Spycraft
The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs from Communism to Al-Qaeda
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Narrated by:
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David Drummond
About this listen
- Secret instructions written in invisible ink
- Covert communications slipped inside dead rats
- Subminiature cameras hidden in ballpoint pens
If these sound like the stuff of science fiction or imaginary tools of James Bond's gadget-master Q's trade, think again. They are real-life devices created by the CIA's Office of Technical Service. Now, in the first book ever written about this ultrasecretive department, the former director of OTS teams up with an internationally renowned intelligence historian to give listeners an unprecedented look at the devices and operations deemed "inappropriate for public disclosure" by the CIA just two years ago.
Spycraft tells amazing life-and-death stories about this little-known group, much of it never before revealed. Against the backdrop of some of America's most critical periods in recent history - including the cold war, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the war on terror - the authors show the real technical and human story of how the CIA carries out its missions.
©2008 Robert Wallace, H. Keith Melton, and Henry R. Schlesinger (P)2008 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Congressman and Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, Michael McCaul, has spent years in Washington watching the administration turn a blind eye to the most pressing possible threats to the country. Now, in Failures of Imagination, McCaul turns away from the over-sensationalized, unrealistic fears circulated through the media in order to expose the most legitimate and looming national security threats, which have long been swept under the rug by the administration.
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Spot on.
- By Prince Parker on 02-27-16
By: Michael McCaul
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The Imagineers of War
- The Untold Story of DARPA, the Pentagon Agency That Changed the World
- By: Sharon Weinberger
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 16 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The definitive history of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon agency that has quietly shaped war and technology for nearly 60 years. Founded in 1958 in response to the launch of Sputnik, the agency's original mission was to create "the unimagined weapons of the future". Over the decades, DARPA has been responsible for countless inventions and technologies that extend well beyond military technology.
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Blandly written story about DARPA politics
- By Syed on 04-18-17
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Dark Territory
- The Secret History of Cyber War
- By: Fred Kaplan
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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As cyber attacks dominate front-page news, as hackers join the list of global threats, and as top generals warn of a coming cyber war, few books are more timely and enlightening than Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War by Slate columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Fred Kaplan.
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Best narrator - Malcolm Hillgartner
- By Greg Davis on 07-20-16
By: Fred Kaplan
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Phenomena
- The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis
- By: Annie Jacobsen
- Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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For more than 40 years, the US government has researched extrasensory perception, using it in attempts to locate hostages, fugitives, secret bases, and downed fighter jets, to divine other nations' secrets, and even to predict future threats to national security. The intelligence agencies and military services involved include CIA, DIA, NSA, DEA, the navy, air force, and army - and even the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Now, for the first time, New York Times best-selling author Annie Jacobsen tells the story of these radical, controversial programs.
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Phenomenally mediocre narration of a good book
- By philip on 05-18-17
By: Annie Jacobsen
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The Moscow Rules
- The Secret CIA Tactics That Helped America Win the Cold War
- By: Jonna Mendez, Antonio J. J. Mendez
- Narrated by: Wilson Bethel
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Antonio Mendez and his future wife, Jonna, were CIA operatives working to spy on Moscow in the late 1970s, at one of the most dangerous moments in the Cold War. Soviets kept files on all foreigners, studied their patterns, tapped their phones, and even planted listening devices within the US embassy. In short, intelligence work was effectively impossible. The Soviet threat loomed larger than ever. The Moscow Rules tells the story of the intelligence breakthroughs that turned the odds in America's favor.
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Interesting, clean, pro-CIA history
- By Alexander M Leasenby on 02-27-20
By: Jonna Mendez, and others
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Wise Gals
- The Spies Who Built the CIA and Changed the Future of Espionage
- By: Nathalia Holt
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In the wake of World War II, four agents were critical in helping build a new organization that we now know as the CIA. Adelaide Hawkins, Mary Hutchison, Eloise Page, and Elizabeth Sudmeier, called the “wise gals” by their male colleagues because of their sharp sense of humor and even quicker intelligence, were not the stereotypical femme fatale of spy novels.
