John Prouty wrote a review of my book, Agent Link: The Spy Erased from History in the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence published in November 2024: SIGINT Secrecy BY JOHN PROUT Raymond J. Batvinis: Agent Link: The Spy Erased from History Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, MD, 2024, 324 p., $120.00 (hardcover) Col. (Ret) John […]
I was interviewed for this article in the New York Sun by Daniel Edward Rosen: History Repeats Itself at FBI in New York as G-Men’s Clash With Trump and Kash Patel Mirrors Carter-Era Bureau Battle On April 13, 1978, FBI Assistant Director J. Wallace LaPrade appeared before a packed room of reporters inside the bureau’s city headquarters […]
My book, “Agent Link” was reviewed by intelligence book historian Hayden Peake in the September 2024 issue of CIA’s Studies in Intelligence: Sometime in 1934, William Weisband, a clerk working for the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York was recruited by the KGB and given the codename LINK. Fifteen years later another KGB agent he […]
Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome. Thanks for joining us today—whether you’re with us in person here at Headquarters, or tuning in from across the country in SVTC land. I know we’re getting close to the end of the year, and the holiday season is almost upon us, so as I previewed for the SACs […]
I spoke about my new book, “Agent Link: The Spy Erased from History” at the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC on October 17, 2024. John J. Quattrocki, retired FBI executive who also served on the National Security Council staff interviewed me for this presentation. Description: Retired FBI Counterintelligence Expert Raymond J. Batvinis reveals the […]
Ray Batvinis was recently on the Spycraft 101 podcast: Spycraft 101 host Justin talks with retired FBI Special Agent Raymond J. Batvinis. Ray served in the FBI from 1972 until 1997, working in counterterrorism and counterintelligence, including on the investigations into Ronald Pelton and the Walker spy ring. Shortly after 9/11, he returned to teach […]
I was recently on a panel at the International Spy Museum that focused on the James Harper espionage case. Description: Silicon Valley is an innovation incubator, but not just for tech — hand in hand with its growth have been efforts to steal enticing secrets. Spy Valley: An Engineer’s Nuclear Betrayal, a new podcast series […]
I was interviewed on the podcast, A New York Minute of History, about the FBI’s World War 2 Wading River Radio Station, now know as the Benson House. Listen: Radio Cloak and Dagger | A New York Minute in History On this episode, Devin and Lauren tell the recently declassified story of a covert radio […]
Guest Post by Dr Richard A. Rita Retired CIA Senior Counterintelligence Officer Former Chief, Special Investigations Unit/CEG/CIC who wrote the official history of SIU This article first appeared in CIA”s Studies in Intelligence, March 2023: RITA-Response-to-The-Fourth-Man (pdf) The Fourth Man purports to tell the story of the CIA’s hunt in the mid-late 1990s for another highly […]
Guest Post by Paul J. Redmond Paul J. Redmond served 34 years in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)’s Clandestine Service, operating primarily against the Warsaw Pact/Eastern European countries and the Soviet Union. He served as Deputy Chief of the CIA’s Counterintelligence Center from 1991 to 1995, where he led the CIA’s investigation that identified Aldrich […]
Kudos to David Ignatius for writing this column in the Washington Post. Baer should be rightly mortified being called out by such a journalistic heavy weight. Goes a long way to restoring Paul’s honor. By David Ignatius Columnist, Washington Post, Feb. 16, 2023 Every good spy thriller needs a “mole hunt” — a search for the […]
By Michael Sulick, Cindy Webb and Mark Kelton (bios at the end) Robert Baer’s book The Fourth Man leads readers to conclude—falsely—that highly accomplished, retired CIA officer Paul Redmond was himself a long-time spy for the KGB. As former leaders of CIA Counterintelligence who were directly involved over decades in the Russian operations and investigations discussed […]
I was interviewed for this lengthy article concerning two former FBI officials in trouble with the law: Albanian Firm Ties Indicted Former FBI Official To Yet Another Disgraced Former Agent (TPM, January 27, 2023) Indicted former top FBI official Charles McGonigal is a partner in an Albanian firm along with another disgraced former FBI agent, […]
I wrote a book review in the summer of 2022 for the Fall 2022 issue of the Association of Former Intelligence Officer’s (AFIO) official publication, The Intelligencer: Journal of US Intelligence Studies. It was a review about The Fourth Man by Robert Baer: The Ghost of Angleton — Review of The Fourth Man (pdf) This […]
On the Spycraft 101 podcast, Justin Black interviewed me about my FBI career, the espionage cases I worked on, as well as my first book, The Origins FBI Counterintelligence. We had a good conversation and I hope you enjoy it. It’s available on your favorite podcast platform or you can listen here: – TRANSCRIPT Justin […]
Public Statement from FBI Director Christopher A. Wray “Unfounded attacks on the integrity of the FBI erode respect for the rule of law and are a grave disservice to the men and women who sacrifice so much to protect others. Violence and threats against law enforcement, including the FBI, are dangerous and should be deeply […]
I was interviewed for an article in Newsday about the Long Island house where the FBI ran a spy operation: The world was in a desperate battle with the Nazis when a German spy climbed to the third floor of a red-shingled home in Wading River to reveal the most closely guarded secret of World […]
The following article I wrote was published in the Winter-Spring 2022 issue of The Intelligencer: Journal of U.S. Intelligence Studies. __ The morning gloom was no match for the gnawing anxiety that gripped him, as he stepped the door of the American embassy at 1 Grosvenor Square. Once a leafy park nestled in the heart […]
My reviews of these two books: Melissa Graves: Nixon’s FBI: Hoover, Watergate, and a Bureau in Crisis. Lynne Rienner, Boulder, CO, 2020, 247 p. Shane O’Sullivan: Dirty Tricks: Nixon, Watergate, and the CIA. Hot Books, New York, 2018, 576 p., $12.76. “Oh, what a tangled web we weave/When first we practice to deceive.” This now […]
The codename was “WALLFLOWER” and according to noted British military historian Nigel West, it was the “most treasured possession” of the British Security Service. When finally released to the world in 2007 after decades under lock and key in the MI-5 director – general’s office safe, World War II and Cold War historians around the […]
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