Customer Reviews

Seduced by Secrets: Inside the Stasi's Spy-Tech World

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

"Seduced by Secrets" is a study of East Germany's Ministry for State Security (MfS), or the "Stasi", from the point of view of a science and technology historian. The fall of East Germany created a unique opportunity to understand and analyze a modern intelligence agency, once powerful and now defunct, as four decades of the MfS' confidential records were thrown open for all to see. Author Kristie Macrackis sifted through thousands of those files and interviewed former East German agents to piece together a technological history of the MfS' domestic and foreign intelligence operations. Aimed at interested laymen, historians, and intelligence professionals, "Seduced by Secrets" peers behind the Iron Curtain to illuminate the challenges and accomplishments of modern high-tech espionage.

The book is divided into two parts and addresses the role of technology in Cold War espionage in two different senses. The first part, called "High-Tech", discusses East Germany's efforts to acquire technology and technological information from the West, which was its primary goal, in order to save domestic companies research and development costs and to create an indigenous microelectronics industry. Macrakis includes a history of the Sector for Science and Technology (SWT), which was charged with the task of stealing Western technologies. As industrial intelligence was primarily gathered by humans, this part of the book is about the people -the SWT elite, the agents, double agents, defectors, their operations and their goals.

While the first part of the book consists mainly of stories -histories, operations, agents- the second part, called "Spy-Tech", is more dense and technical. It describes the technologies created by the Technical Operations Sector (OTS) for use in spying and their applications. There are chapters on containers and the gadgets that they concealed, invisible inks and secret writing, observation and surveillance photography, radio intelligence and counterintelligence, smell science, and the use of chemical or radioactive substances to track people. There are stories here too, but the emphasis is on the technologies themselves and how they were used.

The MfS tends to be remembered in the West for its Orwellian domestic spying, but "Seduced by Secrets" is an eye-opener on its foreign intelligence programs. Macrakis does not take asides in East-West or communist-capitalist politics, but presents intelligence operations on both sides in a neutral tone. Because espionage is a cat-and-mouse game, we gain some insight into CIA and NSA operations also. Kristie Macrakis starts out by questioning "the ability of intelligence and security to solve a nation's problems", using East Germany's self-perpetuating spy culture as an example of too much cost, risk, and loss of liberty for too little reward. The content of "Seduced by Secrets" only indirectly addresses that issue but gives the reader an abundance of information from which to draw your own conclusion.

The Eastern German Ministry for State Security, or Stasi, was a premier intelligence agency, perfecting both political, social and economic espionage during the Cold War era. Engaging in covert operations throughout Western Europe, the United States, and elsewhere, Stasi was able to infiltrate both government entities and corporate organizations in order to further the country's technological, military and industrial prowess.

Kristie Macrakis, Professor of the History of Science at Michigan State University, has written a masterful, impeccably and meticulously researched book, which explores in engaging scope and detail, the machinations of this both feared and respected organizations. Drawing on Stasi's archives, interviews with former officials, and a wealth of material from other groups including the CIA, her picture of Stasi is a comprehensive exploration that reads like a novel in the finest traditions of the espionage genre. Although the primary focus is on the technology developed, borrowed, or stolen by the agency, the book artfully captures the human element ranging from personal motivation, organizational politics and maneuvering, and insular culture that represented the paranoia of the time.

Carefully crafted, Professor Macrakis' work displays a clean crisp writing style, eschewing unnecessary jargon, to unmask the face of a faceless organization. Not content with merely secondary or documentary sources, she has interviewed numerous participants in this dance of seducton, providing the reader with in-depth knowledge and experience. Here we see flawed human characters, carefully and deliberately exposed, to paint a detailed portrait of this relic. Without becoming mired in sensationalism, "Seduced by Secrets," provides a vivid uncompromising picture of those motivated by both idealistic and baser human emotions. It serves as an effective reminder of the human personalities that engage in similar work throughout the world and a warning to those who think that

The book is worthwhile from the standpoint of history and human behavior. I cannot recommend this book more highly and hope to see additional books from Kristie Macrakis. If her lectures at Michigan State are as interesting as this book, her students are privileged indeed.

