Customer Reviews

Traitors Among Us: Inside the Spy Catcher's World

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This book, highly recommended by the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), grabbed me from the beginning. Stuart, whom I know as one of the most thoughtful and self-effacing Colonels in military intelligence, wisely chooses to focus on the two most important cases in recent U.S. military history. For a catalog of all the others, see "Merchants of Treason" by Tom Allen and Norman Polmar. A few things about this valuable book bear emphasis here: 1) early on, the FBI tried to shut the CIA out of the first case, and Col Herrington very wisely insisted on including them--leading to critical CIA contributions without which the case would not have been solved; 2) counterintelligence is incredible tedious, boring, *hard* work, and it takes a special kind of commander to maintain morale under such circumstances; 3) both Defense and Justice lawyers screwed up big-time by not being aware that military intelligence activities in Austria were illegal in Austria and therefore warranted early involvement of the Austrian government--this ignorance cost us heavily; 4) allowing soldiers to "homestead" in sensitive intelligence positions anywhere is very dangerous; and finally--bringing to bear some personal knowledge here--5) success is temporary, failure is forever...I'll wager the Army's Foreign Counterintelligence Activity has gone downhill since this book was written, and that the old "go along easy" habits of those that have been homesteading too long at FCA are again rearing their ugly heads. Counterintelligence is still a backwater, and any commander, however exceptional, is going to need strong Service-level support if they are to keep their senior civil servant (bureaucratic) elements in line. This book is an excellent touchstone for Congressional members and staff, Service and DoD chiefs who care little for counterintelligence but need to do more, and for citizens who need to know that counterintelligence is on the "front lines" every day, in every clime and place.

I am not an aficionado of the spy genre, but this book held my interest throughout. I would guess that that's because of it's realism. The world of spies and spycatchers appears to be much drabber than what is portrayed in the novels of Le Carre. I don't quite understand why I like that better, but it's probably because I read such books to find out about the real world rather than for escape into a fantasy world.

I found the amount of politics and bureaucratic hurdles Herrington and his team had to go through appalling, particularly the Justice Department insistence on a 100% airtight case against a traitor of the magnitude of Clyde Conrad. On p.212 an attorney of the Justice Dept. says they will not authorize the arrest of Conrad in spite of an overwhelming pile of evidence, and Herrington asks if that is the attorney's personal view or the position of the attorney general. The attorney answers ambiguously that it is the view of the Justice Department. I find it very, very hard to believe that either Ed Meese or William French Smith would hesitate to go after an enemy agent like Conrad out of fear of failing to obtain a conviction. That sort of timidity in defense of the departmental resume just wasn't characteristic of the Reagan appointees. No, this sounds more like eunuchs guarding their little piece of turf. Failing to arrest and prosecute Clyde Conrad on the grounds that you might not get a conviction is tantamount to letting Timothy McVeigh run free because he wasn't seen at the site of the Oklahoma City bombing. I would only fault Colonel Herrington for not putting the names of those cowardly Justice Department lawyers into this very fine book for all to read.

Stuart Herrington's book is a textbook on how to catch spies. I have not read a single book on counterintelligence that describes in detail the painstaking work -- sometimes combined with a stroke of luck -- that goes into making a solid case against traitors willing to sell their country's security. Although there have been very few casesof espionage against the U.S. uncovered except through defectors or through a mole the U.S. had inside a hostile service, the hard part is proving it. Colonel Herrington is to be commended for his generous and unstinting praise of the U.S. Army's counterintelligence special agents, the CIA and the FBI. His step-by-step review of operations involved in the the cases he cites show the complexities involved and the necessity for close cooperation among the various security agencies which more often than not have been portrayed as glory-seeking turf battlers. Criticism that Colonel Herrington went overboard with citing the good work of his special agents and praising the general officers whom he had to keep up-to-date, is entirely misplaced. Instead, the colonel did the honorable thing: He gave credit where credit was due. In the silent war of espionage this must be a first. In researching my book "Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police", I interviewed a number of German offcials who told me that they were awed by the dedication and professionalism of Stuart Herrington and his special agents. As a former intelligence officer, I tip my hat to Stuart Herrington. A well-written must read.

John O. Koehler author, Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police, Westview Press.

This well-written eyewitness account of our military's counterintelligence operations during the Cold War will stand as a classic. Stuart Herrington was there and, as a former Intelligence officer myself, I can attest that no one had greater respect or credibility in the counterintelligence world. The only fault I find with this terrific book is that Herrington understates his own indispensible--and often heroic--role in these actions. While his humility is becoming, it limits the reader's knowledge of his incalculable contributions. But that is by the way--this book tells a dramatic story that long needed to be told, and it tells it splendidly. While I have written fiction about this shadowy world, no fictional tale can equal the remarkable reality of what a handful of men did for our country behind the curtains of the world stage. As a fellow officer, I admire Herrington; as a fellow author, I envy his skills and achievement. I strongly--STRONGLY--recommend this fine book to all Americans interested in how the Cold War was really waged. Excellent!

