Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with espionage

Do you spy the spy?

overglow — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:27:23 -0800

Help me find this essay about a spy... A while ago I read an essay online about a somewhat famous blogger/writer who focused on espionage. I'm pretty sure the essay was published on Radar-Online, probably two or three years ago. The person writing the essay talked about how interviewing the espionage writer was very much like dealing with a spy--they were secretive and wanted to only meet in certain places and generally acted paranoid and had a very interesting, murky past. The essay was fairly long. If you read the essay too and could point me to where it was, that would be great. But guesses as to who it could be about are welcome too. Thanks!

Could you rob from a server while in the same room?

From Bklyn — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:45:06 -0800

Wrecking havoc/ fiction: How much spying could someone who works for a server farm engage in? This is for a work of fiction so I'm not looking for a how-to, more I'm looking for a could-do or better still stories of has-been-done. I only know that 'server farms' exist, beyond that, I really haven't that faintest. I want a character to work at(for?)/babysit one and, because he works at night, use the fact that he is alone as an opportunity to engage in a little industrial espionage/ sensitive data theft. Is this feasible?

Wierd secret messages on the radio.

debord — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:44:52 -0800

When I was a child there used to be cryptic messages on BBC Radio Four between the news and weather etc. that were weird and cryptic (as in they shouldn't have been on mainstream radio), but dull - stuff like "Mrs. Smith from Doncaster needs to contact her family in Hull". I have been told they were used for spies to communicate - does anyone know any more about this? I think it's something like those code words on the Tube that get announced if there's something going on. And numbers stations of course!

Help me find this book!

thermonuclear.jive.turkey — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:29:20 -0800

Help me find an old spy novel (details inside) ... Hello, I'm trying to locate an old spy novel... I have not read this novel but the details were related to me by an older gentleman who has since passed on.

So:

-The setting was post WWII (or if not, during WWII).

-the main character was British, he was in the U.K. after the war, and had served in the U.K. military.

-I believe he spent time in a POW camp or had some exposure to the german military in spite of the fact that he was part of the British military.

-one day, in his day-to-day activities, he sees a man who he recognizes as a former german military official.

-the british man then reports this to the authorities.

-the authorities then instruct him to follow the german in turn, as a counter-espionage activity, and the story takes off from there.

-the villain, which may or may not be this german, had one leg.

-at the climax of the story, I think this peg-legged man is climbing the stairs, and the sound of his wooden leg plunking on the stairs makes for a suspenseful climax.

-the book would have been written no later than the late 1950's.

-the final trick: I'm not sure of the original language this novel was written in.

The gentleman I knew, read this novel when he lived in hungary, and the novel was in hungarian. I do not know if this was an authentic hungarian novel or it was translated into hungarian from english.

Any insights would be appreciated.
Thank you.

Guide me to well written books about financial crimes

reenum — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:49:17 -0800

I want to read more about financial crimes, real and fictitious. Any recommendations? I just read Charlie Wilson's War, which talked about the different ways the CIA laundered money to get it to the mujahideen. I've also read a couple of books about BCCI.

I want to read more about financial crimes. Jewel heists, covert operations, etc. Anything where money is being concealed and funneled to clandestine sources qualifies.

I prefer non-fiction, but well written fiction would also be up my alley.

So I ask the Hive Mind: what should I read next?

What nonfiction about spies should I read?

BT — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:48:26 -0800

What should I read to learn about espionage and World War II/start of the Cold War? I'm starting a project which requires me to learn about the clandestine intelligence services (in the U.S., Britian, Germany, Soviet Union, and elsewhere), specifically in World War II and in the early years of the Cold War. What little I have read is fiction (Le Carre, Littel, Furst). But I need to dig into factual stuff. The origin of the OSS/CIA and the evolution of the NKVD/KGB, how they worked during the war and especially from 1945-1950 or so. Both the lurid stories but also the basic facts of how the agencies were set up, operated, etc.

Ideally, I'd like to err on the side of narrative readability, but if it's truly authoritative but dry, I'm willing. What histories/memoirs/biographies should I have on my list? Novels are also OK, though as I said my real need is to get the facts, such as can be had. Legacy of Ashes is about the only one I'm certain I should get ahold of.

Historical revision filter

numberstation — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 03:35:59 -0800

After watching BBC Horizon last night (a copy of the Prof. Hebb sensory depreivation experiments of the 60’s) a past thought came back to me. I am fascinated by double (and in the case of Agent Zigzag triple) agents – Philby, Burgess, Ames, Gordievsky…the list goes on and on. I recall reading George Blakes book ‘no other choice’ and remember being profoundly struck by the both psychological and physical torture he received for a period of three years during his captivity in Korea I recall reading George Blakes book ‘No Other Choice’ and remember being profoundly struck by the both psychological and physical torture he received for a period of three years during his captivity in Korea. Blake argued his road to Damascus moment came whilst watching American forces bombing ‘completely defenceless Korean villages’ but after watching this documentary about the effects of sensory deprivation (significant after just 48 hours let alone years), I can’t get this idea out of my mind that George Blake’s so called betrayal was in fact an inevitable consequence of his time in Korea. I have not seen this hypothesis written anywhere else and have felt it since reading the book many years ago. The documentary last night re-ignited my thoughts on this. Reading of the risks and heroism Blake took in the early part of his life I cannot help but feel an injustice has occurred. Has an injustice been done here or am I being oversimplistic in my cause and effect argument?

