Ronald Kessler "Spy Versus Spy: Stalking Soviet Spies in America."
Reveals details of KBG penetration of the CIA, FBI spy-hunting tactics, the activities of Pollard, Pelton, and Walker, interactions between the CIA and NSA, and security breaches in the two agencies.
To his surprise, Washington Post reporter Kessler was allowed to interview FBI counterintelligence agents and observe them at work. ("I later found out that the approval to give me so much access had all been a mistake.") His absorbing report focuses on the members of one FBI counterspy team called CI3 and their highly successful operations. Kessler also interviewed several convicted American spies, providing "the inside story from the traitor's point of view." In another piece of good luck, he was able to spend five days with one of the most successful spies in history on his home ground of Czechoslovakia: Karl Koecher, who operated inside the CIA for 20 years, was arrested by the FBI in 1984 and released two years later in a prisoner-exchange for Soviet dissident Anatoly Shcharansky. There is sensational material here, including Koecher's account of spouse-swapping parties attended by CIA employees, but most impressive are the author's revelations of FBI counterintelligence methods.
Why did the KGB let Kessler interview Karl Koecher in Prague? To twit the CIA about the Howard case? No matter. For those who think the CIA is the core of reaction and the FBI the gang that can't shoot straight, these live action stories would read like a pilot for a new TV series, were it not for Kessler's sobering comments on the tricky problem of keeping our freedoms while catching their spies.
Hardcover, 1988. Photos.
New book. Very minor shelf wear from rubbing.