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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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)
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
HPSCI memo released to the public on 2 February 2018: HPSCI Memo: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Abuses at the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (pdf) HPSCI minority memo: Correcting the Record–The Russian Investigations (pdf)
Check out all the videos on FBI Studies related to FBI history and espionage. Video Page