Call out Chinese Spying for the Threat it Is
OPINION — “The beginning of wisdom”, according to a quote ascribed to Confucius, “is to call things by their proper name.” That saying came to […] More
Mark Kelton
How Russians Can Bring an End to Putin’s Chekist State
EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — “Nothing”, Fyodor Dostoevsky observed in Crime and Punishment, “is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand […] More
The Value of a Well-Placed Spy in Moscow
EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — I hope CIA has an agent like Dmitry Polyakov operating in Moscow right now. A Major General in Soviet Military Intelligence (the […] More
Wars are not Won by Evacuations
Mark Kelton, Former Deputy Director, CIA’s Counterintelligence, National Clandestine Service Cipher Brief Expert Mark Kelton is a retired senior Central Intelligence Agency executive with 34 […] More
The Latest
Why the China – Russia Relationship Should Worry You – Part Two
Ties between Russia and China go far beyond mutual lessons-learned and policy coordination. They have entered into cooperative arrangements that pose clear dangers for the […] More
Why the China – Russia Relationship Should Worry You – Part One
In 1937, Winston Churchill contrasted the “two rival religions” of Nazism and Communism then afflicting the world. Those fascist and communist “infernal twins”, he wrote, […] More
The Spyhunter’s Burden
OPINION — A recent email from the current Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Chief of Counterintelligence (C/CI), wherein Agency retirees were reminded of their life-long obligation […] More
A Return of Ideological Spying?
Counterintelligence in a Time of Crisis Mark Kelton is a former senior Central Intelligence Agency executive who retired in 2015 with 34 years of experience […] More
A Rare Glimpse Inside the Life of a Spy
(Editor’s Note: Understanding the life of a spy is often difficult, especially understanding the experiences of those who spend much of their careers working undercover. […] More
Xi’s Awful Arithmetic
CIPHER BRIEF EXPERT VIEW — Mark Kelton is a retired senior Central Intelligence Agency executive who retired in 2015 with 34 years of experience in intelligence […] More
The Man in the Kremlin is Still Smiling, So What Have We Really Learned?
Cipher Brief Expert and former CIA Deputy Director for Counterintelligence, Mark Kelton wrote for The Cipher Brief back in 2017 that, The Man in the […] More
The Coming Chinese Storm – Part Two
In part two of ‘The Coming Chinese Storm’, former Deputy Director for Counterintelligence at the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, Mark Kelton, lays out the Chinese […] More