This is the article I wrote for The Grapevine (Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI publication) about the Benson House on Long Island and its FBI connection. Benson House: A Secret Revealed (.pdf) It is nothing more than a dirty block of concrete stuck in the dark and dank basement floor of a hundred-year-old house. […]
(New York Post) Feisty and probably still with a warm spot in her heart for the Soviet cause, Miriam Moskowitz, 98, is trying to clear her name of a six-decade-old conviction. Too bad she was guilty. She was only a bit player on the fringes of the “atom spies” scandals that gripped the nation in […]
(AP) Fearing a Russian invasion and occupation of Alaska, the U.S. government in the early Cold War years recruited and trained fishermen, bush pilots, trappers and other private citizens across Alaska for a covert network to feed wartime intelligence to the military, newly declassified Air Force and FBI documents show. Invasion of Alaska? Yes. It […]
My review of A Very Principled Boy: The Life of Duncan Lee, Red Spy and Cold Warrior by Mark A. Bradley. “I want to say categorically that I am not and have never been a Communist and that I have never divulged classified information to any unauthorized person.”—Duncan Lee Duncan Chaplin Lee offered this statement […]
I will be part of a panel examining the Richard Hollis case: British Patriot or Soviet Spy? Clarifying a Cold War Mystery A demonstration of new analytic techniques to examine the controversial case of whether Britain’s former MI5 Director General, Roger Hollis, was or was not a Soviet agent. Friday, October 17, 2014 4:00-6:30 PM The […]
My review of “A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal” by Ben Macintyre British author and columnist Ben Macintyre first burst on to the American scene in 2007 with “Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal,” the story of British crook and con-man Eddie Chapman who became one of MI5’s […]
Ed Appel Sr, retired senior FBI Supervisory Special Agent and Director of Counterintelligence and Security Programs at the National Security Council, recently wrote a review of “Hoover’s Secret War Against Axis Spies” on Amazon and graciously gave the book five stars: As a retired member of the US Intelligence Community, I found Ray Batvinis’ Hoover’s Secret […]
My new book, “Hoover’s Secret War Against Axis Spies,” has just been reviewed in The Weekly Standard: http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/hoover-war_797355.html Hoover at War How the G-man beat the Germans at their own game THE WEEKLY STANDARD, AUG 4, 2014, VOL. 19, NO. 44 BY DAVID AIKMAN Ever since the death of J. Edgar Hoover in 1972, journalists and disparate authors […]
The Institute of World Politics videotaped the lecture I recently gave about my new book, Hoover’s Secret War against Axis Spies: FBI Counterespionage During World War II.
During World War II, FBI agents and radio technicians lived and worked undercover at Benson House, secretly transmitting coded messages that the Nazis believed came from their own spies. A plaque placed at Benson House in honor of the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion recognizes the counterintelligence efforts of FBI employees during WWII. (FBI) In […]
From Newsday: June 7, 2014 7:14 PMBy TED PHILLIPS Vicki Jean Johnson’s parents never told her they came to Wading River to help fight the Nazis. The retired middle-school teacher knew her father, Donworth Drew Johnson, had been on the trail of America’s most wanted during his dozen years in the FBI. But it was a […]
By Joe Valiquette | Friday, Jun 6, 2014 | NBC4 New York | Link Since the end of World War II many stories have surfaced about the efforts of the United States and Great Britain to deceive the Germans and Japanese about Allied troop movements, invasion plans and atomic research. But only recently has the world […]
In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Normandy invasion, the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI is planning to unveil a plaque at the historic Benson house in Wading River, NY on Saturday, June 7, at 10:30 a.m. to finally widely publicize the building’s historic wartime roles, which included helping to deceive […]
Wading River retreat house was FBI disinformation operation in World War II Originally published: Newsday, May 31, 2014 By ROBERT E. KESSLER robert.kessler@newsday.com Article as it appeared in print: Newsday-Spies-Next-Door-1JUN14 (.pdf) These days, Benson House, located on a scenic, waterfront bluff 150 feet above Long Island Sound in Wading River, is a retreat house and office on the grounds of […]
You are cordially invited to a book lecture for Hoover’s Secret War against Axis Spies: FBI Counterespionage during World War II with author Raymond J. Batvinis Former Supervisory Special Agent, FBI Professor, The Institute of World Politics Tuesday, June 17 4:30 PM The Institute of World Politics 1521 16th Street NW Washington, DC 20036 Parking […]
My book was reviewed today in the Washington Times newspaper: BOOK REVIEW: ‘Hoover’s Secret War Against Axis Spies’ By Joseph Goulden Washington Times May 27, 2014 HOOVER’S SECRET WAR AGAINST AXIS SPIES: FBI COUNTERESPIONAGE DURING WORLD WAR II By Raymond J. Batvinis University Press of Kansas, $34.95, 334 pages An oft-told story in the annals […]
I wrote this article about the former Deputy Director of the FBI, Cartha “Deke” DeLoach, that appeared in the April 2014 issue of the Grapevine, published by the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI: Stories from the Historical Committee: Deke DeLoach (.pdf)
The blogger at GreatCharlie.com has posted a comprehensive review of my new book: Book Review: Raymond Batvinis, Hoover’s Secret War Against Axis Spies: FBI Counterespionage During World War II Outstanding spy novels tell exciting tales of spy rings, secret and double agents, surveillance, codes and ciphers, wiretaps, microdots, deception, disinformation, and even use of invisible […]
From April 14-17, 2014 I had the unique opportunity of attending an international history conference in England entitled “1944: Seventy Years On.” Sponsors included Global War Studies: The Journal for the Study of Warfare and Weapons, 11919-1945 together with the National Intelligence University and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, both located in Washington, DC. The […]
The FBI has recently released two videos about the Glenn Shriver espionage case to alert other college students who are studying abroad to the possibility of being targeted for recruitment by a foreign intelligence service or entity. (FBI) Glenn Duffie Shriver seemed like an average college student—majoring in international relations at a college in Michigan […]
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