be.
Honored by the CIA on its 50th anniversary as being one of the agency's 50 "Trailblazers," the now-retired Mendez spins a fast-paced tale of intriguing characters partaking in skullduggery in exotic locales, made all the more appealing because Mendez himself is the featured star of the proceedings. In an almost offhand manner, he writes about seeing and doing things that would wilt the flower of courage in almost any reader. "Was I proud to be enlisting," he rhetorically ponders at one point, "on our side in the Cold War? You bet." Originally drafted by the CIA as a "technical artist" to provide cover for agents behind enemy lines, Mendez worked his way up the ladder and progressed to a full-fledged agent in the field, sneaking diplomats past enemy guards and spiriting informants into the night, eluding capture and torture at every turn--and using his artist's eye for detail to paint vivid word pictures of his predicaments. Mendez possesses a remarkably keen sense of the mechanics of a good cloak-and-dagger story, and fortunately pours it on in abundance here in his quite hefty--and surprisingly lively--autobiography. --Tjames Madison

Book Description - The death of CIA operative Theodore G. "Ted" Shackley in December 2002 triggered an avalanche of obituaries from all over the world, some of them condemnatory. Pundits used such expressions as "heroin trafficking," "training terrorists," "attempts to assassinate Castro," and "Mob connections." More specifically, they charged him with having played a major role in the Chilean military coup of 1973.

But who was the real Ted Shackley? In Spymaster, he has told the story of his entire remarkable career for the first time. With the assistance of fellow former CIA officer Richard A. Finney, he discusses the consequential posts he held in Berlin, Miami, Laos, Vietnam, and Washington, where he was intimately involved in some of the key intelligence operations of the Cold War. During his long career, Shackley ran part of the inter-agency program to overthrow Castro, was chief of station in Vientiane during the CIA's "secret war" against North Vietnam and the Pathet Lao, and was chief of station in Saigon. After his retirement, he remained a controversial figure. In the early eighties, he was falsely charged with complicity in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Ted Shackley's comments on CIA operations in Europe, Cuba, Chile, and Southeast Asia and on the life of a high-stakes spymaster will be the subject of intense scrutiny by all concerned with the fields of intelligence, foreign policy, and postwar U.S. history.

From Publishers Weekly - No longer satisfied with gentlemanly intelligence gathering, with the advent of WWII the United States changed its espionage policy and opted for more daring tactics like decoding secret messages and detonating exploding cigars. Under the guidance of decorated WWI hero William "Wild Bill" Donovan, the Office of Special Services, the CIA’s predecessor, assembled a motley assortment of agents who set the stage for the Allied armies’ most important missions, like the invasion of North Africa and the storming of Normandy. Through first person narratives from a slew of OSS operatives, O’Donnell explores the thrilling world of spying before satellites and computer hacking boxed agents into cubicles. The WWII OSS hauled hardened criminals out of jail to burgle enemy embassies and culled spies from the Free French who fled to England and North Africa. The sophisticated seductress "Cynthia" used her sex appeal to gather ciphers for breaking Polish, Italian and Vichy codes from high-ranking military men. Elsewhere, Virginia Hall supplied the French Resistance with arms and continually sabotaged the Gestapo while limping with a wooden-leg. The book also chronicles psychological operations by the Allied "Sauerkraut agents" who demoralized German troops by spreading rumors of defeat, disease and desperation. The chapter on the OSS’ covert weapons, like exploding baseballs and umbrella pistols, vividly recalls 007’s pre-mission encounters with "Q." This book is far more than a simple historical survey and reads like a satisfying cloak and dagger yarn, making it a good choice both history and mystery buffs.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Book Description - Everyone, at some time in his or her life, fantasizes about being a spy--James Bond, Mata Hari, George Smiley, Maxwell Smart. At the new International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., more than a million visitors have stepped into the secret history of history--and have learned what it is really like to live undercover. This distinctive and fascinating book at once distills and expands upon that experience, with inside information on how spies do their jobs, interviews with operatives, and hundreds of photographs and descriptions of tools of the trade.

Biographies of legendary spies and how they completed their special operations are included, along with timelines showing the developments of bugs, surveillance tools, weapons, and disguises. Letters, maps, examples of disguises, dead drops, and rare photos make spies and their operations from 2000 BC to the present live and breathe on every page.

Book Description - Maps, as we know, help us find our way around. But they're also powerful tools for someone hoping to find you. Widely available in electronic and paper formats, maps offer revealing insights into our movements and activities, even our likes and dislikes. In Spying with Maps, the "mapmatician" Mark Monmonier looks at the increased use of geographic data, satellite imagery, and location tracking across a wide range of fields such as military intelligence, law enforcement, market research, and traffic engineering. Could these diverse forms of geographic monitoring, he asks, lead to grave consequences for society? To assess this very real threat, he explains how geospatial technology works, what it can reveal, who uses it, and to what effect.

Despite our apprehension about surveillance technology, Spying with Maps is not a jeremiad, crammed with dire warnings about eyes in the sky and invasive tracking. Monmonier's approach encompasses both skepticism and the acknowledgment that geospatial technology brings with it unprecedented benefits to governments, institutions, and individuals, especially in an era of asymmetric warfare and bioterrorism. Monmonier frames his explanations of what this new technology is and how it works with the question of whether locational privacy is a fundamental right. Does the right to be left alone include not letting Big Brother (or a legion of Little Brothers) know where we are or where we've been? What sacrifices must we make for homeland security and open government?

With his usual wit and clarity, Monmonier offers readers an engaging, even-handed introduction to the dark side of the new technology that surrounds us—from traffic cameras and weather satellites to personal GPS devices and wireless communications.

Book Description - This comprehensive CD-ROM provides a thorough overview of the controversial USA Patriot Act which provides new tools to American law enforcement in the fight against terrorism. (The full name of the act is Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.) It also covers the military DARPA Information Awareness Office, recently highlighted by coverage in the media as planning the creation of a database on the activities of Americans. Here are just a few of the topics covered by the fascinating articles in this enormous collection:

The complete copy of the USA Patriot Act Searching and Seizing Computers and Obtaining Electronic Evidence in Criminal Investigations Technology in Internet Surveillance Homeland Security Information Sharing Financial Crimes Enforcement Network House of Representatives Documents DARPA Information Awareness Office and related DARPA technologies

The DARPA Information Awareness Office "will manage, develop, apply, integrate, demonstrate, and transition information technologies, components and prototype, closed-loop information systems that will counter asymmetric threats by achieving total information awareness useful for preemption, national security warning, and national security decision making. Example technologies include: Large, distributed repositories with dynamic schemas that can be changed interactively by users, foreign language machine translation and speech recognition; biometric signatures of humans; pattern detection; human network analysis; story telling, change detection, and truth maintenance, human ID at a distance."

Over 24,000 pages are reproduced using Adobe Acrobat PDF software - allowing direct viewing on Windows and Apple Macintosh systems. Reader software is included. Our CD-ROMs are privately-compiled collections of official public domain U.S. government files and documents - they are not produced by the federal government. They are designed to provide a convenient user-friendly reference work utilizing the benefits of the Adobe Acrobat format to uniformly present thousands of pages that can be rapidly reviewed, searched by finding specific words, or printed without untold hours of tedious research and downloading. Vast archives of important public domain government information that might otherwise remain inaccessible are available for instant review no matter where you are. This book-on-a-disc makes a great reference work and educational tool. There is no other reference that is as fast, convenient, comprehensive, thoroughly researched, and portable - everything you need to know, from the federal sources you trust.