Launches and conference appearances here in portlands. It also by being one of our in new orleans. But also by being one of our speakers. He is here to talk about his latest look avenue of spies, which is the basis of the tour alex just got back from last lead where we took people from normandy, following the bedford boys, then to paris with a remarkable story we are about to hear unfolded during the not the occupation. I occupation. Please join me in welcoming alex. Ershaw area alex can you hear me ok . Good. In you hear me over here if pace around nervously . As i walk the avenue of spies . Grade. Fantastic audience. Im going to be very politically incorrect now and Say Something that i probably shouldnt say. Im actually going to think someone from the museum who is the reason why i am standing here right now. Please, jeremy collins, can you stand up, raise your hand up . Wheres jeremy . [applause] the reason why im going to embarrass him briefly, and please forgive me for this, is b
And he was. With albert spier and others in paris six weeks almost to the day in june of 1940. This gentleman here is one of americas first spies. Before the Second World War there was no foreign intelligence service, the americans you guys didnt have a foreign intelligence service. That was the job of people who worked for the state department donald costar was a princeton graduate in 1929, a volunteer ambulanceman working in normandy during the blitzkrieg and he wrote a detailed story about the blitzkrieg for Readers Digest and he wrote about a terrifying. He was working for the americans and recording the impact and the ferocity of the blitzkrieg and he found his way to paris in early july of 1940, was dropped off at the Hotel Bristol by none other than george canon who became a Great American statesman and then found his way to the American Hospital of paris where he went to the office of dr. Summer in jackson and said to dr. Sumner jackson i need to hide for a while. And the theor
But when the cold war ended and particularly when the war in terror began, it moved so drastically away from focus on russia that i think it lost its ability to conduct operations even in conducting basic analytical work about it. There is still very good people there who deal with russian and who are experts in russia. But its drastically shrunk from what it was. And i think now that russia is seen as much more of a threat over the last couple of years, particularly because of its activity military activities in ukraine, is that there will be some respectificati firectif thereby more effort and more personnel devoted to trying to understand russia. Did you have something . Just really quickly, you know it takes time and as mark said, if you focus on it now, it takes years to develop expertise and if you are talking about human intelligence penetrating russia and putins inner circle so it will take a while. Even if theyre doing it now. Thank you very much, thank you for coming. Please
The full soviet period but are predominantly about the 70s and early 80s. There is relatively little there about the stalin period. There are a few very interesting things, but much less about the stalin period than i had thought there might be. There is also a good deal less about the 50s and early 60s. As you move into the 60s, it increases, but particularly as in the the large majority of it deals with the 70s and early 80s. So you can find very important things there. Alexander vassiliev is another former kgb foreign Intelligence Officer. He was working on a project for the book that came out as haunted wood, which was coauthored he and the late Allen Weinstein coauthored. It came out i think in 1997 or 98. That book dealt with soviet espionage in the United States during the stalin era. And that book also was able to deal with only a very small portion of what vassiliev actually transcribed. He was allowed to work in a room where archivisted from the foreign intelligence archive b
Single qualified arabic speaking officer of a middle eastern background who can believe a believable muslim sharing his life, for christs sake, most case officers lived in the suburbs of virginia. We dont do that kind of thing. Right . Thats a great quote. Another quote this time from an active cia case officer, operations that include diarrhea as a way of life dont happen. While were on the subject i would add to this operations that include lack of toilet paper as a way of life dont happen either. Another thing that he says, im not sure i so much agree with that but interesting comment, we can discuss it that humint is characterized by risk adverse bureaucratic nature which mirrors the growing physical risk of american society. Interesting comment even though im skeptical about that one. And i would add to this, this is not gerechts point, this is my point, often because of that, because it is difficult for the older case officers to venture outside of safe western areas. Its difficu