Once the two distinct German states were created shortly after the end of World War II, the communist East German nation developed a security service designed to simultaneously spy on the western nations, particularly West Germany and keep their citizens in line. This security agency was formally known as Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (Ministry for State Security) but was commonly abbreviated as Stasi and known by the acronym MfS.
The MfS wove a vast network of internal informants and sent a large number of sleeper agents posing as refugees into West Germany. The common language and culture of the people of the two German nations in combination with their vastly different ideologies meant that there was a constant struggle between the security services of both nations. This was also one segment of the greater struggle between the spy agencies of their two sponsoring superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union.
This book is a (very) detailed description of the tactics of the Stasi. Some of it is amusing, for example the clothes containing the smells of suspects kept in sealed glass jars. Other aspects are disturbing, such as the alleged use of dangerous and radioactive substances to track suspects. Overall, it is a fascinating look into the methods and tactics of the near forty year existence of what was a very effective spy agency. Given their weakness in technology, the MfS concentrated on human weaknesses to cultivate their human intelligence sources.
It turns out that the spy game is much like most of the other aspects of life. To get people to do what you want, often against their wishes, you exploit their weaknesses for money, sex, power or appeal to their ego. Communism failed as a political and economic system, yet they were very efficient in some areas. Three of them were education, keeping the crime rate low and in spying on everyone the state deemed worth investigating. This book demonstrates how effective one communist state was in carrying out the third.

Macrakis is to be commended for combining an impressive level of historical detail with a most engaging style. The book should therefore appeal to historians, espionage buffs and the general reader. As some of the early reviews noted, the book is both extremely well- researched and well-written. The author's passion for her subject is readily apparent throughout this richly researched work. She demonstrates that, as is all too often the case in the spy world, the operatives become so preoccupied with the spy game, that the game becomes an end in itself. A wealth of documentation and anecdotes generously illustrates this theme.

The book contains a number of major finds. Perhaps the most exciting of these is the author's invisible ink revelations. Macrakis and her team of science students was able to reproduce an authentic super-secret invisible ink method. This, I believe, is a "first" in the history of espionage. Even to this day the CIA apparently refuses to declassify its invisible ink files. Another intriguing technique was the uncovering of a secret program using radioactive isotopes to track people or their objects. Perhaps contrary to most readers expectations, the use of this technology actually originated with the British police in 1940, and not the KGB! Macrakis also reveals evidence the FBI experimented with them in the 1940s. The author also explodes the myth surrounding the yellow dust cloth, or "smell science." As the author shows, this technique was used not just against dissidents, but also a general tool against criminals by the Stasi.

In short, I found this book as illuminating and informative as it is entertaining. The author's blend of creative research techniques and first rate story-telling turns a subject that could easily be just one more dry-as-dust historical exposé, into a thoroughly enjoyable experience. As author Pete Earley put it, "Macrakis writes with a scholar's eye and a novelist's skills." And that's an all too often hard to find combination in history writing.

Highly recommended.

One of the things I try to do in any review of a nonfiction work is to determine if it's factual. That's something the reader can no longer take for granted, unfortunately.

Having no experience or training as a spy, I can't directly verify the accuracy of the work from my personal knowledge. And, because the spy world is so secretive, source information is extremely hard to come by. One of the principles of evaluating accuracy is to look for internal consistency of the work. This book passed that test with flying colors. It's also consistent with related areas of knowledge, such as basic physics (no wild claims that can't possibly work, no violations of physical laws, etc.). Adding to its aura of authenticity are original photographs and original research. Part of the original research consisted of personal interviews with subject matter experts (actual spies on both sides of the former Iron Curtain).

