Willow’s Reviews > The New Spymasters: Inside the Modern World of Espionage from the Cold War to Global Terror > Status Update

Next up is Part Four: "Where Next?"

Chapter 11, "Vaccination" lightly covered the assassination of Osama Bin Laden. I believe the author was trying to show how meshing HUMINT and SIGINT helped to bring down the biggest target of the War on Terror, but the story felt a bit incomplete. Or perhaps his point was that modern "spycraft" had much in common with police work.

Chapter 10, "The Peacemaker Spy" delved into the "other half" of espionage -- covert diplomacy. I found the idea intriguing, but the case studies here were a bit lacking in detail.

Chapter 9, "Faith in the Machine" attempts to illustrate the dangers of relying too heavily on SIGINT, if untempered by HUMINT. The author makes a very compelling case with the assassination of Zabet Amanullah, a local politician (said to be leading a double life as Mohamed Amin). Cell phone tracking and calls were enough for JSOC to convict him, though serious doubts remain as to whether he was the actual target.

*the attack that led to the deaths of nine people*

Chapter 8, "Allah Has Plans" was a particularly somber recounting of the attack that led to nine people on a supposedly secure CIA base in Khost. Disregarding procedure and warnings from the past allowed a triple agent to perform a suicide attack on top leadership in the area. Desperation for an inside agent led intelligence officials to trust a man no one knew. It's a good warning.

Sixth chapter, "Caveat Emptor" was the story of the infamous intelligence disaster that helped start the Iraq War. Mishandling of sources, pressure from above, and political meddling all lent inappropriate weight to the testimony of 'Curveball'. It's a really fascinating mess.

Next up is Part Three: The Flock of Birds (2008-13)

Fifth chapter, "Jihad" was a bit of a mess. It was dedicated to the rise of the secretive militant training camps during the 90's. Unfortunately, the chapter was a bit difficult to follow. The long and short of it was that it's hard to recruit spies to infiltrate terrorist and revolutionary groups, but it can be done. Prior to 9/11 though, few agencies tried.

Fourth chapter, "Thunderbolt" was another case study -- this of an ex-terrorist turned drug dealer turned informant, Keravnos (aka 'Black Lightning'). Mr. Grey addressed the value, and difficulty, of recruiting informants like these. Running criminals requires a certain moral ambiguity that some agencies are uncomfortable with.

"Getting involved in crime fighting meant, for example, M15 sharing some of the technology they had developed against the Russians: helping to install covert bugs. . . electronic surveillance . . . cover actions like emptying a criminal's foreign bank account." I understand these are criminals, but where's the oversight? Aren't they citizens of their respective countries? Were warrants issued?