The Secrets of the FBI [Hardcover]

Ronald Kessler (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 2, 2011

The Secrets of the FBI by New York Times bestselling author Ronald Kessler reveals the FBI’s most closely guarded secrets and the secrets of celebrities, politicians, and movie stars uncovered by agents during their investigations.

Based on inside access, the book presents revelations about the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound, the recent Russian spy swap, Marilyn Monroe's death, Vince Foster’s suicide, and J. Edgar Hoover’s sexual orientation. For the first time, it tells how the FBI caught spy Robert Hanssen in its midst and how the FBI breaks into homes, offices, and embassies to plant bugging devices without getting caught.

From Watergate to Waco, from congressional scandals to the killing of bin Laden, The Secrets of the FBI presents headline-making disclosures about the most important figures and events of our time.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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Q&A with Author Ronald Kessler

Why did you write this book?
I love to uncover secrets about subjects like the FBI, CIA, or Secret Service. I’ve always been aware that even though the FBI becomes involved in everything from the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound and congressional scandals to the confirmation of Supreme Court justices, very little ever gets out about what agents uncover in the course of their investigations. The Secrets of the FBI is a vehicle for revealing that privileged information.

What was the most surprising thing you found?
I could not believe that the FBI gave me the inside story on how it breaks into homes, offices, and embassies to plant bugging devices without getting caught. Along with names of terrorism and Mafia informants, this is the most sensitive, closely guarded information the FBI has. Many high-ranking FBI agents were shocked as well. It’s the most riveting story I’ve uncovered in my journalism career.

What other secrets will readers find in this book?
What triggered Vince Foster’s suicide. Who secretly visited Marilyn Monroe just before she took her own life. What J. Edgar Hoover’s sexual orientation was. Who actually uncovered Robert Hanssen as a spy, contrary to the story line of the movie “Breach.” Why the FBI could not match Osama bin Laden’s fingerprints after he was killed. When planting bugs in the homes and offices of Mafia figures, spies, and terrorists, how FBI agents tranquilize dogs, stage fake traffic accidents, and instruct police to stop occupants who try to return.

How did you get FBI agents to talk?
Usually I would waterboard them! Actually, I’ve developed a track record that engenders trust. In addition, agents figure I already know a lot. While it doesn’t seem to require much skill, people also say I am a good listener.

Photos from Inside The Secrets of the FBI

Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy borrowed the personal car of William Simon, special agent in charge of the Los Angeles field office, to secretly see Marilyn Monroe just before her suicide.—AP Photo

For twelve years, FBI Executive Assistant Director Louis E. Grever was what he calls a "government-sanctioned burglar," planting bugs in homes and offices of Mafia figures, terrorists, corrupt members of Congress, spies, and foreign intelligence officers. If caught, he could have been shot as an intruder.—FBI Photo

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, at right, had a spousal relationship with his deputy, Clyde Tolson. He vacationed with him and left his estate to him.—AP Photo

Karl Koecher, a mole in the CIA, and his wife Hana attended sex orgies to obtain information for the KGB until the FBI arrested them for espionage and sent them back to Prague.—Ronald Kessler Photo

About the Author

Ronald Kessler is the New York Times bestselling author of In the President's Secret Service, The Terrorist Watch, and The CIA at War. A former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal investigative reporter, Kessler has won seventeen journalism awards. He is chief Washington correspondent of Newsmax.com. Kessler lives in Potomac, MD with his wife Pamela.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Crown Archetype; First Edition edition (August 2, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307719693
• ISBN-13: 978-0307719690
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #367,233 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ronald Kessler is the New York Times bestselling author of nineteen non-fiction books about the Secret Service, FBI, and CIA.

Kessler began his career as a journalist in 1964 on the Worcester Telegram, followed by three years as an investigative reporter and editorial writer with the Boston Herald. In 1968, he joined the Wall Street Journal as a reporter in the New York bureau. He became an investigative reporter with the Washington Post in 1970 and continued as a staff writer until 1985.