There are two major triumphs covered in this volume. One for each side. Fortunately the NATO side won but it would have been a close thing indeed if the ball had dropped during the seventies and eighties when the war plans of the north central forces were being leaked to the Soviets almost as they were being written.
Too many of the previous reviewers have treated this book as a reality based version of the usual spy fiction. Well, keep in mind, that no matter how sexy the fictioneers have it this is not James Bond. As open as he was, he would have been knocked off years ago. If you saw "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", the TV series, you came away with a much better sense of the numbing boredom and tediousness of much of the CI and spy's tradecraft. I refer you to a classic of the reality genre, McCargar's Short Course in the Secret War (cf) and the more recent book by Ib Melchior (cf)
The amount of time it took to find the penetrators and then to build a case so that they could be punished is just one of the difficulties detailed herein. The other and most difficult side of the coin is, how do you find out what was copied in the first place? In the West, we did not have the constant paranoia caused by the KGB in the East and the effectiveness of a closed society such as was the DDR in keeping tabs on its citizens.
Sure, at the first hint of a leak you could shut down and get rid of everyone who might have done it, but that is doubly counter productive, as as is so often shown on the TV series Law and Order, the first suspect is often not the one at all, and the real one will go to ground. The second is that those who are left will become so paranoid that they will not be able to keep their eyes on their desks from looking over their shoulders so much.
Finally, this puts the lie to certain events in the intelligence community some years back when the entire HUMINT apparatus was almost fatally disrupted by belief in IMINT and SIGINT to keep track of things. Well, first things first, if the object cannot be seen such as a document or is never spoken of in a communication, then technical means are useless. All these cases herein depended on timeless face to face interaction between spy and case officer.
We have seen this again today in that we have no persons who can go into deep cover and infiltrate the other side. And few who can even interrogate fluently in the languages of the Middle East. The DEA and the FBI and Treasury agents have proven time and time again that infiltration is necessary to solve major crimes. How much more important is it when national existence is at stake.

Perhaps the best thing about this book is the author's obvious desire to obtain recognition for those in his agency whose work, of necessity, had to be secret and hidden; they commonly worked extremely long hours, for months and years, at duties that were tedious and repetitious. They deserve this recognition and our highest respect. Unfortunately, the book shares qualities with the work and often goes on and on giving daily details of surveillance, meetings, briefings, etc, on almost an hourly basis at times. Thus, a suspect is followed here, then there, then back home, then to somewhere else and eventually I found myself turning pages. Also, the author makes excessive use of long paragraphs of the "little did we know then that our suspicions would lead to something that would take years, much money, heartbreak, frustration,..." variety. I finished the book because the story is important and disturbing; it doesn't take much to imagine how these intelligence betrayals would have hurt if WW III had broken out. But, after the first half, I was skipping over portions and reading only those that told of new happenings in the plot. Hard-core espionage junkies will like this book best (and those who may themselves have done some work along this line).

I urge people interested in espionage and counterespionage to read about how competent CE investigations are actually run. Most spy-catcher books are maddeningly vague, but not this one. My hat is off to all of the agents who contributed to these complex investigations. Compliments to the author for a very exciting and readable book; it seems a worthy tribute. I highly recommend it as a professional development tool for younger folks in the business.

An excellent account of some major espoinage cases conducted by the Army (and others). Stu did a great job of bringing the untold cold war cases to life. As to those who felt he praised participants too much, a question: What would commenting about personality clashes add to the story? As one of Stu's Special Agents I can say that he and I disagreed on more than one occasion, so what, he is still the best Commander I have had in over a 20 year career (so far) in this business. In additon, maybe those displeased with his rendition of events should read the comments by KVDenton, well said.

I read a lot of espionage fiction, but found author Herrington's account of real Cold War espionage cases far more exciting than the best of the fiction offerings I've read. I could not put the book down, and was particularly saddened by the revelations that the spies caught by Herrington and his agents were able to steal from their organizations with impunity partly because of terrible security. If the past is a guide to the present and future, then look no further for an explanation of the outrageous happenings in Las Alamos--it is all between the covers of Herrington's book. A great job!

I normally do not read "spy" novels because they are often so unrealistic. However, Colonel Stuart Herrington tells a true tale of espionage that occurred during the Cold War and could have ended tragically for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces due to the greed of a few soldiers. I served in the US Army in Mainz and Bad Kreuznach, Germany during the 1970s and 1980s and heard absolutely nothing from my chain of command about these spy rings during that period. So, this book was a real eye-opener for me! The damage done by spies Clyde Conrad and James Hall would have been measured in dead soldiers if the Warsaw Block had attacked NATO. As a career soldier, I kept asking myself how the chain of command could miss so many of the clues on their espionage ... but the recent killings by a Muslim officer at Fort Hood Texas reveals that these are lessons yet to be learned. This book was more captivating than a James Bond movie because it dealt with "real" events. Sincere thanks to COL Herrington for writing this book and to our counterintelligence agents who persevered and prevailed.