Agencies

Haynes writes quite borishly for such a fascinating topic. He crafts his sentences so strangely that his style is unnecessarily difficult to read. Despite his excess grammatical fluff, Haynes still manages to cram 500 pages worth of colorful characters into 190 pages of confused murk. Only in the six-page afterword does he abandon his tiring narrative and say something worthwhile. Pass on this one.

If you are interested in how Elizabeth I managed to fight off all the enemies that surrounded her, both within her country and without, then this book will give you some great insights into her methods.

When Protestant minded Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558, she was surrounded by powerful Catholic enemies. These included Philip of Spain, Catherine de Medici and Mary, Queen of Scots. Many plots were hatched to dethrone Elizabeth. Most of the popular plots sought to replace her with the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots married to a suitably royal and Catholic English member of the nobility. Elizabeth however, managed to survive all of these machinations thanks to the existence of an extremely large secret service.

This little book describes the background to each of the plots that sought to destroy England's first Protestant queen. Plots, sub-plots, spying, infiltration, deceit, double agents, hidden codes... it's all here. Those interested in the life of Mary, Queen of Scots will love the chapters that focus on the events that led to her execution.

A noble enterprise indeed, in an understudied field. Theoretical perspectives are the end all and be all of international politics, but Pease's book bites off more than it could ever dream of chewing. Critical theory (Marxist and Feminist) is grossly oversimplified, as she not only leaves the reader with a dearth of literary references to actual writers, but moreover gives these marginal perspectives half the page space that she devotes to Realists and liberals/idealists. The organization of the book, though - offering deductive as well as inductive arguments - is intriguing. The case studies make the book worth buying, though the theoretical synopses that precede them, through questionable portrayals, almost negate their practicality. It is a book without rival only because no one else has undertaken the cause. The book is worth buying, although it is a choice of which Faust himself might approve.

this book assumes that you know nothing of international relations and international organizations. thus, in this context it explains things in a very simple straight forward manner. in addition, pease is repetitive in her analysis of realism, liberalism, marxism and feminism. however, i find that her analysis is limited and fails to take a nuanced approach to the aforementioned theories. in short, her analysis is elementary. i really wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, especially in consideration of the price. to me, a book on international organizations should have a brief theory section, but then examine organizations and their problems in greater depth. furthermore, while reading this book, i was struck with the question of whether or not pease actually wrote this book herself, or if her grad students helped her. there appear to be distinct inconsistencies in writing style between chapters. regardless, this book is mediocre, there are plenty of better scholars.

Camper has conflated two of the hottest topics in conspiracy theory: CIA mind control, and the assasination of JFK. Much of MK-ULTRA/Secret either contradicts some of the more established facts about the case, which would be fine (great actually) if the author could give us any documentation at all to support it, or at least give us more compelling reasons to dismiss the "official party line" Camper deliberately categorizes his research as sensitive, coming as they do from privileged sources. I find that rather convenient.

Who knows? Maybe everything in this book is the gospel truth. But I find none of these hypotheses more compelling, or plausible, than such obviously researched and documented accounts as Lane's and Garrison's. And the tendency here to dismiss long held questions (e.g. "Why does the body of the man shot by Jack Ruby not match the description of Oswald given on his Marine physical?) without substantial explanation makes it a truly unconvincing document.

The MK/ULTRA Secret opens with a fantastic re-creation of Kennedy's appointment with snipers' crossfire in Dallas. The author then takes us on a well researched trip of the background that leads us to that moment outside the Texas School Book Depository on November 22, 1963. From Lee Harvey Oswald's unknowing involvment with the CIA starting in 1959 and culminating with his role of scapegoat at the hands of rogue CIA agents in Texas four years later, the book takes us on a stranger than fiction ride with an inside look at the murky world of spies. How the Bay of Pigs Operation, begun under Eisenhower, was one of the key factors leading to JFK's death. How Kennedy's mishandling of another CIA operation in South Vietnam also helped seal his fate. But the look into CIA mind control techniques and Oswald's sojourn down that dark rode is one of the major investigations of the book. From his duties as a US Marine radar operator in Japan, to his "defection" to the Soviet Union, to his return to the US and involvment with the "Fair Play for Cuba Committee" we see how he was betrayed by the very government and country he'd sworn to protect. The MK/ULTRA Secret also does a very good job of documenting other aspects of the assasination and how they related to the CIA scenario. All in all, an excellent look at a watershed event in American history that may change your view of what really occured that day in Dallas, Texas.