One missing aspect of this foray into the spy world was, thank you Ms. Macrakis, the flatulent use of acronyms. Acronymitis is an affliction common to people in technical fields, and this book's focus was on the tech aspect of the Stasi spy world. It was nice to be spared that particular torture.

Macrakis' writing fell short, however, in the misuse of the word "only." She consistently used it early in her sentences, regardless of what word she actually meant to modify with it. Sometimes, I could discern her "real meaning" (instead of what she actually said) from the context and sometimes not. Misplaced modifiers make writing unclear, and should be ruthlessly ferreted out of any text.

Overall, it was a fascinating read. As a child of the Cold War, I found this topic particularly interesting. My generation was traumatized, as children, by being put through useless nuclear bomb drills in grade school (get under your desk and put a book over your head--the Commies are coming!). People on either side of the Iron Curtain were frightened over what the other side (those crazy folks!) might do to them. This fear, though founded mostly on suspicion and misinformation, was very real to millions of people.

In an effort to keep those crazy ("Communists" on one side, "Imperialists" on the other) from destroying "our way of life," each side mounted an extensive spy operation against the other. The spy agencies turned to technology to give them an edge. This book shows us what that technology was, how it worked, and why it mattered. It also shows us how badly the eastern bloc countries lagged in technology for its production sector, why this was so, and how the spies tried to remedy that by stealing technology from private sector companies in the West.

Seduced by Secrets consists of 13 chapters. It contains 32 photographs, three charts, a table, a listing of acronyms and abbreviations, exhaustive notes, and an extensive index.

The book is divided into two Parts: High-tech and Spy-tech.

Part One contains the first six chapters, and it reveals the technology struggle between the East and the West.

The first part of the strategy of the West was to foster competition among private concerns that would subsequently have the means and motivation to develop technology. The second part was to conceal that technology from the East, via trade embargoes and other restrictions.

The first part of the strategy of the East was to centrally plan things, which resulted in stifling innovation. In an effort to make up for this, the East deployed the second part of its strategy: it stole technology from the West.

The stealing involved many methods, none of which actually solved the problem of being behind in technology. For example, getting a high-tech milling machine illegally means you have the machine but no support, training, or spare parts. Further, the central planners often selected the wrong things and made other mistakes that defeated the entire effort. I was impressed at how Macrakis showed this from many different angles. It really was a complex situation with myriad permutations. And people made many mistakes.

The book opens by giving us a close-up look at one particular spy, Hans Rehder. Through this synopsis of his spy career, we understand how he came to be a spy. This is instructive, and it helps us see that spies aren't necessarily people who wake up one day and say, "I think I'll betray my country now." In Rehder's case, he didn't even know he was working for the Stasi until he'd been doing so for two years. He thought he was providing information to the Ministry of Machine Building. After two years of committing treasonous crimes, he really had no choice but to keep working for these folks. And it didn't demotivate him that they made it worth his while financially.

Throughout the first six chapters, Macrakis examines various motivations and manipulations that made people become spies. Chapter Three begins by telling us about Peter Fischer (cover name for Werner Stiller). His story is complicated, to say the least. A published account of his sordid spy life (and his betrayal of his wife) tells one version, while hard-hitting research reveals a contradictory (and far less flattering) one.

Part One ends with Chapter Six, "The Computer Fiasco." In this chapter, Macrakis provides insight as to how the East's strategy of pirating and cloning technology always left them behind the West.

Part Two contains the last seven chapters of the book. Here, the focus is on the technology used by the spies. For every spy gadget, there were detection methods and countermeasures--some of which didn't involve technology.

Macrakis takes us back in time and moves forward as technology evolved. We begin our journey at the Technical Operations Sector campus. In addition to the technology, we get to see the bureaucracy.

To help the reader visualize how things work, Macrakis frequently makes references to Ian Fleming's characters. Specifically James Bond and Q (Q was the gadget guy). Gerhard Muller was one of the Q equivalents in the Stasi. Macrakis researched how he came to serve in that capacity--it's an interesting story.

