Customer Reviews

Espionage: An Encyclopedia of Spies & Secrets (Virgin True Crime)

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It should be noted that this book was written by Richard Bennett and contains only a FOREWORD written by James Bamford. Otherwise the reference book contains interesting and accurate insights into various terms and events inside/outside the intelligence community.

Tries to cover a wide area, but makes factual mistakes. For one example, the author has decided to include entries for special operations forces around the world. For the US entry, he asserts that the US Army's special forces are simply "elite infantry" similar to the French Foreign Legion. Entering the SF world is a process in which an NCO does not only change his unit of assignment but also his MOS (job description) to one of several specialties. 18 series MOSs (SF) cover medical, engineering, and communications in addition to light and heavy weapons. SF training spans military free fall parachuting to foreign language training. There is no way that someone with even casual knowledge of Army SF could confuse them with the Legion's infantry. A majority of the military info seems to have come from the "Soldier of Fortune Magazine"-types who sit on bar stools and recite anecdotes of stuff they never did. Not being a spy, I don't know how accurate the stuff closer to center mass of his subject matter is, but if the military material is any indicator.... And then there's the preface. Let's just say that the writer of that part of the book has, let us say, 'questionable', credentials.
On the other hand, it DOES cover a whole lot of material. Some of it may not be true, but it IS interesting to browse through. A few years ago a book came out entitled, "The Spy Book". That was a far better encyclopedic intelligence book.

ESPIONAGE, An Encyclopedia of Spies & Secrets will become a standard work for those who wish to lift the curtain on the hidden world of the intelligence services. Bennett pulls no punches in his caustic comments and analysis of the events of 9-11 and the failure of Western Intelligence. It makes a hugely refreshing change from the stale old, but politically acceptable analysis pumped out by authors like Nigel West and others. Bennett redraws the battle lines on many historical espionage events and dares to disagree with the usually accepted versions. Perhaps his views might be questioned sometimes, but in a ground breaking work like Espionage that comes with the territory. I found his listings of the worlds major Intelligence services fascinating and very useful. I would have liked to see more cross-referencing and background material, but perhaps when the paper-back edition is published next year we can hope for it to be an updated and expanded edition as well. Overall a must buy and I would thoroughly recommend this to anyone who harbors any doubts about 'official' versions of events or the willingness of 'established' authors to rock-the-boat.