Richard Sorge...The Professor

Richard Sorge (October 4, 1895 - November 7, 1944) was a German communist and spy who worked for the Soviet Union. He has gained great fame among espionage enthusiasts for his intelligence gathering during World War II. He worked as a journalist in both Germany and Japan, where he was imprisoned for spying and eventually hanged. His GRU codename was "Ramsay" (Russian: Рамза́й). He is widely regarded as one of the best-known Soviet intelligence officers of the Second World War, according to Phillip Knightley, the author of The Second Oldest Profession (1986).

Sorge was recruited as a spy for the Soviet Union and using the cover of being a journalist he was sent to various European countries to assess the possibility of communist uprisings taking place.

From 1920 to 1922, Sorge lived in Solingen, in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He was joined there by Christiane Gerlach who had been the wife of Dr Kurt Albert Gerlach, a wealthy communist who had also been Sorge's professor of political science in Kiel. Sorge and Christiane married in May 1921. In 1922, he was relocated to Frankfurt, where he gathered intelligence about the business community. In the summer of 1923, he took part in the "Erste Marxistische Arbeitswoche" (First Marxist Work Week) in Ilmenau, Thuringia, an event subsidized by Felix Weil. After an attempted communist coup in October 1923, Sorge continued his work as a journalist. At the same time, he helped with organizing the library of the Institute for Social Research, of which Kurt Albert Gerlach was meant to be the first director.

In 1924, he and Christiane moved to Moscow where he officially joined the International Liaison Department of the Comintern, also an OGPU intelligence gathering body. 

In November 1929 Sorge returned to Germany where he was instructed to join the Nazi Party and not to associate with left-wing activists. To help develop a cover for his spying activities he obtained a post working for the agricultural newspaper, Deutsche Getreide-Zeitung.

In May 1933, the Soviet Union decided to have Sorge organize a spy network in Japan. As a cover, he was sent to Berlin with the code name "Ramsay" ("Рамзай" (Ramzai, Ramzay)), to renew contacts in Germany so he could pass as a German journalist in Japan. In Berlin, he insinuated himself into Nazi ranks, read much Nazi propaganda, in particular Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, and attended so many beer halls with his new acquaintances that he gave up drinking lest his tongue be loosened by alcohol.

His total abstinence does not appear to have made his Nazi companions suspicious and was an example of his devotion to and absorption in his mission. 

Sorge supplied the Soviet Red Army with information about the Anti-Comintern Pact, the German-Japanese Pact and warned of the Pearl Harbor attack. In 1941, Sorge is said to have informed them of the exact launch date of Operation Barbarossa. Moscow answered with thanks but Joseph Stalin largely ignored it,as was also the case with information supplied by the other networks, including Leiba Domb's Red Orchestra spy network on the German Borders. Stalin was reportedly so angry with Domb's information that he ordered that Domb be 'punished for spreading such lies'. (The order was not followed).[citation needed]

Gordon Prange's analysis (1984) was that the closest Sorge came to predicting the launch date of Operation Barbarossa was 20 June 1941 and Prange comments that Sorge himself never claimed to have discovered the correct date (22 June) in advance. The date of 20 June had been given to Sorge by Lt-Col Friedrich von Schol who was assistant military attache at the German embassy in Tokyo. As Sorge took pride in and sought the credit for the spy ring's work, Professor Prange may have taken Sorge's failure to claim that he had discovered the correct date as conclusive evidence that Sorge in fact did fail to discover it. Kim Philby's recruiter A. Deutsch was also the spymaster of Gestapo officer Willi Lehmann, who on June 19 cabled the Barbarossa launch date to NKVD in Moscow. Stalin considered this as disinformation, too.

The Soviet press reported in 1964 that on June 15, 1941, Sorge had broadcast a dispatch saying that, "The war will begin on June 22." Writing before previously-embargoed material was released by the Russian authorities in the 1990s, Prange and those writing with him appear not to have accepted the veracity of this report. More recently, Stalin was quoted as having ridiculed Sorge and his intelligence prior to the launch of Operation Barbarossa:

"There's this bastard who's set up factories and brothels in Japan and even deigned to report the date of the German attack as 22 June. Are you suggesting I should believe him too?"

