bout de papier, Volume 23, Issue No. 1, 2007
bout de papier, Volume 22, Issue No. 2, 2006
The Moscow Rules
CANADIANS WILL REMEMBER TONY MENDEZ as the CIA operative who assisted in the exfiltration of the “American guests” in Teheran in 1980. This book is about his background as the CIA’s master of disguise, inventing ways to meet Russians in Moscow at…
The Traitor Who Wasn’t
Herbert Norman was a senior and respected Canadian diplomat hounded to his suicide, in Cairo in 1957, by American McCarthyites seizing on his dalliance with the ideas of communism. Norman was interested in Marxist thought, and probably remained a moderate socialist throughout his life… but he was not a life-long communist and did not betray […]
The Soviet Spy at External Affairs
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the country’s primary counterintelligence agency, recently announced that foreign intelligence collection and espionage threats against Australia are greater now than at any time during the Cold War. Today’s espionage landscape is in many ways more complex, featuring…
Toward a Canadian Foreign Intelligence Service
Canada is discussing the merit and necessity of establishing a clandestine foreign intelligence service. Support for such an institution formed part of the election platform of the recently elected Conservative Party. The retired head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, Sir Richard…
Spy, A Handbook
Notwithstanding the name of this book, Spy contains insights which may be of interest to those practicing the ancient art of diplomacy. Diplomacy is increasingly about information. Information is power – or, at least, it often provides a strategic advantage. Similarly, when…
Hidden Secrets: A Complete History of Espionage and the Technology Used to Support It
This book is directed at the individual who is casually interested by the world of intrigue and wants an enlightening book which can be consumed in easily read short segments. The book relies heavily on photographs to present its story of the…
Philby Burgess Maclean Blunt Cairncross: My Five Cambridge Friends
Not only has Yuri Ivanovich Modin written a valuable book but one which perhaps is unique in spy literature. It provides an unusual view of the inner workings of the KGB by the professional intelligence officer who directly controlled Burgess, Blunt and…
Canada’s Enemies (Spies and Spying in the Peaceable Kingdom)
Canada’s Enemies is a curious collection of apparently unrelated stories about espionage carried out against Canada, and quasi-espionage activity carried out by Canada abroad from 1900 on. The book is well-written and some of the stories are interesting and amusing, but it…
