Spycraft - Melton [279]
5 The basic technology to intercept surveillance transmissions was widely understood. Soviets stationed in the United States had once used Bearcat scanners purchased at the local Radio Shack to pick up FBI transmissions. Decades later, some KGB technicians would still exhibit a genuine fondness for the stores and merchandise, praising the reliability and quality of the products such as batteries, wires, and other parts they had been able to obtain.
6 Victor Sheymov, Tower of Secrets: A Real Life Spy Thriller (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1993).
7 Barry G. Royden, “Tolkachev, A Worthy Successor to Penkovsky,” Studies in Intelligence, Vol 47:3, Central Intelligence Agency, 2003, 12.
CHAPTER TEN
1 Driven by the character of Q, Major Boothroyd, who was not in the Bond novels, but added to the movies, spy gadgets became an instant hit. Q’s equipment was impressive on the movie screen, often defying the laws of physics. A more realistic portrayal of spy gadgetry was seen in Mission: Impossible, where every device had to be based upon technology available at the time. For more information see: Danny Biederman, The Incredible World of SPY-FI (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2004).
2 Case officers were not encouraged by the fact that a great many of the elements required in technical collection violated some of the basic tenets of denied area tradecraft. For instance, installation of a technical device could involve an officer remaining at the target site for extended periods of time. In virtually every other operational procedure in denied areas, dead drops, signals, brush passes, car tosses, and the expanding arsenal of SRAC technology was aimed at minimizing the time of the operational act. Technical operations, such as installing a tap or emplacing a sensor, could require longer times at the target site to attach, adjust, and test the system.
3 Bearden and Risen, The Main Enemy, 194.
4 Polmar and Allen, Spy Book, 508-510; Richelson, A Century of Spies, 422. Polyakov is also known under the FBI codename TOPHAT and CIA codename BOURBON.
5 Polmar and Allen, Spy Book, 509. A “brush pass” allows for an imperceptible exchange of a small “package” such as a message or film cassette, to take place between two people as they “brush” past each other in a public area. There is no outward sign of recognition between the parties involved.
6 Communications between agents and case officers divides into two general systems known as “agent send” and “agent receive.” Due to the difficulty of concealing spy gear, agents were limited in the type of covert communications (covcom) equipment they could possess. As a result, agents had fewer options in sending messages—secret writing, in limited cases microdots, and dead drops. Options for agent receive systems included those plus OWVL, microprinting, and “blind” newspaper placements. Satellites introduced the option of long-range electronic covcom and BUSTER introduced short-range electronic covcom options.
7 A “mole” is a serving intelligence officer who is secretly working for another intelligence service.
8 David Wise, Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI’s Robert Hanssen Betrayed America (New York: Random House, 2002), 20-24.
9 Ibid., 193.
10 Ibid., 193-194.
11 Polmar and Allen, Spy Book, 509.
12 Royden, “Tolkachev, A Worthy Successor to Penkovsky,” Studies in Intelligence, 47:3, Central Intelligence Agency, 2003, 5.
13 Ibid., 12.
14 Schecter and Debriabin, The Spy Who Saved the World, 5, 25, 28.
15 “Dangles” appear to be legitimate volunteers, but are actually being controlled by another intelligence service.
16 The prepared text was often in the form of a personal letter containing information designed to avoid attracting unwanted attention and scrutiny from Soviet postal censors. The content was written in another person’s handwriting so even if censorship detected secret writing, the handwriting would not incriminate the agent.
17 Soviet postal censors used the word “perlustration