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Intriguing untold history
- By Andrea Guzman on 12-15-22
By: Nathalia Holt
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The Atomic Bazaar
- The Rise of the Nuclear Poor
- By: William Langewiesche
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In his shocking and revelatory new work, celebrated journalist William Langewiesche investigates the burgeoning threat of nuclear-weapons production and the inexorable drift of nuclear-weapons technology from the hands of the rich into the hands of the poor. As more unstable and undeveloped nations acquire the ultimate arms, the stakes of state-sponsored nuclear activity have soared to frightening heights. Even more disturbing is the likelihood of such weapons being used by guerrilla non-state terrorists.
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A Review
- By Mitch Emswiller on 05-31-08
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Raven Rock
- The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself - While the Rest of Us Die
- By: Garrett M. Graff
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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A fresh window on American history: the eye-opening truth about the government's secret plans to survive a catastrophic attack on US soil, even if the rest of us die - a road map that spans from the dawn of the nuclear age to today.
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Awesome Read!!
- By Brewer Richardson on 05-05-17
By: Garrett M. Graff
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The Spy in Moscow Station
- A Counterspy's Hunt for a Deadly Cold War Threat
- By: Eric Haseltine
- Narrated by: Eric Haseltine
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
In the late 1970s, the National Security Agency still did not officially exist - those in the know referred to it dryly as the No Such Agency. So why, when NSA engineer Charles Gandy filed for a visa to visit Moscow, did the Russian Foreign Ministry assert with confidence that he was a spy? Outsmarting honey traps and encroaching deep enough into enemy territory to perform complicated technical investigations, Gandy accomplished his mission in Russia but discovered more than State and CIA wanted him to know.
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Dull Dull Dull
- By DVN on 09-02-19
By: Eric Haseltine
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The Main Enemy
- The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB
- By: Milton Bearden, James Risen
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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A landmark collaboration between a thirty-year veteran of the CIA and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, The Main Enemy is the inside story of the CIA-KGB spy wars, told through the actions of the men who fought them. Based on hundreds of interviews with operatives from both sides, The Main Enemy puts us inside the heads of CIA officers as they dodge surveillance and walk into violent ambushes in Moscow. This is the story of the generation of spies who came of age in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis and rose to run the CIA and KGB in the last days of the Cold War.
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A masterpiece of espionage history
- By kucherv on 08-21-18
By: Milton Bearden, and others
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Revolutionary War officer Nathan Hale, one of America's first spies, said, "Any kind of service necessary to the public good becomes honorable by being necessary." A statue of Hale stands outside CIA headquarters, and the agency often cites his statement as one of its guiding principles. But who decides what is necessary for the public good, and is it really true that any kind of service is permissible for the public good? These questions are at the heart of James M. Olson's book, Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying.
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overall best description boring
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Interesting Insight
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The Ghost
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In The Ghost, investigative reporter Jefferson Morley tells Angleton's dramatic story, from his friendship with the poet Ezra Pound through the underground gay milieu of mid-century Washington to the Kennedy assassination to the Watergate scandal. From the agency's MKULTRA mind-control experiments to the wars of the Mideast, Angleton wielded far more power than anyone knew.
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When the towers fell on September 11, 2001, nowhere were the reverberations more powerfully felt than at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Almost overnight, the intelligence organization evolved into a warfighting intelligence service, constructing what was known internally as "the Program": a web of top-secret detention facilities intended to help prevent future attacks on American soil and around the world. With Black Site, former deputy director of the CIA Counterterrorist Center Philip Mudd presents a full, never-before-told story of this now-controversial program.
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As cyber attacks dominate front-page news, as hackers join the list of global threats, and as top generals warn of a coming cyber war, few books are more timely and enlightening than Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War by Slate columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Fred Kaplan.
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Best narrator - Malcolm Hillgartner
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Deep Undercover
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One decision can end everything...or lead to unlikely redemption. Millions watched the CBS 60 Minutes special on Jack Barsky in 2015. Now, in this fascinating memoir, the Soviet KGB agent tells his story of gut-wrenching choices, appalling betrayals, his turbulent inner world, and the secret life he lived for years without getting caught.