Most of the technology consisted of containers and cameras. An example of a container would be a figurine that has a secret compartment and a secret latch. Cameras came in many forms, each having a specific set of advantages and drawbacks. The invisible ink (the stuff of spy novels) was actually used, and there were many varieties (well beyond lemon juice). Macrakis researched this and provided fascinating detail--devoting an entire chapter to the subject.

Secret radio transmissions were surprisingly complicated. The details of this aspect of spy communication hold many surprises, even for people with a high level of technical knowledge. Similarly intriguing is the coverage of electronic eavesdropping--the subject of Chapter 11. In Chapter 12 Macrakis explores "smell science." This somewhat bizarre area of spy science involves collecting smell samples. She includes a picture of jars, each containing a smell-impregnated cloth.

The final chapter discusses spy dust. It's not your ordinary dust. Most varieties were radioactive. The table mentioned earlier in this review lists the spy dust methods used in the "Cloud" program in the 1980s. Spy dust was used for such purposes as tracking people, marking money, guarding secrets, and eliminating spies.

While the book looks into the past, it provides lessons for today. In the USA, for example, we are following the central planning model that brought so much misery to communist countries (the index alone to the Code of Federal Regulations is over 65,000 pages--as is our Federal Income Tax Manual). As "our" government continues to bloat in size, power, and cost, the USA continues to fall behind other countries that have adopted freer economic models and less regulatory environments.

Even if you don't wish to draw parallels to the bureaucracy problems that put such a huge parasitic drag on the USA today, the book holds value for its historic and research value. If you lived through the time of the Berlin Wall, you can now understand the cat and mouse spy games played by both sides. It's a fascinating look into human nature, paranoia, greed, and the effects of flawed ideology during three tense decades of the modern era.

Kristie Macrakis did a very impressive amount of research for this book, and intelligence specialists and gadget buffs will surely delight in the East German spying shenanigans described herein. Unfortunately this book is not well-written as a historical study that will intrigue the interested layperson. The text takes the form of fact after fact with almost no over-arcing narrative or sense of flow, giving the book the form of a technical field manual. Macrakis piles on miniscule data like "HV A received 284 sheets of copy paper, 110 bags of powder developer, and 2 liters of developer solution" but provides very little background information on the geopolitical or ideological trends than inspired the development of the spying techniques she covers in so much detail. Granted, there are a few human anecdotes surrounding spies of interest, but these do little to improve the pacing of the book. This is the result of a research method focused on gadgets and statistics, with incomplete development of the type of historical narrative that the non-specialist can sink his/her teeth into. Great research, poor presentation. [~doomsdayer520~]

Seduced by Secrets: Inside the Stasi's Spy-Tech World by Kristie Macrakis takes you back to the Cold War era when East and West were constantly trying to steal each other's secrets. She was given access to many of the East German archive files related to their espionage organization, the Stasi. While not necessarily a "can't put it down" read, it does take you behind the scenes of what and how spying worked back then.

Contents:
Part 1 - High-Tech: Agent Gorbachev; Stealing Secrets; Hero, Traitor, Playboy, Spy; The Crown Jewels; "Kid" and "Paul"; The Computer Fiasco
Part 2 - Spy-Tech: James Bond, Communist-Style; Communicating Secrets; Secret Writing Revealed; Eye Spy; Big Ears; Smell Science; Spy Dust
Notes on Archival Sources; Notes; Index

Macrakis lived in Berlin in the mid-1980's and experienced the events that led to German reunification. In 1998-99, she decided to do more research into the subject of Eastern Germany espionage at a level not usually granted. From the archives, interviews, and other sources, she was able to peel away much of the Hollywood stereotypes that cloud our understanding. Given that she's a professor of history, she could have turned the book into a dry recitation of facts, figures, and reporting. Instead, she tries to weave those facts into context by looking at some of the real spies of that time, showing how the technology of the time influenced the way they carried out their roles. For instance, the "Agent Gorbachev" chapter follows a real spy, Hans Rehder, as he passed industrial secrets from his West German employer over to his handlers. The fact he did so for 28 years without raising any suspicions shows how East Germany (and in most cases the Soviet Union) were able to keep up with the West without bankrupting their economies. Payments for these secrets were determined by how much money it would save the country by not having to do the research themselves. There were no Googles out there to search and no networks to hack into.

