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Forty autumns : a family's story of courage and survival on both sides of the Berlin Wall / by Willner, Nina,1961-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."In this illuminating and deeply moving memoir, a former American military intelligence officer goes beyond traditional Cold War espionage tales to tell the true story of her family--of five women separated by the Iron Curtain for more than forty years, and their miraculous reunion after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Forty Autumns makes visceral the pain and longing of one family forced to live apart in a world divided by two. At twenty, Hanna escaped from East to West Germany. But the price of freedom--leaving behind her parents, eight siblings, and family home--was heartbreaking. Uprooted, Hanna eventually moved to America, where she settled down with her husband and had children of her own. Growing up near Washington, D.C., Hanna's daughter, Nina Willner became the first female Army intelligence officer to lead sensitive intelligence operations in East Berlin at the height of the Cold War. Though only a few miles separated American Nina and her German relatives--grandmother Oma, Aunt Heidi, and cousin, Cordula, a member of the East German Olympic training team--a bitter political war kept them apart. In Forty Autumns, Nina recounts her family's story--five ordinary lives buffeted by circumstances beyond their control. She takes us deep into the tumultuous and terrifying world of East Germany under Communist rule, revealing both the cruel reality her relatives endured and her own experiences as an intelligence officer, running secret operations behind the Berlin Wall that put her life at risk. A personal look at a tenuous era that divided a city and a nation, and continues to haunt us, Forty Autumns is an intimate and beautifully written story of courage, resilience, and love--of five women whose spirits could not be broken, and who fought to preserve what matters most: family. Forty Autumns is illustrated with dozens of black-and-white and color photographs"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Willner, Nina, 1961-; Willner, Nina, 1961-; Berlin Wall, Berlin, Germany, 1961-1989; German Americans; Intelligence officers; Women intelligence officers; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Tripped : Nazi Germany, the CIA, and the dawn of the psychedelic age / by Ohler, Norman,author.; Yarbrough, Marshall,translator.; translation of:Ohler, Norman.Stärkste Stoff.English.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Berlin 1945. Following the fall of the Third Reich, drug use--long kept under control by the Nazis' strict anti-drug laws--is rampant throughout the city. Split into four sectors, Berlin's drug policies are being enforced under the individual jurisdictions of each allied power--the Soviet Union, Britain, France, and the US. In the American zone, Arthur J. Giuliani of the nascent Federal Bureau of Narcotics is tasked with learning about the Nazis' anti-drug laws and bringing home anything that might prove "useful" to the United States. Five years later, Harvard professor Dr. Henry Beecher began work with the US government to uncover the research behind the Nazis psychedelics program. Begun as an attempt to find a "truth serum" and experiment with mind control, the Nazi study initially involved mescaline, but quickly expanded to include LSD. Originally created for medical purposes by Swiss pharmaceutical Sandoz, the Nazis coopted the drug for their mind control military research--research that, following the war, the US was desperate to acquire. This research birthed MKUltra, the CIA's notorious brainwashing and psychological torture program during the 1950s and 1960s, and ultimately shaped US drug policy regarding psychedelics for over half a century. Based on extensive archival research on both sides of the Atlantic, TRIPPED is a wild, unconventional postwar history, a spiritual sequel to Norman Ohler's New York Times bestseller BLITZED. Revealing the close relationship and hidden connections between the Nazis and the early days of drugs in America, Ohler shares how this secret history held back therapeutic research of psychedelic drugs for decades and eventually became part of the foundation of America's War on Drugs"--
Subjects: United States. Central Intelligence Agency.; Brainwashing; Brainwashing; Drug control; Drug control; LSD (Drug); LSD (Drug);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Book and Dagger How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II [electronic resource] : by Graham, Elyse.aut; cloudLibrary;
The untold story of the academics who became OSS spies, invented modern spycraft, and helped turn the tide of the war At the start of WWII, the U.S. found itself in desperate need of an intelligence agency. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to today’s CIA, was quickly formed—and, in an effort to fill its ranks with experts, the OSS turned to academia for recruits. Suddenly, literature professors, librarians, and historians were training to perform undercover operations and investigative work—and these surprising spies would go on to profoundly shape both the course of the war and our cultural institutions with their efforts. In Book and Dagger, Elyse Graham draws on personal histories, letters, and declassified OSS files to tell the story of a small but connected group of humanities scholars turned spies. Among them are Joseph Curtiss, a literature professor who hunted down German spies and turned them into double agents; Sherman Kent, a smart-mouthed history professor who rose to become the head of analysis for all of Europe and Africa; and Adele Kibre, an archivist who was sent to Stockholm to secretly acquire documents for the OSS. These unforgettable characters would ultimately help lay the foundations of modern intelligence and transform American higher education when they returned after the war. Thrillingly paced and rigorously researched, Book and Dagger is an inspiring and gripping true story about a group of academics who helped beat the Nazis—a tale that reveals the indelible power of the humanities to change the world.