This book explains how the CIA is using satellites with the new world order to control all of our lives! Wake up!

Spy Capitalism is a valuable contribution for those of us who follow the history of technology and the development of overhead photo reconnaissance, as well as to the history of the Corona project. Until now, the cameras on Corona were described as designed by Itek, with no details about the company or its relationship to the CIA. This book fleshes out that company's very colorful history and its relationship with the intelligence communnity.

While the book fills an important gap in history, it does read at times like a Harvard Business School case study. The author sketches an intriguing outline of Richard Leghorn the founder of Itek, but never quite makes the leap to nailing his personality or his weaknesses - that of a visionary entrepreneur in a venture backed startup who was a terrible operating executive - other than just describing them in a narrative. Given 40 years of entrepreneurial hindsight, setting Richard Leghorn in the context of other entrepreneurs and their failure modes would have been helpful.

Minor quibbles aside, all in all, a very worthwhile book for those interested in an important part of overhead photo reconnaissance history.

This book is not for people with an amateur interest in American secret intelligence. I didn't make it past the third chapter so my review is based on the first two in which the author discusses some underground operations that occurred during WWII and a failed conspiracy to kill Hitler. The book is compiled of a collection of writings that the author did for the New York Review of Books. In these essays, the author often throws out the names of 10 or 12 people in only a few pages and it is difficult to keep track of who they are and what they did... "Smith and Clark got together and met with Jameson. Then on the third day they went to see Johnson and Clark and Smith told Johnson about their meeting with Williams and bla, bla, bla" He just begins talking about them as if they were big names in American history and discusses their involvement in the subject being discussed. He also refers to them by last name only which makes it even more difficult to follow. He'll mention a name once and you won't see it again for 8 more pages and you have to go back and see who the hell he's talking about. Aside from this, which I found really annoying, the subjects being discussed are not that interesting. A whole chapter is devoted to whether or not some of the members of the Manhatten Project (those involved in building the atomic bombs used on attacks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki) may have been a communist. So what? He goes on and on for pages about one guy who had connections with communists in Russia. It's over and done with. Does it really matter 60 years later if a member of the Manhatten Project knew a communist? And when the author discusses a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler, he writes as if this was the only attempt made. I'm sure that at the time, several hundred, if not thousands of people were plotting to kill Hitler. This one teeny tiny incident he mentions wasn't even significant enough to make it into elementary school history books. I want to know about real exciting stuff like who may have killed JFK. And I don't want to know about a grocery list that some guy wrote who was the friend of a cousin of Lee Harvey Oswald's babysitter. This book would make good kindling for the fire, but I think I will try and sell it to a used book store in an attempt to get some of the money back that I wasted on it.

Having spent a number of years in the intelligence world, I anticipated Mr. Power's book and pre-ordered it. Unfortunately, what I soon realized is that Mr. Powers has no experience from which he can authoritatively speak.

While the book's title rather breathlessly promises to deliver the goods on intelligence operations since World War II, what it really serves up is a collection of reheated essays written by Mr. Powers for the New York Review of Books. Mr. Powers has no connection or history within the intelligence world - and it shows.

Like many outsiders, Mr. Powers infers and guesses - figuratively speaking, stumbling in the dark. He relies heavily on other writers, few of whom have any experience in the subject. This reliance on second hand, third hand and often unattributed sources of information might serve to whet the appetite of conspiracy theorists. But it ill serves a considered survey on the subject of intelligence matters. Worse, Mr. Powers writes continuously from outdated notions of how and why the government classifies information, streaming comments from equally uninformed members of Congress. Thankfully, these aren't the people in charge of our nation's security.

Where the books does get interesting is in Mr. Powers' views on the Gulf War, written from the perpsective of December 2002. The reader quickly surmises that Mr. Powers lack of experience on the subject disqualifies him as a reputable source.

There are far better writers on this subject. This book would have more accurately been titled "An Outsiders Collection of Guesses and Opinions, Apropos of Nothing"

I'm writing this to counter the troglodytish review posted by the unnamed reader from Alexandria, Virginia. My career was in the national security establishment--defense industry and State Department. I, along with Forrester, also have "no connection or history within the intelligence world." The New York Review of Books serves intellectuals like myself, however, not intelligence professionals. As such, his reviews and this book provides a timely refresher course in the scandals and triumphs of American intelligence over the last some sixty years. It is especially welcome because of the arrival of more scandal in regard to 9/11 and Iraq weapons of mass destruction, and another triumph in the defeat of the Taliban. INTELLIGENCE WARS is stimulating, well written, and engrossing.

