Disrupt and Deny

Disrupt and Deny
Author: Rory Cormac
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 407
Release: 2018-05-10
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0191087521

Disrupt and Deny is the untold story behind Britain's secret scheming against both enemies and friends from 1945 to the present day. British leaders use spies and Special Forces to interfere in the affairs of others discreetly and deniably. Since 1945, MI6 has spread misinformation designed to divide and discredit targets from the Middle East to Eastern Europe and Northern Ireland. It has instigated whispering campaigns and planted false evidence on officials working behind the Iron Curtain, tried to foment revolution in Albania, blown up ships to prevent the passage of refugees to Israel, and secretly funnelled aid to insurgents in Afghanistan and dissidents in Poland. MI6 has launched cultural and economic warfare against Iceland and Czechoslovakia. It has tried to instigate coups in Congo, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and elsewhere. Through bribery and blackmail, Britain has rigged elections as colonies moved to independence. Britain has fought secret wars in Yemen, Indonesia, and Oman - and discreetly used Special Forces to eliminate enemies from colonial Malaya to Libya during the Arab Spring. This is covert action: a vital, though controversial, tool of statecraft and perhaps the most sensitive of all government activity. If used wisely, it can play an important role in pursuing national interests in a dangerous world. If used poorly, it can cause political scandal - or worse. In Disrupt and Deny, Rory Cormac tells the remarkable true story of Britain's secret scheming against its enemies, as well as its friends; of intrigue and manoeuvring within the darkest corridors of Whitehall, where officials fought to maintain control of this most sensitive and seductive work; and, above all, of Britain's attempt to use smoke and mirrors to mask decline. He reveals hitherto secret operations, the slush funds that paid for them, and the battles in Whitehall that shaped them.

Confronting the Colonies

Confronting the Colonies
Author: Rory Cormac
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2014-03-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 019936527X

Moving the debate beyond the place of tactical intelligence in counterinsurgency warfare, Confronting the Colonies considers the view from Whitehall, where the biggest decisions were made. It reveals the evolving impact of strategic intelligence upon government understandings of, and policy responses to, insurgent threats. Confronting the Colonies demonstrates for the first time how, in the decades after World War Two, the intelligence agenda expanded to include non-state actors, insurgencies, and irregular warfare. It explores the challenges these emerging threats posed to intelligence assessment and how they were met with varying degrees of success. Such issues remain of vital importance today. By examining the relationship between intelligence and policy, Cormac provides original and revealing insights into government thinking in the era of decolonisation, from the origins of nationalist unrest to the projection of dwindling British power. He demonstrates how intelligence (mis-)understood the complex relationship between the Cold War, nationalism, and decolonisation; how it fuelled fierce Whitehall feuding; and how it shaped policymakers' attempts to integrate counterinsurgency into broader strategic policy.

Desperate Deception

Desperate Deception
Author: Thomas E. Mahl
Publisher: Potomac Books
Total Pages: 280
Release: 1998
Genre: History
ISBN:

Describes the secret political campaign undertaken by Britain in 1939 to weaken America's isolationists, bring the U.S. into World War II, and influence American policy in England's favor. Discusses British influence in the Willkie campaign, the political destruction of isolationist Congressman Hamilton Fish, the ideological switch of Senator Vandenburg, and pro-war propaganda efforts by the New York Times, The New York Herald Tribune and Warner Brothers Studios. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Secret and Sanctioned

Secret and Sanctioned
Author: Stephen F. Knott
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 274
Release: 1996
Genre: History
ISBN: 0195100980

This eye-opening account reveals that covert intelligence operations in the U.S. date much farther back than most people realize--back to the Founding Fathers. Detailing clandestine, unscrupulous operations that took place under such presidents as Washington, Jefferson, Polk, and Lincoln, Knott reveals that presidents have rarely consulted Congress before engaging in such operations.

British Intelligence in the Second World War: Volume 5, Strategic Deception

British Intelligence in the Second World War: Volume 5, Strategic Deception
Author: F. H. Hinsley
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 314
Release: 1990-10-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521401456

Volume 5 of the Official History of Intelligence in the Second World War, Strategic Deception, brings the series to an end. Strategic deception depends for its success on the availability of good security and good intelligence. The first three volumes of the series described the intelligence channels that gave the Allies their incomparable insight into enemy capabilities and intentions.

Spies of the Kaiser

Spies of the Kaiser
Author: T. Boghardt
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2004-10-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0230508421

Spies of the Kaiser examines the scope and objectives of German covert operations in Great Britain before and during the First World War. It assesses the effect of German espionage on Anglo-German relations and discusses the extent to which the fear of German espionage in the United Kingdom shaped the British intelligence community in the early Twentieth-century. The study is based on original archival material, including hitherto unexploited German records and recently declassified British documents.

Intelligence and Espionage: Secrets and Spies

Intelligence and Espionage: Secrets and Spies
Author: Daniel Lomas
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 175
Release: 2019-01-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 0429664117

Intelligence and Espionage: Secrets and Spies provides a global introduction to the role of intelligence – a key, but sometimes controversial, aspect of ensuring national security. Separating fact from fiction, the book draws on past examples to explore the use and misuse of intelligence, examine why failures take place and address important ethical issues over its use. Divided into two parts, the book adopts a thematic approach to the topic, guiding the reader through the collection and analysis of information and its use by policymakers, before looking at intelligence sharing. Lomas and Murphy also explore the important associated activities of counterintelligence and the use of covert action, to influence foreign countries and individuals. Topics covered include human and signals intelligence, the Cuban Missile Crisis, intelligence and Stalin, Trump and the US intelligence community, and the Soviet Bloc. This analysis is supplemented by a comprehensive documents section, containing newly released documents, including material from Edward Snowden’s leaks of classified material. Supported by images, a comprehensive chronology, glossary, and 'who’s who' of key figures, Intelligence and Espionage is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the role of intelligence in policymaking, international relations and diplomacy, warfighting and politics to the present day.

Honorable Treachery

Honorable Treachery
Author: G.J.A. O'Toole
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
Total Pages: 814
Release: 2014-11-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0802192025

A “splendidly written, impeccably researched, and perfectly fascinating” look at clandestine operations from colonial times to the Cuban Missile Crisis (The Washington Post Book World). We’ve always depended on intelligence gathering to drive foreign policy in peacetime and command decision in war—but that work has often taken place in the shadows. Honorable Treachery fills in these details in our national history, dramatically recounting every important intelligence operation from our nation’s birth into the early 1960s. Among numerous other stories, the book recounts how in 1795, President Washington mounted a covert operation to ransom American hostages in the Middle East; how in 1897, Kaiser Wilhelm II’s plans for an invasion of the United States were stopped by the director of the US Office of Naval Intelligence; and how President Woodrow Wilson created a secret agency called the Inquiry to compile intelligence for the peace negotiations at the end of World War I. From a Pulitzer Prize finalist who himself worked for the CIA, Honorable Treachery puts America’s use of covert intelligence into a broader historical context, providing a unique insight into the secret workings of our country. “O’Toole offers fascinating information generally unrecorded in traditional diplomatic and military histories.” —Library Journal

Covert Ops

Covert Ops
Author: James E. Parker
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 284
Release: 1997-11-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780312963408

At the same time the Vietnam War was being broadcast into the living rooms of Americans across the country the CIA was conducting a large-scale secret war in northeastern Laos that few heard about. Agency case officer Jim Parker's five years of combat and immersion in Southeast Asian culture had a lasting influence on him and his family. His dramatic, provocative reminiscence of those years is the first account by a participant to portray America's involvement in Laos.