Subjects: Electronic books.; 20th Century; Historical; World War II; Intelligence & Espionage; Germany;
© 2024., HarperCollins,
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The billion dollar spy : a true story of Cold War espionage and betrayal / by Hoffman, David E.(David Emanuel);
Includes bibliographical references and index."While getting into his car on the evening of February 16, 1978, the chief of the CIA's Moscow station was handed an envelope by an unknown Russian. Its contents stunned the Americans: details of top-secret Soviet research and development in military technology that was totally unknown to the United States. From 1979 to 1985, Adolf Tolkachev, an engineer at a military research center, cracked open the secret Soviet military research establishment, using his access to hand over tens of thousands of pages of material about the latest advances in aviation technology, alerting the Americans to possible developments years in the future. He was one of the most productive and valuable spies ever to work for the United States in the four decades of global confrontation with the Soviet Union. Tolkachev took enormous personal risks, but so did his CIA handlers. Moscow station was a dangerous posting to the KGB's backyard. The CIA had long struggled to recruit and run agents in Moscow, and Tolkachev became a singular breakthrough. With hidden cameras and secret codes, and in face-to-face meetings with CIA case officers in parks and on street corners, Tolkachev and the CIA worked to elude the feared KGB. Drawing on previously secret documents obtained from the CIA, as well as interviews with participants, Hoffman reveals how the depredations of the Soviet state motivated one man to master the craft of spying against his own nation until he was betrayed to the KGB by a disgruntled former CIA trainee. No one has ever told this story before in such detail, and Hoffman's deep knowledge of spycraft, the Cold War, and military technology makes him uniquely qualified to bring readers this real-life espionage thriller"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Tolkachev, Adolf, 1927-1986.; United States. Central Intelligence Agency; Aeronautics; Cold War.; Engineers; Espionage, American; Spies; Spies;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Drone warrior : an elite soldier's inside account of the hunt for America's most dangerous enemies / by Velicovich, Brett,author.; Stewart, Christopher S.,author.;
"For nearly a decade Brett Velicovich was at the center of America's new warfare: using unmanned aerial vehicles--drones--to take down the world's deadliest terrorists across the globe. One of an elite handful in the entire military with the authority to select targets and issue death orders, he worked in concert with the full human and technological network of American intelligence--assets, analysts, spies, informants--and the military's elite operatives, to stalk, capture, and eliminate high value targets in al-Qaeda and ISIS"--Amazon.com.
Subjects: Velicovich, Brett.; Drone aircraft; Targeted killing; Uninhabited combat aerial vehicles; Iraq War, 2003-2011; Afghan War, 2001-; Iraq War, 2003-2011; Afghan War, 2001-; Terrorism;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Good hunting : an American spymaster's story / by Devine, Jack,1940-; Loeb, Vernon.;
"A master class in spycraft from one of its greatest practitioners. Jack Devine is one of the legendary spymasters of our time. He was in Chile when Allende fell; he ran Charlie Wilson's war in Afghanistan; he had too much to do with Iran-Contra for his own taste, though he tried to stop it; he caught Pablo Escobar in Colombia; he tried to warn George Tenet that there was a bullet coming from Iraq with his name on it. Devine served America's interests for more than thirty years in a wide range of covert operations, ultimately overseeing the Directorate of Operations, a CIA division that watches over thousands of American covert operatives worldwide. Good Hunting is his guide to the art of spycraft, told with great wit, candor, and commonsense wisdom. Caricatured by Hollywood, lionized by the right, and pilloried by the left, the CIA remains one of the least understood instruments of the United States government. Devine knows more than almost anyone about the CIA's vital importance as a tool of American statecraft. Now, as he sees it, the agency is trapped within a larger bureaucracy, losing swaths of turf to the military and, most ominous of all, being transformed into a paramilitary organization. Its capacity to do what it does best has been seriously degraded. In wonderfully readable prose, Good Hunting aims to set the record straight. This is a revelatory inside look at an organization whose history has not been given its real due"--Includes bibliographical references (pages 303-306) and index.1. Inside the Invisible Government -- 2. Mules, Pick-up Trucks, and Stinger Missiles -- 3. "Your friend called from the airport" -- 4. "You need to polygraph him" -- 5. "Jack, this changes it all, doesn't it?" -- 6. Do I Lie to the Pope, or Break Cover? -- 7. Selling the Linear Strategy, One Lunch at a Time -- 8. Jousting with the Soviets : When I Knew It Was Over -- 9. A New Boss, a Bad Penny, and a Principled Heroin Dissent -- 10. The Rooster and the Train -- 11. Raising the Bar -- 12. Writing Notes in Green Ink -- 13. Splitting a Steak -- 14. Good Hunting -- Postscript -- People Consulted.