Most books on advertising and creativity are pretty bad, and this one is no exception.

I wish for once we could have a creative who talks about process more than accomplishment. Instead, Stan Richards (and authors like him) spend many pages complimenting their own genius. Unfortunately they give us no insight into what supposedly makes them a genius.

Poorly conceived, and poorly written.

Whoah! It's ciesta time!

Never has advertising been so boring!

A poorly written book, by a poor creative. Instead of building a company I think Stan may have just created the world's most profitable police state!

Just search Amazon for Stan Richards other book "The Land of Many Breasts". Trust me, it's much more fascinating than this one. And a more accurate depiction of his agency. I think you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

I found this book very boring and don't recommend it to anyone. The author focused to much on the recovery of the submarine and he ruined the book. Save your money and buy a better book.

OK, I'll admit it. I'm a geek...I wanted to know more of the technical details. This was roughly what you'd get from a long series of NY Times articles.

I have read a number of books in this genre and I rate three of the most important ones in this order: Three stars to "The Jennifer Project", four stars to "A Matter of risk", and 4.5 stars to "Blind Man's Bluff". Blind Man's authors had the distinct advantage of researching and writing their book well after the cold war was over and people were more willing to talk. "Spy Sub" should receive an honorable mention since it deals somewhat with this mission but only if you have read at least one of the other three can you piece together what Spy's author is saying about the overall search. Conclusion: Read at least two if not all books mentioned and certainly read "Blind Man's Bluff" if you want a more complete picture. "The Jennifer Project" is definitely a good read and worth the effort to obtain it.

I bought the book-on-tape of The Matarese Countdown and have been listening to it in my car for the past few days. Big mistake. The dialogue in TMCis so hilariously awful -unintended, I'm sure, by the author and the actor who's reading the book to us -- that I'm laughing too hard to steer the car and see the road. Every German character sounds like Colonel Klink; every Swedish character sounds like the Swedish Chef; you get the picture. All of this comes at you in a pulsing staccato reminiscent of the urgent voiceovers on 50's newsreels. I see from other reviews that much of the dialogue in TMC is punctuated with !, which may explain the breathless narrative. Reading this book couldn't be any better than listening to it, so I recommend that you give it a miss.

I've read almost every book Ludlum has written and this was by far the worse. In fact, I found it written so poorly, that I have a hard time believing he actually wrote it. The characters were two-dimensional and the dialog was cheesy. Put the story into an outline, and it's great... but whoever developed this outline into a novel did a poor job. If you're a Ludlum lover, stay away from this book.

Why did he do it? Why did Robert Ludlum have to pull Beowulf Agate out of retirement to re-fight the battle against the Matarese? Couldn't he have created another conspiracy and a new lone hero to fight it? I used to love Ludlum's work; The Bourne Identity was a tour de force in the genre. Yet Ludlum's subsequent work (including two Bourne sequels, a "Hitler lives" book, the simply unreadable Scorpio Illusion, and even the revised Cry of the Halidon) have proven the old saying, "You can't put old wine in new bottles." The Matarese Countdown suffers from several problems. First and foremost is lack of character development. In his earlier work, Ludlum was a master at creating characters that you could root for and against (such as the original Brandon Scofield and Jason Bourne). The characters in this book are wooden and lack depth altogether. Ludlum missed every opportunity to explore the changes in both Brandon and Antonia and Julian Guiderone; his creation of the new characters (Pryce, Montrose, and van der Meer) was hasty and sporadic; and you miss the motivation and urgency which previous Ludlum novels exuded. Finally, the ancillary characters pop up out of nowhere with little or no introduction, leaving the reader confused and distracted from the anorexic plot. Despite the fact that Ludlum went back to the Matarese, he could have made lemonade out of lemons if he had spent the time and effort in developing the story. Yet here he fails as well. We don't get the detail or the precision which marked his prior work, and he seems to be rushing through the story to meet a deadline. Ludlum's best writing exhibits the patience of a master craftsman, slowly weaving the tapestry of the story with all of its plot twists until it reaches the crescendo of the final sequence. Matarese Countdown reads like a boring and predictable story written almost without feeling. In the final analysis, this book is a disappointing sequel to an outstanding original which never should have been written. Much like an old ballplayer who continues to get paid for past glories, Ludlum relies on his creative genius of two decades past to prop up his below-average writing of the present. One can only hope that his next effort--if indeed there is one--borrows the creativity, patience, and skill of his early work rather than just its characters.

