James M. Olson, former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency\u2019s counterintelligence operation and now a Texas A&M professor, gets right to the point in his new book, To Catch a Spy: The Art of Counterintelligence<\/em>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cFew Americans realize the extent to which foreign intelligence services are stealing our most important secrets, right here at home, right under our noses.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\nJames M. Olson, former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency\u2019s counterintelligence (CI) operation and now a Texas A&M professor, gets right to the point in his new book, To Catch a Spy: The Art of Counterintelligence<\/em> (Georgetown University Press, $29.95 hardcover). Olson teaches in the Bush School of Government and Public Service at A&M. His first book, Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying<\/em> (2007), was a fascinating look at fifty potential espionage scenarios. His new book focuses on catching American residents who are spying for foreign countries. <\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201cToo many Americans are sadly willing to betray us by selling out or by playing fast and loose with our security,\u201d Olson writes. \u201cThey are doing grave damage, sometimes irreparable damage, to our country. They must be stopped.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Olson goes into depth on the three major foreign intelligence threats to the U.S.\u2014China first, then Russia, then Cuba. <\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201cThe Chinese are mounting a massive espionage, cyber, and covert action assault on the United States,\u201d Olson maintains. \u201cTheir goal is to catch up with the U.S. technologically, militarily, and economically as quickly as possible.\u201d China, he writes, actively recruits\u2014especially in engineering and technical fields\u2014Chinese students, travelers, and newly naturalized American citizens who may still feel an allegiance to Mother China. <\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201cThe enormity of the Chinese espionage effort is staggering,\u201d Olson says. \u201cAnd it is getting worse. Chinese spying is so pervasive and relentless that U.S. companies remain extremely vulnerable.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Throughout the book, Olson cites specific names and cases of spies who have been caught and sentenced to prison, but often after years of leaking damaging information. He devotes a seventy-seven-page chapter to a dozen case studies which \u201cillustrate succinctly some of the most important dos and don\u2019ts of good CI.\u201d After each story, Olson offers several \u201clessons learned\u201d from the case that could help improve America\u2019s counterintelligence efforts.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Olson also suggests \u201cThe Ten Commandments of Counterintelligence\u201d based on his CI experience, and he concludes, \u201cI am deeply concerned that the principles I consider fundamental for effective CI are not being followed as carefully and consistently as they should be.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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At the end of the book, Olson compiles a reading list of twenty-five books dealing with counterintelligence, including a brief summary of each book\u2019s thesis. \u201cIf you read these twenty-five books,\u201d he writes, \u201cyou will know your history and have earned the equivalent of a master\u2019s degree in strategic counterintelligence.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span>But if a list of twenty-five books seems a bit much, just start with To Catch a Spy<\/em>, which provides a succinct (192 pages) and very approachable overview, then go back and read Olson\u2019s earlier book, Fair Play<\/em>, now in paperback.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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James M. Olson, former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency\u2019s counterintelligence operation and now a Texas A&M professor, gets right…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[813,830,917,849],"class_list":["post-1616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lone-star-literary-life","tag-lonestarliterarycom","tag-nonfiction","tag-texasreads"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}