“Tangle within, plot and counter-plot, ruse and treachery, cross and double cross, true agent, false agent, double agent, gold and steel, the bomb, the dagger and the firing party, were interwoven in many a texture so intricate as to be incredible yet true.” —Winston Churchill This month marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the surprise landings […]
Read Chapter One – 1st Book
Read the first chapter of The Origins of FBI Counterintelligence, which tells the story of Nazis spies operating in America, focusing on the case of Guenther Rumrich, his arrest by the FBI, and how the case changed the FBI. Read More
Read Chapter One – 2nd Book
Read the first chapter of Hoover's Secret War Against Axis Spies: FBI Counterespionage During World War II, which tells the story of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's moment-by-moment weekend when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Read More
Buy Ray Batvinis Books
FBI in Moscow
Read about FBI Agent Louis Beck who was sent undercover to the US Embassy in Moscow during WW2 to assess the security situation in the embassy. What he found was shockingly lax security attitudes that allowed the Soviet NKVD control of the place -- and of secret US codes. Read More
FBI in Honolulu
Relive the hour-to-hour experiences of the FBI field office in Honolulu as they respond to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Read More
Future of FBI CI
Read The Future of FBI Counterintelligence Through the Lens of the Past Hundred Years, an essay by Ray Batvinis which was published in The Oxford Handbook of National Security Intelligence.
FBI Studies Blog Posts
VENONA: The Opening Moments
I spent a terrific few hours the morning of 10 May 2019 at the National Cryptologic Museum chatting with Tanya Cimonetti and her husband, Bill. The name is probably unrecognizable to you, but Tanya’s maiden name is Tanya Zubko. She is the daughter of the late Leonard Zubko. Still in the dark? Well, Lieutenant Leonard […]
A Vanished Dream: Tsuruja Miyazaki Case
This is a sad story but, in its own way, a truly American one. It focuses on what we refer to today as an “undocumented immigrant” victimized by a nation suddenly, and, unexpectedly, caught up in the grip of irrational fear. My role in the saga began last fall with an email message from a […]
ATKID: The Atlanta Child Murders Case
This article regarding the Wayne Williams, the Atlanta child killer, was written by my dear friend, Susan Lloyd (FBI 1979-2004). I hope you enjoy it. It appeared in the January/February 2019 FBI Grapevine published by the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI. ATKID: The Atlanta Child Murders Case (pdf) When the first murder […]
One of a Kind – The National Law Enforcement Officers Museum is now open
This was my article for the December 2018 issue of The Grapevine: October 11, 2018 was a very special day for the American people. After more than a decade of waiting, a sea of local, state and federal law enforcement professionals along with friends, family members, and the loved ones of fallen officers gathered together […]
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Ex-FBI agents: McCabe and Strzok’s role in Flynn interview ‘problematic,’ ‘highly unusual’
I was interviewed by Leandra Bernstein, the National Political report for Circa and the of the Sinclair Broadcast Group regarding the approach and credibility of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and former FBI agent Peter Strzok not advising then-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn about the consequences of lying to the FBI: Ex-FBI agents: McCabe […]
Michael Flynn Sentencing Memorandum
What follows is taken from pages seven through nine of a 178-page document entitled United States V. Michael T. Flynn “Memorandum in Aid of Sentencing” dated December 11, 2018. It was submitted to Judge Emmett Sullivan by attorneys Stephen P. Anthony and Robert K. Kelner on behalf of retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn. At 12:35 […]
“But I’m a Great Man”
The Gathering Storm was a wonderful British docudrama produced and directed in 2008 by Ridley Scott. The movie takes its name from the title of the first of the monumental six volume history of the Second World War Winston Churchill wrote between 1948 and 1953. The story focuses on Churchill’s so-called “wilderness” years during the […]
Interview about bomber
A few weeks ago Andy Weber, a journalism major in his senior year at The George Washington University, asked me to do an on camera interview for a campus TV news program that goes out to GWU students, Andy was a student in my History of American Counterintelligence course three years ago. As an aside, […]
Harper Lee article in The Grapevine
I’m a big fan of the Antique Roadshow which appears regularly on my local PBS station in Washington. Its always enjoyable for me when someone brings in for an appraisal some old object that has been kicking around the house or has hidden in some attic for decades only to find that it is […]
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Moscow names square after British double agent Kim Philby
Sky News in the UK reports that the mayor of the Russian capital has ordered that an intersection be named after the member of the Cambridge Five spy ring: Moscow has named a square after the notorious British double agent Kim Philby. The Russian capital’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, ordered the renaming of an intersection close […]
CIA Communications Catastrophe
I always like to remind my students that what is old is new and what is new is old. This article offer a shocking example of what happens when an intelligence service, reputed to be the best in world, fails to heed the lessons of history. I’m referring to the lessons of the Second World […]
The Bureau and National Security in World War I
As you know November 11, 2018 marks the one hundredth anniversary of the Armistice that ended the First World War. As a reminder, today we call it ‘Veterans Day’ but for years a previous generation of Americans solemnly referred to it as ‘Armistice Day’ and wore a poppy on their lapels to remember those American […]
Wading River Radio Station
The pelting rain over Long Island on the morning of last August 4th was no match for the excitement everyone felt at the ceremony marking the inclusion of the “Benson House” on the National Register of Historic Places. Officially referred to as the “Wading River Radio Station,” the Benson House now joins an elite group […]
Multiple government agencies investigating employees identified in ‘Deep State’ video
I was interviewed for another article in Circa: The Justice Department, Department of State and Government Accountability Office are looking into three employees affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) after they were featured in a secretly recorded sting video. The video purports to show the employees may have committed ethics violations or used […]