As the war progressed, it was becoming increasingly dangerous for Sorge to continue his spying work. Nevertheless, in view of the critical juncture of the war, he continued spying. However, due to the increasing volume of radio traffic from one-time pads (used by the Soviets), the Japanese began to suspect a spy ring operating. The Japanese secret service had already intercepted many of his messages and begun to close in. Ozaki was arrested on October 14, 1941, and interrogated.

Sorge was arrested on October 18, 1941, in Tokyo. German ambassador Eugen Ott heard of Sorge's arrest the next day from a brief memo notifying him that Sorge had been arrested "on suspicion of espionage" together with another German, Max Clausen. Ott was both surprised and outraged, and assumed it was a case of "Japanese espionage hysteria". He thought that Sorge had been discovered passing secret information on the Japan-US negotiations to the German embassy, and also that the arrest could be due to anti-German elements in the Japanese government. It was not until a few months later that Japanese authorities announced that Sorge had in fact been indicted as a Soviet spy.

Initially, the Japanese believed that, due to his Nazi party membership and German ties, Sorge was an Abwehr agent. However, the Abwehr denied that he was one of their agents. Even under torture, he denied all ties with the Soviets. The Japanese made three overtures to the Soviets, offering to trade Sorge for one of their own spies. However, the Soviets declined all the offers, maintaining that Sorge was unknown to them. He was incarcerated in Sugamo Prison.

Richard Sorge was hanged on November 7, 1944, at 10:20 a.m. Tokyo time 

ESPIONAGE: ABCs

Who is a SPY?

Definition: person who secretly finds out about another's business.

Other terms: agent, plant, operative

The Spy’s business = ESPIONAGE

 Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it is known that the information is in unauthorized hands.

Espionage is usually part of an institutional effort by a government or corporation, and the term is most readily associated with state spying on potential or actual enemies primarily for military purposes. Spying involving corporations is known as industrial espionage.

One of the most effective ways to compile information about an enemy (or potential enemy) is by infiltrating the enemy's ranks.

Types of Spies/Agents

 § Double agent, is a person who engages in clandestine activity for two intelligence or security services (or more in joint operations), who provides information about one intelligence service to the other, and who wittingly withholds significant information from one on the instructions of the other or is unwittingly manipulated by one so that significant facts are withheld from the adversary.

Re-doubled agent, an agent who gets caught as a double agent and is forced to mislead the foreign intelligence service.

 Triple agent, an agent that is working for three intelligence services.

 § Intelligence agent: Provides access to sensitive information through the use of special privileges. If used in corporate intelligence gathering, this may include gathering information of a corporate business venture or stock portfolio.

§ Access agent: Provides access to other potential agents by providing profiling information that can help lead to recruitment into an intelligence service.

§ Agent of influence: Someone who may provide political influence in an area of interest or may even provide publications needed to further an intelligence service agenda. I.e. The use of the media to print a story to mislead a foreign service into action, exposing their operations while under surveillance.

 § Agent provocateur: This type of agent will instigate trouble or may provide information to gather as many people as possible into one location for an arrest.

Espionage Techniques and Technology

 § Agent handling

§ Concealment device

§ Safe house

§ Surveillance

§ Honeypot

Famous Spies

 · Sidney Reilly

· Cambridge Five

 · Richard Sorge

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spy

Confederate Secret Service

Confederate Secret Service is an umbrella term for a number of official and semi-official secret service operations conducted by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.

A Mole in His Majesty’s Secret Service

A mole is a spy who works for an enemy nation, but whose loyalty ostensibly lies with his own nation's government.

Perhaps the most famous examples of moles are the Cambridge Five, five men recruited as students at Cambridge University who later rose to high levels in various parts of the British government. Kim Philby was the most famous of them.