Kessler's latest book is "The Secrets of the FBI." His previous book was "In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect." USA Today described the book as a "fascinating exposé...high-energy read...amusing, saucy, often disturbing anecdotes about the VIPs the Secret Service has protected and still protects.....[accounts come] directly from current and retired agents (most identified by name, to Kessler's credit)....Balancing the sordid tales are the kinder stories of presidential humanity...[Kessler is a] respected journalist and former Washington Post reporter....an insightful and entertaining story." Kessler and the book were featured on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Kessler has won seventeen journalism awards, including two George Polk awards--for national reporting and for community service. Kessler has also won the American Political Science Association's Public Affairs Reporting Award, the Associated Press' Sevellon Brown Memorial Award, the Robert Novak Journalist of the Year Award, and Washingtonian magazine's Washingtonian of the Year award. He is listed in Who's Who in America.

Ron Kessler lives with his wife Pamela Kessler in the Washington, D.C. area. Also an author and former Washington Post reporter, Pam Kessler wrote "Undercover Washington: Where Famous Spies Lived, Worked and Loved." His daughter Rachel Kessler, a public relations executive, and son Greg Kessler, an artist, live in New York.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 46 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars J. Edgar Who? August 4, 2011

By Robert Taylor Brewer

Format:Hardcover

Two drunks get on a city bus. It starts up, drives away, and a short time later, the passengers begin disrobing. They have revolvers strapped to their hips, radio gear, maybe Uzis. Seeing this, the drunks get nervous, get up and start pulling the overhead chain. They're desperate and want off the bus. The bus driver is knocking over garbage cans making his turns on the city streets. He yells back at the drunks "Hey, quit playing with the bell!" One of the passengers approaches the drunks. He's carrying a shotgun. "Do we know you?" the passenger says to the drunk. Now the drunks begin to pull the bell so hard they nearly rip it off its moorings. The passenger with the shotgun yells "Hey Phil, stop the bus. We got a couple of riders here." According to Ronald Kessler in his new book The Secrets Of The FBI, the passengers were FBI agents on a stakeout. The bus picked up the two drunks by mistake. Is this any way to run a government agency? Got that right. Welcome to the post 9/11 world of keeping America safe.

As Mr. Kessler indicates, this is not your grandfather's FBI. They think out of the box these days, and do imaginative things like staging fake car accidents to find terror suspects. They can and will impersonate almost anybody, although not a journalist or members of clergy. And female agents are not permitted to use sex to entrap a subject. So, if in doubt about who your date really is, kiss her. If she's FBI, she can't respond.

As to the question everyone has been wondering about, on page 17 we get: "Every other week, agent Louis Grever meets with his counterparts at the CIA". So yes, there is sharing of intelligence information, which was generally not the case prior to 9/11.

The FBI also doesn't like barking dogs, and will use tranquilizer darts to silence them. Other times they encounter more exotic species. On page 22 we get agent Mike McDevitt: "I hear all this noise ...I have a penlight in my mouth... I turn my head towards that... I see these orange eyes looking at me... a jaguar in a cage."

There are rewards that go beyond the tangible. Grever: "You love getting the phone call at home, grabbing your bag, and telling your family, `I gotta go! They need me! The country needs me!" When there's nothing more to learn about someone, the FBI clamps on the cuffs. "The day we arrest someone is the day I can't collect against him anymore," according to FBI assistant national security director Art Cummings II.

Overall, this book will answer most questions about the FBI's mission and its handling of important cases, including the hunt for Osama Bin Laden in Chapter 21. One new battleground is cyber terrorism, and industrial espionage, especially signals emanating from China. "We are being flooded, absolutely flooded by predominantly Chinese cyber attacks," Cummings says.

