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 […]
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
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 […]
Sydney Reso Kidnapping
One morning the lives of two men tragically intersected leaving one of them dead four days later and the other facing a lifetime in prison. The date was April 29, 1992. Sydney Reso was the victim. A fifty-seven-year-old father of five and a vice president for international affairs with the Exxon Oil Company, the Louisiana […]
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Anonymous op-ed, leak investigations, lie-detectors: Shades of Nixon?
I was interviewed for an article in Circa: Plagued by leaks, President Donald Trump will be asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions to launch an investigation into the author of the anonymous opinion piece published Wednesday by the New York Times. Citing national security concerns, Trump said Friday that Sessions “should be investigating who the author of […]
DOJ OIG Clinton Email Investigation Report
The Department of Justice Office of Inspector General today released their report on various actions by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice in advance of the 2016 election. A Review of Various Actions by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice in Advance of the 2016 Election (pdf)
Monument Placed by Nazis Sits Quietly in Tennessee Cemetery
Given the controversy in our country today over Civil War related Confederate statues and monuments I thought you might find this article interesting. I was fortunate enough to help the author, Dan Jackson, by offering some background on the Nazi Bund movement in the United States before the Second World War. Monument Placed by Nazis […]
FBI’s top secret World War II Wading River Radio Station listed on National Register of Historic Places
Two months ago New York governor Andrew Cuomo placed the FBI’s top secret World War II Wading River Radio Station on the New York State Register of Historic Places. I am thrilled to report that on May 4, 2018 the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Park Service followed suit by listing it on National […]
Did the FBI spy on the Trump campaign?
I was interviewed along with other former FBI Special Agents by Circa National Politics Reporter Leandra Bernstein for this article: Did the FBI spy on the Trump campaign? (Circa) On Monday, President Donald Trump met with FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein after the president demanded an investigation into whether his […]
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Response to “The FBI Was Dangerous When It Was Independent”
This op-ed that appeared in the Wall Street Journal and below is my response to it. RAYMOND BATVINIS, PhD RESPONSE: I am writing in response to Professor Justin Walkers editorial entitled The FBI Was Dangerous When It Was Independent published in The Wall Street Journal on March 26, 2018. I’ll start with Walker’s assertion that […]
Comey Memos
Given the gravity of the controversy swirling around the Trump/Comey private Trump Towers and White House meetings and Comey’s recently published book “A Higher Loyalty” I am posting James Comey’s memos recounting those conversations. Right now they are the best evidence of what occurred. They’re critical for both prosecutors, the president’s lawyers and generations of […]
“MURKIN” — The Largest Manhunt in America’s History
April 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the FBI’s largest manhunt for James Earl Ray, killer of Martin Luther King, Jr. This article by Susan E. Lloyd (FBI 1979-2004) was published in the April 2018 issue of The Grapevine, a publication of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI. Because of the breadth of […]
Inside The International Manhunt For Martin Luther King Jr.’s Killer
It was one of the largest criminal investigations in the history of the bureau, no question. I was interviewed by ABC News on the FBI’s hunt for James Earl Ray: Inside The International Manhunt For Martin Luther King Jr.’s Killer (ABC News) Thousands of FBI agents spent months hunting down every lead looking for Martin […]
FBI OSTRICH Files
The FBI’s legal attache in London during World War II received espionage, counterespionage and intelligence decrypts of ULTRA messages which were then sent to the FBI offices in America as leads. The FBI’s codename for these messages was called OSTRICH. I explain more about these files in this short video: FILES OSTRICH File 1 .pdf […]
