 | A WRITER'S WIT |  A. Gorman |
MY BOOK WORLD
Haseltine, Eric. The Spy in Moscow Station: A Counterspy’s Hunt for a Deadly Cold War Threat. With a foreword by General Michael V. Hayden. New York: St. Martin’s, 2019.
I’ve never seen so many abbreviations for governmental organizations in one book, the easiest to remember of which may be NATO or NSA. Memorize these and more—OPS2, DARPA, IARPA, NSAAB, DS&T, SIGINT, TOPS, RSO, HUMINT—and the book is a joy to read. Seriously, the story, once the author gets to the heart of it, is quite titillating—especially if you’re into reading spy craft literature.
In the late 1970s, Charles Gandy is an NSA operative sent to Moscow to investigate the US embassy there. He discovers a “chimney” in the embassy building which is adjacent to a Russian government structure, which is not a chimney at all but a tall empty chamber aiming what looks like an antenna directly at the ambassador’s apartment in the embassy. For six years, Gandy fights others in his own organization, not to mention the CIA and the State department, to bring what seems may be a breach to the attention of muckety-mucks in the US government. Many interesting pages unravel that story, the gist of which is: A certain underling working for Gandy uncovers in about half of the thirty IBM Selectric typewriters a bar in which is embedded a transmitter that “reads” each typewriter key and thus translates important memos for the Russians. Since most everything is typed before being sent officially, this is a boon to the Russians.
For some reason, during that period CIA and State leadership underestimated Russian intelligence, mainly because they didn’t think Russia had the money to conduct this kind of research and experimentation. The US looked at the primitive products (including automobiles) that Russian produced and extrapolated the wrong conclusion. The thesis of this book may be that this was a strategic mistake for which our country is still paying quite a price (i.e. Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election which most probably helped to elect Trump). Enough said. And as far as we know, our government is still underestimating the damage the Russians continue to do to our well-being each day.
Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Deborah Copaken Kogan
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Dave Eggers
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Margaret Craven
FRI: My Book World | Curtis Sittenfeld, Prep: A Novel
I’ve never seen so many abbreviations for governmental organizations in one book, the easiest to remember of which may be NATO or NSA. Memorize these and more—OPS2, DARPA, IARPA, NSAAB, DS&T, SIGINT, TOPS, RSO, HUMINT—and the book is a joy to read. Seriously, the story, once the author gets to the heart of it, is quite titillating—especially if you’re into reading spy craft literature.
In the late 1970s, Charles Gandy is an NSA operative sent to Moscow to investigate the US embassy there. He discovers a “chimney” in the embassy building which is adjacent to a Russian government structure, which is not a chimney at all but a tall empty chamber aiming what looks like an antenna directly at the ambassador’s apartment in the embassy. For six years, Gandy fights others in his own organization, not to mention the CIA and the State department, to bring what seems may be a breach to the attention of muckety-mucks in the US government. Many interesting pages unravel that story, the gist of which is: A certain underling working for Gandy uncovers in about half of the thirty IBM Selectric typewriters a bar in which is embedded a transmitter that “reads” each typewriter key and thus translates important memos for the Russians. Since most everything is typed before being sent officially, this is a boon to the Russians.
For some reason, during that period CIA and State leadership underestimated Russian intelligence, mainly because they didn’t think Russia had the money to conduct this kind of research and experimentation. The US looked at the primitive products (including automobiles) that Russian produced and extrapolated the wrong conclusion. The thesis of this book may be that this was a strategic mistake for which our country is still paying quite a price (i.e. Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election which most probably helped to elect Trump). Enough said. And as far as we know, our government is still underestimating the damage the Russians continue to do to our well-being each day.
Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Deborah Copaken Kogan
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Dave Eggers
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Margaret Craven
FRI: My Book World | Curtis Sittenfeld, Prep: A Novel
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