34 of 42 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Fallacious and salacious November 10, 2011

By Dusty

Format:Hardcover

After hearing the author tell stories on After Dark Radio of how FBI agents break into homes to plant bugs, my interest was piqued. But when I bought the book and started reading my interest turned to annoyance. The main problems are that the book is unsourced (i.e. no footnotes), and frequently offers little more than gossip passed off as fact. Secondly, it is also heavily filled with fallacious reasoning. A couple of examples will hopefully suffice.

Chapter 3, "Red Dress," is about J. Edgar Hoover's alleged homosexuality. The "proof" that Kessler offers is found in two main pieces of "evidence." One is a story of Susan Rosenstiel (which I will not dignify by repeating here); however, Rosenstiel is not a creditable witness (she pled guilty to perjury in the 1970s), as Kessler himself admits later in the chapter. The other evidence offered is Hoover's relationship with Clyde Tolson--his deputy and successor at the FBI--which Kessler believes was romantic. This rumor dates back to the '40s and is based on hearsay with no solid evidence behind it. Kessler himself notes that the FBI spied on Hoover and Tolson but found no evidence of anything unusual. This chapter ends with Kessler grasping at straws: "Still, the fact that Hoover spent his leisure time with a man and that they took adoring photos of each other points to Hoover's being homosexual" (p.36). The fact that two men spent leisure time together "points to" a homosexual relationship? This is nonsense. Kessler continues, "[Hoover] conceivably could have had sexual relations with Tolson when the two were alone together" (p.36). They also conceivably could have spent time reading Icelandic poetry, breeding horseflies, or listening to baseball on the radio - but these are not very interesting theories to pass off as fact. Kessler offers no description of what "adoring photographs" is supposed to mean.

A second example is the story of Vince Foster's suicide, for which Kessler tries to blame Hillary Clinton. I have been an harsh critic of Hillary's for years and hate to have to defend her, but again, Kessler's proof is so absurd that I felt the need to write this review. A week before Foster's suicide, Hillary insulted him publicly, calling him a hick-town lawyer. According to Kessler, after this incident Foster's behavior changed dramatically, and he demonstrated signs of depression and eventually committed suicide. This is a false cause argument; there is no necessary correlation between the two events. If I receive a flu shot and a week later find out I have lung cancer, I would not blame the flu shot. Furthermore, Ken Starr spent 3 years investigating Foster's death and issued an exhaustive 114 page report which does not even make mention of the Hillary "incident." Kessler finds this strange; I find it strange that he finds this strange.

Other lowlights include: his tendentious account of the FBI's siege at Ruby Ridge and subsequent massacre at Waco, which has all the sophistication and depth of a 3 minute TV news piece (and which was the catalyst for me to write this, my first ever Amazon review), the chapter "Mole in the CIA" is filled with lascivious tales that have no apparent relevance to his topic, and as several other reviewers have noted, the book contains a lot of old material that Kessler has recycled.

If you enjoy reading titillating gossip, then perhaps you may enjoy this book. Otherwise, stay clear.

Full Disclosure: I did not read the entire book; after a while I could take no more.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting perspective on the modern FBI, and even-handed February 9, 2012

By Roger J. Buffington TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is the first book by this author that I have read. The writing style is only OK, but I will give him credit for presenting some pretty interesting facts. I also commend him for what I perceived to be an even-handed perspective on the FBI. This book cuts neither Left nor Right. It is critical of the FBI when the author deems it to be appropriate, and gives credit where credit appears to be due. I thought that the author's analysis of the Ruby Ridge and Branch Davidian fiascoes was pretty even-handed and rang true. Mostly he exonerates the FBI, but not without some criticism and frank second guessing. By contrast, the author pretty much concludes that J. Edgar Hoover was a gay man in a common law marriage with his Deputy Director. As most FBI buffs know, these rumors have circulated for decades. Obviously this took place before today's more enlightened and tolerant view of such relationships.

The overall thesis of this piece is that the FBI has learned to think outside of the box particularly since 9/11. This is plainly a good thing. I came away after reading this book with a more favorable opinion of the FBI. This book is an engaging read and I recommend it. RJB.