For those who prefer to read about the "spy toys", Part 2 is very interesting (it was my favorite part). Macrakis found files showing the science behind invisible ink formulas, listening devices, and visual surveillance. The Stasi even went so far as to capture the "smells" of dissidents, using yellow cloths that were vacuum-packed in jars. These smells were used by search dogs to find and track certain people when necessary. I'll admit that was the first time I had ever heard of governments tracking people by smell. You could think of it as the precursor to DNA tracking. :)

Overall, Seduced by Secrets was an interesting read. Had it not been for some of her stories of real spies, the book would have turned into a long, dry dissertation of facts, statistics, and events. Conversely, had she tried to turn it into a novel based on her research, it would have lost much of the scholarly value that she put into it. For a general audience (like me), it is an interesting look into espionage. For researchers, it's a gold mine of detail.

This is an interesting compilation of the author's research into the operation of the East German secret service, or Stasi (not a term they liked). It is filled with an immense amount of research done after the unification of the two German states after the "fall" of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc.

The book is divided into two main sections, one dealing with people and the other dealing with the technology developed during the Cold War. It starts out somewhat disorganized and doesn't hit its stride until well into the segment on people. More on that later.

The book has a tremendous amount of interesting information for those curious about everyday spy stuff and international intrigue. There are also some lessons in economics, although they are buried in the huge amount of detail. However, don't pick this up thinking it is a "how to" book for would-be spies. While there are many details about spy "tradecraft" (the standard term for spy techniques), the author does not go into the kind of depth that would get her in trouble with those in the field, or help one improve one's skills in this area. This is not an expose or "how to" guide, but more of a historical accounting of the operational methods of one country's efforts during a given time period. Don't expect to find any huge secrets revealed here, although there is plenty of material to make one think about things a bit differently.

That said, the author does, however, claim one major coup, and that is revealing (pun intended) one tidbit of knowledge about secret writing formulas that she claims is appearing in print for the first time in this book. (Hah! No spoilers from me, spy fans, you'll have to read it yourself.) It is interesting, as is all her information about the technical side of the Stasi's work. There are comparisons of techniques from the West, but again, mostly in pretty general terms.

It was interesting to me to see the fairly mundane side of day to day spy work. It is definitely not the stuff of James Bond, although that kind of thing does pop up in bits and pieces. It was also interesting to get an insight into the economic nature of a lot of the spying that was done. There is far more business related spying going on than is usually discussed, and the energy and resources poured into securing a formula for nylon, for example, amazed me. I saw the spy business in a very different light after reading this book.

While I enjoyed the book, it was quite a difficult read. While the writing was generally well done, there was such a maze of details and alphabet soup of agencies that it took a great deal of effort to keep it all straight. Also, I felt that the book started off in a kind of confused fashion, although it did seem to become more focused about a third of the way through. I did not care for the author's manner of organizing the information. I found that it made following things difficult. I would have rather the book had been organized more in terms of a time line than jumping all over the place the way it did.

I also think the book suffered from a lack of overall story arc or plan in the telling. I think that every book, even historical research like this, can benefit from being seen as telling a story, and this would be a much better book if it had been organized more that way - a beginning, middle, and end sort of thing. It seemed that the overall theme was kind of vague, and that the telling of the story was more difficult for lack of that focus. For example, at the end of the section on technology, the book just stops. No conclusion chapter, no afterthoughts, nothing - just straight into the endnotes. That felt very abrupt.