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I listened to this crap so you don't have to
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The Ghosts of Langley
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The Ghosts of Langley is a provocative and panoramic new history of the Central Intelligence Agency that relates the agency's current predicament to its founding and earlier years, telling the story of the agency through the eyes of key figures in CIA history, including some of its most troubling covert actions around the world. It reveals how the agency, over seven decades, has resisted government accountability, going rogue in a series of highly questionable ventures that reach their apotheosis with secret overseas prisons and torture programs.
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Slanted
- By M. Henderson on 12-29-17
By: John Prados
What listeners say about Spycraft
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- A. N. Onymous
- 10-21-11
The real "Q Branch" from James Bond!!!
This book is a must for anyone interested in Cold War Spy History. It is really the story of the men who designed the listening devices, cameras and cool gadgets that helped us gather the intelligence we wanted from our adversaries. It is also the story of the men crazy enough to go in to some of these places to install them. A bit dry at times, but the authors make everything come alive so that you can understand what they are talking about even when the topic is very technical. Mr. Wallace, Melton and Schelsinger have truly helped us peek inside one of the most amazing parts of our history.
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Overall
- Jim
- 12-22-09
Almost addictive
I concentrate on business improvement topics but needed a break. This was a great break. I recommend it.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Dave
- 10-11-11
Slow to start, finishes well
It took a while for me to get into this one, but after a couple hours in I found myself unable to shut it off.
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- Rego
- 03-01-21
Great book. Highly recommended.
Spycraft provides great insight into technics and methods of espionage/ counter espionage, famous spies and both failed and successful operations during the cold war until present days.
The historical events in this book are more exiting than fictional Hollywood movies and keep the readers on the edge of their seats.
Very informative and inspiring. A must have book for all spy craft enthusiasts.
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- luizr1
- 02-20-23
Great book for techies
Fabulous, great stories a technophile dream book very current in a ever changing dangerous world spying against us from all sides.
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- K. Lange
- 03-09-12
How they did it
What did you love best about Spycraft?
This book tells you the high and low tech ways that the CIA spyed on its targets, usually the Russians. It is well written. It does a good job of taking you there.
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- Grant Wentworth
- 07-12-15
A tech nerd's dream!
If you could sum up Spycraft in three words, what would they be?
Innovative, Fun, Educational
What did you like best about this story?
I enjoyed learning about the evolution of technology and how some private companies help win the Cold War.
What about David Drummond’s performance did you like?
He emphasized the right words to give a feeling of what was going through some of the minds of the people he spoke for.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
Doing more with a microphone than Bond with a gun.
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- John Hobbs
- 10-09-16
Excellent!
Great book that details discussion of how CIA Technical Services Directorate equips field officers and agents with the technical resources required to carry out the mission of the CIA. Squirrel and rat carcasses, pin-home microphones and so much more! Includes stores of many missions.
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- Colin
- 01-15-11
more Cold War then Al-Queda - but great!
so it starts off slow and ends sorta slow, but the middle is great [{}]
near the end there is some repeating of stuff that was in the beginning of the book but it is really to give more info about the device or operation [{}]
this is a great book that covers some great times in history, although you dont know of what is told as it was secret at the time and was not made public so its not something that was in newspapers or on tv, you can still understand and appreciate what is going on [{}]
the beginning of the book is sorta slow but it picks up pretty fast and keeps going until the last 2 hours or so ad its then a recap or just a closing - its not that its a bad ending its just that you dont get much of the Al-Queda stuff its mostly Cold War through the book as that was a huge part and took up so much of the CIA's time - there is then some Vietnam stuff and brief Afghanistan section then back to a recap of items used and some terms and its over [{}]
I liked the book as it was a departure from normal "Spy Novels" as it was mostly real stuff and how technological problems were overcome as well as a few failures [{}]
I say get this book because its something that anyone should be able to enjoy
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- Robert Lyons
- 09-30-21
Good read from well know source.
Good story with interesting data points around gadgets spies and tradecraft. Focused much on the past and less so about more current events. Would have to learned more about current state if possible.
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