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; History.; Autobiographies.; Narrative non-fiction.; Devine, Jack, 1940-; United States. Central Intelligence Agency; United States. Central Intelligence Agency; Devine, Jack, 1940-; United States. Central Intelligence Agency.; Spies; Intelligence officers; Espionage, American; Spies; Spies.; POLITICAL SCIENCE; BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY; HISTORY; Diplomatic relations.; Employees.; Espionage, American.; Intelligence officers.; Spies.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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UFO : the inside story of the US government's search for alien life here-and out there / by Graff, Garrett M.,1981-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.'UFO' by Garrett M. Graff is the first comprehensive and eye-opening exploration of the American government's decades-long quest to solve one of humanity's greatest mysteries: are we alone in the universe? For as long as we have looked to the skies, the question of whether life on Earth is the only life to exist has been at the core of the human experience, driving scientific debate and discovery, shaping spiritual belief, and prompting existential thought across borders and generations. And yet, the idea of extraterrestrial intelligence has been largely seen as a joke, banished to the realm of fantasy and conspiracy. Now, for the first time, the full story of our national obsession with UFOs-and the covert, decades-long search by scientists, the United States military, and the CIA for proof of alien life-is told by bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff in a deeply reported and researched history. Drawing from original archival research, declassified documents, and interviews with senior intelligence and military officials, Graff brings every moment of this extraordinary quest to life, transporting readers from secret military meetings and congressional hearings, where the validity of the search is debated, to the cluttered offices of UFOlogists and hoaxers determined to see the truth revealed, remote observatories where astronomers monitor the stars, and even the halls of the White House, where staffers and presidents alike eagerly await answers. Filled with twists and turns, and populated by an unforgettable cast of characters, UFO is a thrilling story of science, national security, the secrets of space, and the enduring mysteries of the universe.
Subjects: Extraterrestrial beings.; Government information; Human-alien encounters.; Unidentified flying objects.; Unidentified flying objects; Unidentified flying objects;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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D-Day Girls The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II [electronic resource] : by Rose, Sarah.aut; cloudLibrary;
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The dramatic, untold history of the heroic women recruited by Britain’s elite spy agency to help pave the way for Allied victory in World War II “Gripping. Spies, romance, Gestapo thugs, blown-up trains, courage, and treachery (lots of treachery)—and all of it true.”—Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake In 1942, the Allies were losing, Germany seemed unstoppable, and every able man in England was on the front lines. To “set Europe ablaze,” in the words of Winston Churchill, the Special Operations Executive  (SOE), whose spies were trained in everything from demolition to sharpshooting, was forced to do something unprecedented: recruit women. Thirty-nine answered the call, leaving their lives and families to become saboteurs in France. In D-Day Girls, Sarah Rose draws on recently de­classified files, diaries, and oral histories to tell the thrilling story of three of these remarkable women. There’s Andrée Borrel, a scrappy and streetwise Parisian who blew up power lines with the Gestapo hot on her heels; Odette Sansom, an unhappily married suburban mother who saw the SOE as her ticket out of domestic life and into a meaningful adventure; and Lise de Baissac, a fiercely independent member of French colonial high society and the SOE’s unflap­pable “queen.” Together, they destroyed train lines, ambushed Nazis, plotted prison breaks, and gathered crucial intelligence—laying the groundwork for the D-Day invasion that proved to be the turning point in the war. Rigorously researched and written with razor-sharp wit, D-Day Girls is an inspiring story for our own moment of resistance: a reminder of what courage—and the energy of politically animated women—can accomplish when the stakes seem incalculably high. Praise for D-Day Girls “Rigorously researched . . . [a] thriller in the form of a non-fiction book.”—Refinery29 “Equal parts espionage-romance thriller and historical narrative, D-Day Girls traces the lives and secret activities of the 39 women who answered the call to infiltrate France. . . . While chronicling the James Bond-worthy missions and love affairs of these women, Rose vividly captures the broken landscape of war.”—The Washington Post “Gripping history . . . thoroughly researched and written as smoothly as a good thriller, this is a mesmerizing story of creativity, perseverance, and astonishing heroism.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Subjects: Electronic books.; Women; World War II; Intelligence & Espionage;