Info about Berne Switzerland circa 1900?

ryansara — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 16:05:30 -0800

I'm researching Berne, Switzerland, from approximately 1900 (although I could go as far back as 1880-90) to the First World War. I know that because of Switzerland's neutrality, a lot of international politics, diplomacy, activism and espionage was happening there. I have a few good general sources about Switzerland in about that era; a travel guide first published in 1919 by Frank Fox, John Addington Symonds' "Our Life in the Swiss Highlands," and I've just started tracking down information about the socialist International and the Berne International Women's Conference that took place in 1915. But I need to learn a lot more -- -- the flavor of daily life, the ethnic and cultural mix within the city, how rich people acquired their wealth, how poor people survived. The status of women and minorities. What people ate and drank. Cultural events. Festivals. Clothing. Technology. (I know, for instance, that the International List of Radiotelegraph Stations was maintained in Berne.) What it was like to be a diplomat and/or spy. Etc. Memoirs of diplomats might be especially useful, but I'd be grateful for any leads.

Cold War chills in the warm sun

gentle — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 13:42:33 -0800

Give me the Cold War chills, please. I'm going on vacation soon and I would like to settle down on the beach with a really juicy espionage novel, preferably something about the Cold War, something suitably dense, complex, panoramic and violent. What should I read? I don't know my Le Carré from my Ludlum (though I have read The Constant Gardener and found it interesting though poorly written).

However, I'm terribly sensitive to bad writing; please don't recommend any Tom Clancies or Clive Cusslers or any of those authors whose name take up half the cover in embossed capitals.

Conversely, though they're brilliant novelists, I would also like to preemptively rule out Graham Greene and Norman Mailer, both of whom I find a bit too dry for this excursion.

So who's the Rohinton Mistry or Patrick O'Brian or James Ellroy of espionage thrillers?

Reverse Rosenberg

Mr. Six — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 20:13:40 -0800

How many US citizens (including, but not limited to, employees of US espionage) lost their lives, careers or had family members hurt or killed as a direct or indirect result of Valerie Plame's cover status being blown? I hear different numbers, from zero on up. I'm curious to know if there is impartial substantive or circumstantial evidence that suggests citizens other than Plame were adversely affected by her outing. This may include "civilians" who were killed by domestic or overseas terrorist, NGO or government activities that could have been prevented by not outing a covert agent.

Clearing up the sound on a low quality avi recorded with a Casio EX-Z57?

nthdegx — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 10:40:43 -0800

Clearing up the sound on a low quality avi recorded with a Casio EX-Z57? Some teenagers made off with one of my neighbour's moped scooters last night. A passer-by walking his dog spooked them and they abandoned it round the corner. They couldn't start it so a load of them had been carrying it. Later that evening some teenagers were sitting on the wall outside our house, and I could hear one, on the phone, asking some friends where they were. He definitely eyed up the scooter in the yard, and my neighbour later said that the cover of her scooter, a different one, might have been disturbed. My neighbours thought we should go downstairs to make some noise, but I took a few moments before that to record them on my camera. They were talking very quietly however, and so it's very hard to make out what's being said. Curiosity has gotten the better of me, though, so I'd like to find out if they said anything incriminating. I got a good look at them later, but didn't get their faces on video; but it'd be handy to know if they came back that they are the ones responsible. It's not the first occasion someone's been at the mopeds either.

I've spoken to the police and have no intention of taking the law into my own hands yada yada etc etc sensible sensible...

For the curious and helpful, I've uploaded a 10Mb zip file of the videos to yousendit. I fear a little whispering on my part interferes with the sound in the second.

Is there anything I or anyone else can do to clear up the speech?

Mission Impossible(?): Spy Games

MasonDixon — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 08:22:45 -0800

Hosting an adult birthday party centered around the ABC show "Alias" as its theme. I'm looking for a good game or activity that could fit an espionage type theme. I'm looking for a game or activity that would loosely fit the super-spy, top-secret, or secret identity type category. (I'm very aware of Assassin/Werewolf and there's already several AskMe's that talk about how good it is, but it wouldn't be very fresh for us.)

Being Alias, if there was a game that played on alchemy/arcane knowledge (an ode to the Rambaldi artifacts, etc.) that might work too.

I'm not going to be a fundamentalist about it so any suggestions that could loosely fit the themes would be appreciated.

What are the 40 full "Moscow Rules"?

arimathea — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 17:25:31 -0800

What are the 40 full "Moscow Rules"? An abridged version of the Moscow Rules has been posted several times. There were apparently 40 original Moscow Rules, a set of guidelines created by the CIA to benefit them in their operations in Russia. Where can I find the full 40 rules?

What do spies tell their families?

donkeymon — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 07:29:18 -0800

What do real spies tell their familes? For example, what did Joseph Wilson think that his wife did? Does it really have to be a secret from that kind of family if you in espionage? I have been watching the show Alias and it always seemed to me to be so implausible that the main character would tell her roommate and everyone else that she worked in a bank.