While I liked the book, I feel that the difficulty in reading it knocks it down from four to three stars (some people might even take it lower). It is worth reading if you are attracted to this kind of topic or if you are a writer needing authentic background or setting, but be prepared to work at getting what you want out of this book. It will not be easy. There are some truly interesting historical connections and information in here, but it is like pulling teeth to get at them.

Americans have always had a fascination with and a fear of spy culture. In the popular imagination as portrayed in print fiction and film, operatives are suave, coldblooded, fearless and clever and their clandestine lives are filled with intrigue and danger at all times. Shows such as "Alias" depict a world so far removed from the rest of us that we could scarcely imagine it if we even knew. Kristie Makrakis' book, "Seduced by Secrets" opens a portion of that world to the average citizen, revealing a community that is intimately wedded to creative and sometimes diabolical technologies, but eminently steeped in human error, imperfections and the mundane realities of the detail-oriented business of information extraction. Makrakis' painstaking and thorough research about one of the most famous spy organizations of the 20th century, East Germany's Stasi, is an invaluable source of information about spy culture, but also an incisive critique of the role of science and technology to save us, at least as far as politics and international relations are concerned. The book examines this opaque world in two distinct parts: first, by detailing the East Germans' efforts to acquire technology, even (or especially) through theft; and second by revealing the complicated set of technologies themselves that the Stasi believed would provide East Germany with strategic predominance on the world scene. With this structure, the reader gets both a sense of the personalities involved in the struggle as well as a complete description of specific means the East German government employed to observe the enemy, track the enemy and communicate discreetly about the enemy. For example, the reader learns about invisible ink and secret writing formulas that are revealed for the first time. A historian of science and technology, Makrakis clearly has done her homework, sparing the rest of us from poring over all the classified documents recently made available about this period behind the Iron Curtain. If you are interested in the reality of how spies complete their missions, or are a technology wonk who can't get enough of decryption, surveillance and surreptitious photography, this book will surely prove to be an essential component of your library.

Although it is not a perfect analogy (by their very natures, analogies are rarely perfect), during the Cold War, East German was to the Soviet Union what England was to the United States: a close ally but also clearly the lesser partner in the relationship. Although the smaller country, in fiction at least, England did much better with spies, producing the biggest of them all, James Bond. On the other side of the Iron Curtain, the KGB took most of the spotlight, but East Germany's Stasi did have its moments. Kristie Macrakis's book, Seduced by Secrets, gives some insights into this organization.

Seduced by Secrets is divided into two roughly equal halves. The first part deals with human intelligence, those spies and bureaucrats that operated within Stasi, or more formally, the East German Ministry of State Security. We get tales of various defectors and moles and the methods Stasi used to both recruit agents and weed out those working for the West. This concludes in a chapter dealing with East German attempts to steal Western computer technology and highlights the inherent flaws in a nation that seems to principally thrive on what it can take from other, more prosperous countries.

The second part of the book discusses spy-tech, where once again, the East Germans typically lagged behind their Western counterparts (nor were they alone among the Communist countries, a big reason that the Cold War ended as it did). For those most familiar with spy technology from what we pick up from movies, this section provides a glimpse in reality versus fiction. Personally, I found most interesting a chapter on the use of invisible inks; this was far more sophisticated than the inks devised in junior chemistry sets and the methods for producing the inks, detecting them and restoring them to visibility were often so secretive that even today, they aren't known. Considering how rarely you'd see Bond or his foes using these inks, you'd never realize how important they were in spydom. Other chapters describe more well-known spy devices such as cameras, radios and secret containers.

Macrakis's writing is informative and reasonably entertaining. Her style, while quite readable, is occasionally flawed with some slow passages and a tendency to repeat herself a bit. The problems, however, don't overcome the essential strength of her book, which is good for both those interested in spy fiction or Cold War history; if you fit into either of these categories, this will be a worthwhile book to pick up.