However, following is the unheard of account of a pre-WW II infiltrator who baffled the British Secret Service for a very long time.

*****

“How’s Aniston?” I blurted after a sip of brandy. He choked on a pickled cucumber. “Aniston?” he mumbled. “Like Mickey Aniston?” With apprehension looming in his eyes, he coughed spasmodically, congesting his, already, red face into a flare. He borrowed my cognac, supposedly to shove off the cause of his choke.

“Yes, Mickey Aniston, my boy, the one I recruited in Egypt.”

He nodded knowingly. “Yeah, yeah, tall, reddish brown crown of hair, freckled face, and zappy mouth. Sure, Henry, I know him.” He took another gulp of the drink and snapped without looking me in the eyes. “He’s on the run.” He put the glass on the table, but still held it between his palms. “Haven’t you heard? It's been two years since the incident. Perhaps Johnny McMahon could tell you the best of it.” But the hard look in my eyes told him that I wasn’t waiting for any McMahonian storytelling.

He loitered a little, trying to evade the inevitable by asking about my family. “They perished in the disease. Quit stalling, Jack. If I have any family remaining,  it’s Mickey Aniston.” He poured it all. Slow and painful he told it, but never complete and farthest from the truth, in my eyes, at least. Of course, I’d never believe that, you, the Michael Aniston raised by my hands, would be a defector.

It was me who handpicked you off that regiment in Cairo, remember? And it was me who taught you the tricks of the trade. I raised you, boy, and I know you. Are you rash at decisions? Of course. Inconsiderate and vulgar? Sometimes. But a defector to the Commies? That’s something I can’t stomach. He recounted how you messed in Lausanne with a Russian defector. A blunder horrible enough that someone up the ladder in Box 850 couldn’t let the matter go unaccounted for.

“Some boss up there ripped open your boy’s history bag. And, oops, what he found. Your boy always messed the Commie stuff; always on the flipping side.”

Broody stopped his emotional dribble for a second, looked in his glass. “Words, scattered here and there, even claim that Mickey was a red boy from the start. Right when you picked him up some inn or bar off the streets in Cairo.” I waved all his bullshit with my arm, but he insisted. “The boy did things for the Russians even when he was under your custody, sipping the first drops of your nursery drink.” His bloody sneer implied that I was a fool, or even worse. My face must have changed colours, and my voice gone a tad loud.

“And who is the son of the bitch who believes this shit?”

My voice must have attracted a head or two, and Broody retreated once again behind his defensive hedge. He finished his dinner without another word.

The next week had me struggling to accustom back to city life, so naturally, your matter drifted off my mind. As well, I had to start fulfilling my transfer papers in the headquarters, on a number of appointments, as early as possible.

On one of those, I had the chance meeting with John McMahon.

Well up the ladder of evolution, far from poor Broody, lies McMahon. Twelve years off the streets, in the offices, had eventually toned down the man’s temper and given him the demeanour of an aristocrat. He received me in his office over tea. He retold Broody’s shit but in an orderly manner; the bastard recounted as if he was reading from a book.

“The fifth floor people couldn’t tolerate his last disaster. Not because he did it. He didn’t. But 'cause it happened with him. And it isn’t the first time, mind you. His entire career was spread on walls like some dirty laundry badly washed. His professionalism seemed botched, especially when he was confronted with Communist affairs. His clients got sacked, handled, or erased at the eleventh hour. Initially, his production would appear promising, then he managed to screw up at the last minute; the Admiralty was his victim on two consecutive counts. A deliberate study of his career opened the eyes of the inquisitors to strong shades of doubt shrouding the boy’s past: his curious involvement in the loss of Sidney Reilly at the Finnish border to the hands of the NKVD, and even earlier in the murder of Sir Lambert Stanford, a Governor-General of Sudan in the twenties.”

The last sentence was a surprise that hit me like a slap on the face, as sudden, as painful. I interrupted vehemently.

