9 July 2020
Woodrow Wilson Institute
Between an assassination in Germany, allegations of bounties in Afghanistan, and a continuing campaign of espionage both cyber and human abroad, Russia’s spooks continue to be busy. Has coronavirus affected them? And what are the prospects for future activity, including meddling in US politics?
I got to know Jeff Stein several years ago and was immediately impressed by his skills as an investigative journalist and subject matter expert in intelligence and national security.
As my defence page has an increasing readership I’m writing with the good news that Jeff Stein is rebooting his legendary SpyTalk column in September as a newsletter on the Substack platform. You may remember Jeff, who I’ve worked with in the past, as the Spytalk columnist for years at Newsweek, and before that, at The Washington Post and before that Congressional Quarterly (where he was also the founding editor of the influential CQ/Homeland Security). Although Jeff is widely known for his many scoops and steady stream of much-needed corrective context on breaking national security stories this time around he’s added to his team such veteran journalists as Elaine Shannon, TIME magazine’s “queen of drugs and thugs,” and Peter Eisner, a prolific investigative author and former deputy foreign editor at The Post. And more.
I hope you’ll follow Jeff and his professional team at https://spytalk.substack.com/about and sign up.
High quality reporting which Jeff is renowned for costs money, so I also hope you’ll be an early paying customer. (It’s really cheap, only $9.95 a month.) But you can also sample the wares for free for a while, beginning in mid-September.
Author Douglas Waller discusses “Wild” Bill Donovan and his role in the OSS and modern American espionage, the subject of his new book.
Speaker Biography: Douglas Waller, a former veteran correspondent for Newsweek and Time, has reported on the CIA for six years. Waller also covered the Pentagon, the State Department, the White House and Congress. Before reporting for Newsweek and Time, he served eight years as a legislative assistant on the staffs of Rep. Edward Markey and Sen. William Proxmire. He is the author of the best-sellers “The Commandos: The Inside Story of America’s Secret Soldiers,” which chronicled U.S. Special Operations Forces, with a lineage tracing back to the OSS, and “Big Red: The Three-Month Voyage of a Trident Nuclear Submarine.” He is also the author of “A Question of Loyalty: Gen. Billy Mitchell and the Court-Martial that Gripped the Nation,” the critically acclaimed biography of the World War I general.
From the Library of Congress 2011.
The History of the OSS
How the OSS came about and its development into and the Clandestine Service known as the Central Intelligence Agency as told by those who served.
John Williamson continues the story of the secret RAF Special Duties Squadron based at Tempsford during WW2
RAF No. 138 Special Duties Squadron
138 Special Duties Squadron was responsible for dropping agents, weapons, sabotage equipment and other stores by parachute inside occupied Europe and flew as far as Poland and Yugoslavia from RAF Tempsford. There was also a detachment serving the Middle East.
Silent film
Missions By Moonlight No. 161 Special Duties Squadron
Hugh Verity was a night fighter pilot during WWII until 1942 when he volunteered for RAF special duties and became involved in one of the most extraordinary and effective operations of the secret war. Flying a single-engine Lysander aircraft he was landing in German occupied France delivering and collecting SOE and SIS agents. With only the light of the moon to recognise landmarks whilst navigating hostile terrain 161 squadron had carefully selected pilots with highly developed flying and navigation skills.
The Barn Tempsford Airfield 2014
The barn where agents were fitted with parachutes and issued with equipment. From this barn agents who could not face the possibility of prolonged torture were given an opportunity to take with them the ‘L Pill’ (lethal) containing cyanide. During their training they were informed the ‘L Pill’ would kill them within five seconds.
Alan Malcher 