© 2019., Crown,
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Book of queens : the true story of the Middle Eastern horsewomen who fought the War on Terror / by Mahdavi, Pardis,1978-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Book of Queens reaches back centuries to the Persian Empire and a woman disguised as a man, facing an invading army, protected only by light armor and the stallion she sat astride. Mahdavi draws a thread from past to present: from her fearless Iranian grandmother, who guided survivors of domestic violence to independent mountain colonies in Afghanistan where the women, led by a general named Mina, became their country's first line of defense from marauding warlords. To the female warriors who helped train and breed the horses used by US Green Berets when they touched down in October 2001, with a mission but insufficient intelligence on the ground--women whose contributions were then forgotten. Pardis Mahdavi chases the legacy of Caspian horses and the women whose lives are saved by them, drawing on decades of research, newly-discovered diaries, and exclusive military sources. Among those intersecting stories is that of American Louise Firouz, who helped bring the breed back from the brink of extinction, connecting Virginia traders to British royals to the son of the Shah. Firouz's life is forever changed when she meets Mahdavi's own family, who run an unusual smuggling operation in addition to raising horses in a wild bid for freedom. Book of Queens is an epic tale of hidden women whose communal knowledge was instrumental in saving an animal as ancient as civilization, and who were the genesis of their own liberation"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Firouz, Louise.; Caspian horse; Horsemen and horsewomen; War horses; War on Terrorism, 2001-2009; Women soldiers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The fifth act : America's end in Afghanistan / by Ackerman, Elliot,author.;
"A powerful and revelatory eyewitness account of the American collapse in Afghanistan, its desperate endgame, and the war's echoing legacy. Elliot Ackerman left the American military ten years ago, but his time in Afghanistan and Iraq with the Marines and, later, as a CIA paramilitary officer marked him indelibly. When the Taliban began to close in on Kabul in August of 2021 and the Afghan regime began its death spiral, he found himself pulled back into the conflict. Afghan nationals who had, for years, worked closely with the American military and intelligence communities now faced brutal reprisal and sought frantically to flee the country with their families. The official US government evacuation process was a bureaucratic failure that led to a humanitarian catastrophe. With his former colleagues, and friends, protecting the airport in Kabul, Ackerman was drawn into an impromptu effort alongside a group of journalists, and other veterans, to arrange flights and negotiate with both Taliban and American forces to secure the safe evacuation of hundreds. These were desperate measures taken during a desperate end to America's longest war, but the success they achieved afforded a degree of redemption. And, for Ackerman, a chance to reconcile his past with his present. The Fifth Act is an astonishing human document that brings the weight of twenty years of war to bear on a single week at its bitter end. Using the dramatic rescue efforts in Kabul as his lattice, Ackerman weaves in a personal history of the war's long progress, beginning with the initial invasion in the months after 9/11. It is a play in five acts, the fifth act being the story's tragic denouement, a prelude to Afghanistan's dark future. Any reader who wants to understand what went wrong with the war's trajectory will find a trenchant accounting here. And yet The Fifth Act is not an exercise in finger-pointing: it brings readers into close contact with a remarkable group of characters, American and Afghan, who fought the war with courage and dedication, in good faith and at great personal cost. Understanding combatants' experiences and sacrifices while reckoning with the complex bottom line of the post-9/11 wars is not an easy balance; it demands reservoirs of wisdom and the gifts of an extraordinary storyteller. It asks for an author willing to grapple with certain hard-earned truths. In Elliot Ackerman, this story has found that author. The Fifth Act is a first draft of history that feels like a timeless classic"--
Subjects: Ackerman, Elliot.; United States. Central Intelligence Agency.; United States. Marine Corps. Marine Regiment, 8th. Battalion, 1st.; Afghan War, 2001-2021; Afghan War, 2001-2021; Afghan War, 2001-2021; Disengagement (Military science); Paramilitary forces;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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