This morning President Obama speaking from Anatalya, Turkey where he is attending the G 20 Summit expressed his outrage over the ISIS attacks at six separate sites in Paris causing nearly five hundred casualties. It was an attack on the civilized world, he insisted, and America will “redouble” its efforts to meet the increasing threat […]
Sometimes I wonder if America’s political leaders consider the lessons of history when confronting today’s life and death issues. Some months ago I blogged about the unconscionable decision by American cell phone manufacturers to turn encryption control over to the user. A move that took away the companies’ ability to decrypt this data for government […]
Today I was interviewed by Rustem Safronov (above left), a Russian, a PRA and a journalist doing leg work on a Cold War documentary focusing on Soviet defectors for RT, a Russian television outlet, based in Moscow with ten million viewers. I discussed Elizabeth Bentley. The documentary is scheduled for airing in December. We’ll post a YouTube […]
A few weeks ago when I picked up my copy of The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) my attention focused on the front-page headline “U.S. Plans to Free Israeli Spy.” The article concerned former navy analyst, Jonathan “Jay” Pollard, who, along with his wife, Anne Henderson Pollard, was arrested by the FBI on November 17, 1985 […]
This historical article by Brian Hunt recently appeared in The Grapevine, a publication of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI: The New York Times called it “the greatest manhunt in the history of the Northwest.” On May 24, 1935, nine year-old George Weyerhaeuser was kidnapped in Tacoma, WA. Eight days later, he returned safely […]
My lecture at Cercle K2, a Paris based think-tank that seeks solutions to the social, political and economic problems facing the world today. I am proud to acknowledge that I am a founding member. The lecture was held at the beautiful Ferdinand Foch Auditorium on the grounds of Ecole Militaire in Paris, France on June 24, 2015 before an […]
On the evening of June 24, 2015 I gave a lecture in Paris, France before an audience numbering more than seven hundred. All were guests of Cercle K2, a Paris based think-tank that seeks solutions to the social, political and economic problems facing the world today. I am proud to acknowledge that I am a […]
My latest book was recently reviewed by Francis MacDonnell, Southern Virginia University, in the 2015 Michigan War Studies Review: Hoover’s Secret War against Axis Spies is a major contribution to the literature on World War II intelligence, particularly the role of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as a wartime counterespionage organization. It also explores the […]
by Beverly Andress with Ray Batvinis Oleg Kalugin called him a spy “who turns up once in a lifetime.” High praise; especially from a KGB general with thirty years of intelligence experience and a resume that included the kidnapping of a FBI double agent off the streets of Vienna, Austria. Kalugin was also the spy’s […]
On April 21, 2015, LTC Charmaine E. Betty-Singleton (USAR), a US Army War College Fellow at The Institute of World Politics and I gave a lecture on the topic of “Civil Liberties and National Security: Did Hoover Get it Right?” This presentation was the result of research conducted by LTC Betty-Singleton for her IWP-USAWC Fellowship. […]
Roger Hollis Revisited On Friday, April 10, 2015, I had the pleasure of serving on a six member panel in front of a packed audience at the Institute of World Politics (IWP) in Washington, DC. The title of the program was British Patriot or Soviet Spy? Clarifying a Major Cold War Mystery. Our mission was to […]
Today the FBI’s world renowned Laboratory Services Division is based in a state-of-the-art facility on the grounds of the Quantico Marine Base in Virginia. More than five hundred scientists and Special Agents routinely travel to far-flung regions of the world employing cutting-edge science to conduct forensic examinations: all in an effort to solve major crimes […]
I recently gave a talk on FBI Counterespionage During World War II at the New York Military Affairs Symposium in New York City. My lecture was recorded and you can listen to it here:
On Tuesday, March 3, 2015, lawyers for retired four-star general David Petraeus publicly acknowledged in a Raleigh, North Carolina court room that the highly decorated army officer shared eight handwritten journals in 2011 with Paula Broadwell, his mistress and author of a flattering biography entitled All In: The Education of General David Petraeus. Facing numerous […]
A presentation analyzing whether former MI5 Director General, Roger Hollis, was or was not a Soviet agent. Friday, April 10, 2015 4:30-6:30 PM Reception to follow The Institute of World Politics 1521 16th Street NW Washington, D.C. 20036 Register Please contact [email protected] with any questions. with argument maps by Paul Monk, Ph.D. Former Senior Intelligence Officer, […]
This historical article by John Good about “ABSCAM” was recently published in the January/February 2015 issue of “The Grapevine,” a publication of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI. Abscam …One of the FBI’s most famous political corruption cases did have was some of the finest undercover and investigative agents I have ever […]
(Sputnik) The FBI infiltrated into Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) facility in New York while investigating an alleged spy ring broken up this week and intentionally made it public, a former FBI counter-intelligence official told Sputnik after reviewing documents related to the case. “The remarkable detail contained in the document indicates the FBI had some […]
My latest book was reviewed by Hayden Peake in the December 2014 issue of Studies in Intelligence, a CIA publication: Hoover’s Secret War Against Axis Spies: FBI Counterespionage during World War II, by Raymond J. Batvinis (University Press of Kansas, 2014), 334 pp., endnotes, bibliography, photos, maps, index. During the 1930s, Nazi Germany recruited a number […]
More than four decades ago, under the cover of night, a group of eight individuals infiltrated an FBI office outside of Philadelphia and walked out with more than 1,000 documents, revealing closely guarded secrets—many about the FBI’s extensive surveillance programs. News of the burglary made the front page of The Washington Post, and although the […]
Ray Batvinis will give a talk on “FBI Counterespionage During World War II” at the New York Military Affairs Symposium on February 13, 2015 in New York City. The talk will be based on his latest book, “Hoover’s Secret War against Axis Spies: FBI Counterespionage during World War II.” The New York Military Affairs Symposium […]
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