This alleged memoir has been repeatedly exposed as a fabrication by genuine Special Ops veterans' groups and the U.S. Naval Institute's PROCEEDINGS. Mr.Smith was apparently a real Naval officer during the Vietnam War, but his Southeast Asian service was limited to the Philippines. During the period of the novel, he was actually serving as Treasurer of the Officers' Club at Sangley Point Naval Air Station, PI. However, I am sure people who wish to believe these things will find his account insightful, along with other such "true" war stories like "The Dirty Dozen" and "La Femme Nikita".

I am no military expert nor a buff by any means I am totally new to most true life military books having just become interested in these type of books, but even I could tell this was totally bogus. First of all he was the only survivor of this elite team? My how conveinent no one to back up his story. Second it just does not ring true he come off like a guy who watched to many Vietnam movies about tortured vets who went through hell and back. It is just is to cheesy to be real.

I have read the reviews of some of the readers of the book, and I am dismayed at their lack of basic knowledge of the workings of the CIA covert actions. Why can't we find out about the authors history, CIA! why can't the facts be confirmed or denied? CIA! It's true that the author took liberites with the situations, but over all, we need to hear everybodys recollections of that war and we need to take into account every detail. Were there young men recruted right out of boot camp to serve in covert activities? Were those young men and women sent into harms way? Were those people ever acknowledged for their service or bravery? Were some even forgotten in the jungles of SE Asia,Cambodia and other places we wern't suppose to be at the time? Lets get to the facts as to why this war was fought, not over one man's recollections over anothers. I don't think that too many people really want to know the facts about the war in VietNam, I don't think that we really want to know who wore the halos, or who were the friendlys and who were the bad guys. I suppose that the Vietnamese have their versions also, I suppose that they could tell some stories that we would dispute because we didn't do those kinds of things, did we?

no joke i was watching his informercial about his book on tv he not only said govt grants but then turns around and says amazon is giving 1.5million in grants to create a distribution centre. I don't think so plus all of those grants there is always a catch ie a mortgage thing or its not a grant but like a tax deductable type grant so you still got to come up with your own money to pay for your expenses only pay less taxes thing thats the problem why they even call these grants when they are not.

Actually, my "stars" for this book go well into the negatives, but I wasn't given that option. I teach grant-writing classes, and Matt Lesko has become a thorn in my side. I've been hearing SO much about him from starry-eyed students that I decided I needed to arm up on my knowledge about these free grant money offers -- and most of all Matt Lesko. So I started to research him. He's very, very slick. I've been able to find highly negative and even incriminating reports about him on various Better Business Bureau websites and via the U.S. government Small Business Administration. Those are reputable sources, wouldn't you say? I've also read numerous complaints from some of the poor people who have bought his books or gone to his conferences. I now share this information with the people who come to my classes and say, "There's all of this free grant money out there!" -- and expect me to teach them how to write away for it. Unfortunately, even documentation from the U.S. government doesn't always change their minds. People want to believe what they want to believe. Every "believer" I've met claims to know someone -- usually a friend of a friend -- who got "free grant money." When I ask, "Where did they get it from?" the answer I always get is, "I don't know. I just know they got it." In a nutshell, USE YOUR HEAD, folks! Anything that sounds too good to be true usually IS too good to be true. Don't believe everything you read! This man is a scam artist. Please don't waste $30 or $40 to buy his books. If you're still not convinced, then at the very least, take a look at his books at your local library *before* you put your check into the mail. You can also find investigative reports about these free grant money offers in the article archives of Businessweek, msnbc.com, and various other reputable sources.

Without even owning the book, I could have stated some of the information given by the other reviewers simply based upon what the book's intentions are in the first place. It should be noted that this book is intended for people in very specific areas, that it is meant to give information on aquiring money for a number of very specific groups. Because one person didn't find a group to fit them does not mean that another person will not; people seem to have an erroneous viewpoint of the book's purpose. If you want free money obtainable for little more than writing to an address (and there are few other places to obtain such addresses, another purpose of this book) then I suggest trying your state's Welfare program. If you're willing to do a little more than put pen to paper, this book shows you how to go about making your work pay off. I live in a very small, rural community and have few aquaintances, of those few at least two (the ones I've spoken to about it) have either gotten money using the information in this book, or know someone who has. The other reviewers seem to be expecting greenbacks to fall out of the front cover when the book is first opened.