• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

FBI Studies

  • Home
  • Ray Batvinis
    • Speaking
    • Research
  • Agent Link
    • Praise
    • Chapter One
    • Book interviews
  • Hoover’s Secret War
    • Praise
    • Chapter 1
    • Book Reviews
    • Book Lecture Video
  • Origins of FBI CI
    • Praise
    • Book Review
    • Introduction
    • Chapter One
    • CSPAN Video
  • Blog
    • Videos
  • Resources
    • Videos
    • History News
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Archives for Blog

Blog

January 17, 2020 By Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD

The spies among us: More Chinese agents digging up secrets in Florida

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 […]

Filed Under: Blog

December 17, 2019 By Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD

IG Report and Message from Director Wray

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 […]

Filed Under: Blog

November 22, 2019 By Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD

Arne Treholt Espionage Case

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 […]

Filed Under: Blog

October 6, 2019 By Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD

Facts and the new “Wall of Spies” re Koval and Weisband

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 […]

Filed Under: Blog

October 3, 2019 By Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD

Senate Caucus Room

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 […]

Filed Under: Blog

September 30, 2019 By Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD

American Citizen Arrested for Acting as an Illegal Foreign Agent of the People’s Republic of China

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 […]

Filed Under: Blog

September 12, 2019 By Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD

North American Society for Intelligence History 2019 Conference

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 […]

Filed Under: Blog, Events

September 12, 2019 By Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD

What Was He Thinking?

“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 […]

Filed Under: Blog

June 5, 2019 By Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD

The FBI’s Role in D-Day

“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 […]

Filed Under: Blog

May 21, 2019 By Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD

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 […]

Filed Under: Blog

May 13, 2019 By Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD

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 […]

Filed Under: Blog, Video

March 13, 2019 By Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD

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 […]

Filed Under: Blog

January 4, 2019 By Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD

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 […]

Filed Under: Blog, Events

December 13, 2018 By Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD

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 […]

Filed Under: Blog

December 13, 2018 By Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD

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 […]

Filed Under: Blog

December 6, 2018 By Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD

“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 […]

Filed Under: Blog

November 29, 2018 By Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD

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, […]

Filed Under: Blog

November 28, 2018 By Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD

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 […]

Filed Under: Blog

November 9, 2018 By Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD

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 […]

Filed Under: Blog, History News

November 7, 2018 By Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD

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 […]

Filed Under: Blog

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Page 4
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 9
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Books by Dr. Ray Batvinis

Origins of FBI Counterintelligence

Hoovers Secret War Against Axis Spies book cover

Recent Posts

  • “Agent Link” Book Event at the International Spy Museum
  • The Forgotten Soviet Spy: AGENT LINK
  • Spy Valley: An Engineer’s Nuclear Betrayal
  • Radio Cloak and Dagger
  • A Response To The Fourth Man by Robert Baer – By Richard Rita
  • The Ghost of Angleton – By Paul Redmond
  • Sometimes the story is about the spies who aren’t there
  • Former CIA Counterintelligence Chiefs Weigh in on The Fourth Man
  • The Charles McGonigal Case
  • The Ghost of Angleton — Review of The Fourth Man
  • Spycraft 101 Podcast Interview
  • Message from Director Wray Regarding Search at Mar-a-Lago, Florida
  • World War II House of Secrets
  • Walking a Tightrope: FBI’s John Cimperman and the ULTRA Secret
  • Watergate: Competing Fond Memories

Watch Videos

videopixCheck out all the videos on FBI Studies related to FBI history and espionage. Video Page

Most Viewed Posts

  • The Ghost of Angleton - By Paul Redmond
  • The Manhunt and Capture of Vincent Loonsfoot in the North Woods of Michigan
  • Words of Wisdom from Sherlock Holmes
  • Was Roger Hollis a British patriot or Soviet spy?
  • Review of book in Michigan War Studies Review
  • Sherlock Holmes Joke
  • A Response To The Fourth Man by Robert Baer - By Richard Rita

Footer

About

Historical FBI Studies by Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD, author of "The Origins of FBI Counterintelligence" and "Hoover's Secret War Against Axis Spies: FBI Counterintelligence During World War II."

 

A retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent, Ray is now a historian and educator specializing in the discipline of counterintelligence as a function of statecraft.

Copyright 2024 Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD | Website by CJKCREATIVE.COM

 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.