“What do you mean he had something to do with the murder of Sir Lambert Stanford?” He looked puzzled over my excitement, before giving me a conciliatory nod. “Ah, he was under your courtship then. Yes, the two of you were the centre of the new covert Cairo office. But hey, the boy is believed to be Communist all through, Galloway. Sorry if you missed it, but it’s true all the same,” he said with authority.

I challenged him.

“But what implicates him in the murder of Sir Lambert Stanford? I supervised him in the Cairo office during that period. Being a junior recruit then obviously put his actions under my scrutiny.” McMahon served my protest to the open window.

“A local agent, Mr. H. Perhaps you remember the guy?” I nodded. “This Mr. H specifically said that Agent Spark, your boy’s code name, had given him an A over Sir Lambert Stanford, which meant to guide his underground group...”

“The Cairene radical ring he infiltrated” I was remembering.

“Yes, the Wafdist underground ring...He has confirmed beyond doubt that Spark gave him an A over Sir Lambert Stanford. The letter A, if you remember, meant to direct H to exercise his influence over his country fellows and authorise the murder of a political adversary.”

I escalated my protestation.

“The hell he did. The boy received the telegram that advised him to carry out the command, from the London office. I saw the damn thing. I was puzzled all right, but what options do we have in this job?”

His hand stopped me in contempt. “Don’t let your memory trick you, old man, and don’t let your love for the boy make you a foolish liar at this age. How could you see the telegram, when you were in Assuit, 200 miles to the south, four days earlier, and for two days to come, at the time General Stanford was murdered?”

His knock-out punch sent me reeling in defeat. I guess you know why.

Events that happened twenty-three years ago, during that rainy week in Cairo, were vivid in my mind.  Only the restraints of surprise and doubt harnessed my tongue from complete revelation. I was almost  confronting McMahon on the spot and disputing his claims, telling him that I never went to Assuit and declaring that the telegram was not received by you, but by Sunshine; me.

I just lost momentum.

I wondered how to reveal a twenty-three-year-old story of how I had decided to stay pondering upon a chance meeting with an Italian beauty of Jazeera Club, and that you, youthful and enthusiastic as ever, took up my assignment, taking the train to Assuit to feed back on some silly intelligence gathering. That left me alone in Cairo, to receive the telegram directed to agent Spark. Mindful to keep things in order and assignments in time, I contacted Mr. H in your guise and delivered the message.

Now they are saying there wasn’t such a telegram!

“Perhaps I wasn’t with Mickey when he got the word, but I definitely knew about it,” I baffled for a while. “Did someone check correctly; sure the telegram was sent by someone in the London office? Were the archives revised perfectly?” I continued miserably.

McMahon sneered, “Why for God’s sake would this goddamn Circus ask for the execution of a British official in Cairo? Are you mad? Out of your freaking senses?”

“But...”

“Don’t you 'but' me. Quit fighting for your kid. You look awfully disgusting. Putting yourself in his alley makes you look like a collaborator, or perhaps even worse, a lover whose arse misses the fun.”

I had to concede defeat, for the time being. “What happened of him? Aniston.”

“How on Lord’s earth would I know? Some inquisitor from fifth floor met him in Lausanne. The fool interrogated him rather revealingly. Next morning your boy flees the city. The word of mouth establishes that some French official  spotted him in Leningrad.”

There was nothing more to be said by either.

I quit the door, but you didn't quit my mind. Somehow, one of my ancient love affairs proved to be the spear with which your career and dignity were successfully violated and destroyed.

I simply couldn’t live with something like that for the rest of my life.

*****

Find out how the hunt for the REAL mole hits upon a century old mystery, an adventure that will trace the events back to CIVIL WAR America; "Spy Hunt in Dixie",  an espionage thriller available only on Amazon.com

Kim Philby in the US

In September 1949, Kim Philby arrived in the United States. Officially, his post was that of First Secretary to the British Embassy; in reality, he served as chief British intelligence representative in Washington, D.C.

