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Espionage

The Cipher Brief's Hottest Summer Reading

The Cipher Brief's Hottest Summer Reading

CIPHER BRIEF FEATURE REPORTING -- With the 4th of July holiday fast approaching, now is a good time for our annual summer list of recommended beach [...] More

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Spies Who Come Out in the Summer

CHALK MARKS / OPINION — Intelligence officers in the CIA talk about three things when they are together in the field:How bad things are at [...] More

'Lamps are Going Out all over Europe' when it comes to Russian Espionage

OPINION — The day before Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914, the Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey remarked to a friend that “the lamps [...] More

Chalk Marks: A Review of The Sympathizer

ENTERTAINMENT — “I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces.”This opening sentence of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel The Sympathizer is one of the [...] More

Why 'Ronin' is an Espionage Classic

CHALK MARKS / COLUMN — If you craft a list of professionals who by virtue of their job knowingly undertake an effort they expect to go badly, it will [...] More

E-Commerce Lessons for Espionage

OPINION — I recently enjoyed an overdue reunion with some college friends, wrongly assuming war stories from this retired CIA officer would wow my [...] More

Gen Z and CIA is a Relationship in Need of Counseling

OPINION — As a mere “wretched pensioner” in retirement (words taken from my good friend and former CIA colleague Doug Wise), I spend a great deal of [...] More

The Best Reads of 2023: A Holiday Gift Guide

The Best Reads of 2023: A Holiday Gift Guide

HOLIDAY SPECIAL REPORT - In this season of giving, your friendly neighborhood Cipher Brief “Undercover” team - which spends the bulk of the year [...] More

702 is the Spy Tool that Americans need now

OPINION — The Intelligence Community (IC), in a recent press release, said it will lose what it has “used every day to protect the nation from [...] More

An Entertaining Mission (if you choose to accept it)

OPINION — One of the best things about being a retired CIA ops officer is now that people know I was a “spy,” I am often asked what is the best spy [...] More

The Government has an Espionage Problem. Open Source should be part of the Solution.

OPINION — The unauthorized release of classified information and the subsequent arrest of Jack Teixeira has raised important questions. Why does the [...] More

Russia's State-Sponsored Hostage Taking Reaps Rewards for the Kremlin

OPINION - Russia’s arrest of Wall Street Journal journalist and US citizen, Evan Gershkovich, on espionage charges is the latest example of the [...] More