November 2, 2019 was a very special day for me. That morning, I served as one of the keynote speakers commemorating the eightieth anniversary of the founding of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division. The event was held in the Charles Bonaparte Auditorium at FBI headquarters in Washington. Having worked under the umbrella of the Division for […]
Shortly before midnight on December 12, 1941, not yet a week since the surprise Japanese attack on America’s naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Judge Mortimer W. Byers asked jury foreman, Edward Logan, to rise and read the verdict. Only a day before, in Berlin’s Reichstag, Adolf Hitler had announced to the world that Germany […]
I was interviewed by Mario Ariza, a reporter for the Florida Sun Sentinel, for an article about the growing concern of Chinese espionage in Florida, I think you will find his piece interesting. – They’ve been caught taking photos of military installations, arrested trespassing at Mar-a-Lago, convicted of illegally exporting critical technology, and sentenced for […]
Here is FBI Director Christopher Wray’s letter to the Society of Former FBI Agents regarding the IG Report. Review of Four FISA Applications and Other Aspects of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation (pdf) To All: Today, the Office of the Inspector General released its report on certain actions by DOJ and the FBI in an […]
What follows is a transcript of an interview I did with Nicholas Best, a correspondent, with Norwegian Public Radio. It was done in connection with a series of broadcasts he is producing on the Arne Treholt espionage case. The well-born Norwegian diplomat and government official, now almost seventy-six years old, was convicted of high treason […]
Read this Washington Post article then read my letter below to the author of the article regarding the facts regarding what was said about George Koval and William Weisband: The ‘Wall of Spies’: A new museum you can’t visit dedicated to American turncoats (Washington Post) In November 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin raised a glass […]
Today, I had a special treat when I visited the Senator Richard Russell Senate Office Building and toured the beautiful Senate Caucus Room. I was accompanied by Dr. Kate Scott, an Associate Historian with the US Senate’s Office of the Historian. The reason for the walk-through had to do with some research for a book […]
This arrest highlights an interesting look at Chinese espionage tradecraft: (DOJ) The Department of Justice unsealed charges today in a criminal complaint charging Xuehua Peng, also known as Edward Peng, 56, for acting as an illegal foreign agent in delivering classified United States national security information to officials of the People’s Republic of China’s Ministry […]
I will be the Discussant for a counterintelligence panel at the 2019 North American Society for Intelligence History conference which will be held at the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC on October 20-21, 2019. The Panel 5A: Counterintelligence and Counterterrorism will be on Monday, October 21 from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm in the […]
“What was she thinking”? That was a question posed by former FBI director James Comey in his 2018 memoir, A Higher Loyalty. It refers to his bewilderment over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s decision to set up an unsecure email server in the basement of her New York home to conduct American foreign policy […]
“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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
Check out all the videos on FBI Studies related to FBI history and espionage. Video Page