His office oversaw a large amount of urgent and top-secret communications between the United States and London. Philby was, additionally, responsible for liaising with the newly-formed Central Intelligence Agency and promoting "more aggressive Anglo-American intelligence operations."

Following is an account of one of his least known encounters in the American Capital; a confrontation with a rogue spymaster.

*****

His wrists were tied, so were his ankles. A gag wasn’t needed as the Colt ensured his silence.
His mouth, body, and spirit were restrained, but his mind was far away from inhibition. Of course, he was one of the few select people trained to maintain a clear focused mind in dire situations, even if the next few hours would be determining his fate. Putting away thoughts that predicted of a bleak future, he concentrated on his exiguous options. For the time being, he had to forget the plight that was befalling him: the acerbity of his recent defeat, the exhilarating journey on hand, and the prospect of upcoming hours of contempt, inquisition, perhaps torture, and eventually a scandal and an infamous trial of treason.

If all his expertise, knowledge, and resilience were ever put to test, this was the moment.
He was locked in the cargo compartment of a red Fordson E83W van, in the custody of two bulky black guards armed with guns. With a promise of generous pay, the two men daren’t betray the duty of keeping an eye on their prisoner. Enough warning was issued by their employer: “This is a devil in bonds. He can pull a trick on you the second you stray off,” said the Canadian.
A journalist by profession and an investigator by passion, the Canadian sleuth, the genius who set up the ambush, anxiously observed the conclusion of his mission. Apprehensive, but vigilant, he was sitting in the front passenger seat, periodically looking back on his prisoner, checking on the alertness of the guards.

Two hours onto Interstate -20, food and drink were offered to the prisoner, but he accepted nothing but water. He had to maintain a clear mind. He couldn’t afford losing his bodily resources to digestion. He sought a space of time and place from the restrains of captivity, by demanding access to a W.C. when they stopped at a gas station. His request was undoubtedly refused. He was offered instead to fulfill his humanity at the side of the deserted road, away from curious eyes.

Of course, they had to sleep in the car, with at least two of the captors always on watch; one driving and one guarding.

Their destination was “The British embassy in Washington D.C.”. That’s what the journalist announced, and he believed him all right. The Canadian, obsessive by nature, avoided shortcuts and allies, leaving no chance for mistakes or deceit, and befittingly resorted to the most orthodox of ways. The sleuth understood that the prisoner’s people, the Corporation, were well into the British system. He couldn’t risk collaboration with shoddy individuals, or running in paths that’d prove to be compromised or under surveillance by the Corporation.

“I will deliver you, a traitor, a mole inside the British intelligence, to the ultimate British authority on American soil: the embassy in D.C. I think I can rely confidently on British bureaucracy to restrain you. Going through the gates of the embassy, under sights of several witnesses, will ensure your conviction beyond doubt. No matter how influential your people, they can never exert control over all people in that place,” the Canadian sneered nervously at his captive.

The prisoner, the befallen serviceman, needn’t hear the words. After a meticulous, step-by-step analysis of his position, he knew he was doomed. Being a senior operative of the MI6 office in Berlin gave him no pretense for presence in Louisiana, thousands of miles away. Sure, he was on leave for three days, but he was presumably visiting his girl in Bonn, not lurking with a bunch of Confederate offshoots, some place on the outskirts of Shreveport in the American South.

He conceded with the reality that he could never vindicate himself. He was left with only one viable option.

Escape.

But a simple, direct getaway wasn’t feasible at the moment, or in the near future. Even a man of his stature needed a big boost of luck. At least an aperture of light through which he could to exploit all his chances. He would have to play bold and rash; he had already lost everything. The question was, how much of his life could be gained back? He knew the Corporation would forsake him the minute they knew that he had fallen. They would deny knowing him at first, then they would relent and sell him for cheap to salvage their reputation. They could not afford the exposure, not even for the most valuable man they had. Their own existence lay in firm, unshakeable prestige. They are a flock who panics at the slimmest sights of contingency and would definitely sell him out without remorse.

He gripped his head in agony for a moment, exhaled on the mountains of stress that burdened his chest.

As the car finally parked in front of the British Embassy, at the northern end of the embassy row on Massachusetts Avenue, he pondered for the last time on his demise, and knew, beyond certainty that he had no chance.

But then, an aperture of light broke open.

**********

It was well past midnight, when the white, Canadian journalist and his two black collaborators guided a tall, restrained middle-aged man – their prisoner – to the front door of the British embassy’s security gate. The security man rubbed his eyes in disbelief.

“We need to meet the officer on duty. We have a valuable commodity,” blurted the Canadian.
The security man made a quick phone call, gave his single line, and then listened for instructions. He searched the company, made the black escorts deliver their weapons to his custody. He then led them across the courtyard of the embassy, to a four-floor building. At the entrance, a blond robust youth, an assistant, met them with a serious look on his face. He didn’t extend a hand, only scrutinizing eyes. His gaze lingered on the prisoner, whom he seemed to recognize readily. He parted his lips to say something, but decided otherwise.

Upstairs, on the second floor, the young assistant ushered them into a vast, comfy office. Not ten minutes had passed when a somber-looking man, in his late thirties entered. He was scrubbing sleep from his eyes when he spotted the prisoner.

“Archibald. Is that you?”

The prisoner was still grimacing to his feet, when the voice struck his ears. He raised his eyes to recognize the man who called for him. The creases in the thoughtful face seemed to relax a little.

“May I know with whom I have the pleasure of this untimely appointment?” interrupted the journalist with an extended shaking hand.

“First Secretary to the British embassy.” In other words, the chief British intelligence representative in Washington.

The official received the extended hand in doubt, before turning back to the prisoner. “What is it, Archie? Who are these men? Why are your arms in bonds? What’s going on?”

The journalist broke in once again with authority, this time to tell of the most bizarre account, of one spy hunt adventure in Dixie.

The revelation was dense, abrupt, and unbelievable. This adventurer journalist told of the most incredible account. He had planned, on alliance with a deceased officer of MI6, on a grand scheme, through which they were enabled to unveil a secret spy ring inside the British secret intelligence service. Arthur Archibald, the prisoner, was presumably the foundational cornerstone of this spy ring.

The First Secretary looked astonished by the account told upon him. He failed to maintain his inherent serenity while taking glimpses of his fellow at service, now an alleged traitor. Meanwhile, Archibald, apparently detached from what was going on around him, was gradually assuming a much-relaxed composure.

Finally, the journalist and his company were ready to go, leaving the traitor in the hands of his betrayed people. The First Secretary was sure to record the whereabouts of the journalist to ensure future contact, especially for when inquisitors from London arrived in hope for a more detailed professional meeting. He also instructed the company to keep their information privy, and asked the journalist to practice, hoped-for, self-restraint and conscientiousness by avoiding publishing any account of his recent adventure.

The young, blond assistant accompanied the journalist and the two black escorts back to the security gate.

Alone, with the bonded traitor, the First Secretary fought with his thoughts.

“Why did you do it, Arthur? I, amongst others, always looked upon you as a model. Why did you do it?”

The trapped service man, to the surprise of his colleague, smiled with malice.
“I did it for money. But what did you do it for, Kim Philby?”

Finish reading about this extra-ordinary encounter in  "Spy Hunt in D.C.", a Cold war short story. For a limited time, for Free.

The French Intervention in Mexico: 1862-1867

The French intervention in Mexico , also known asThe Maximilian Affair, was an invasion of Mexico by an expeditionary force sent by the Second French Empire. It followed President Benito Juárez's suspension of interest payments to foreign countries on 17 July 1861, which angered Mexico's major creditors: Spain, France and Britain.

Napoleon III of France was the instigator. His foreign policy was based on a commitment to free trade. For him, a friendly government in Mexico provided an opportunity to expand free trade by ensuring European access to important markets, and preventing monopoly by the United States. Napoleon built a coalition with Spain and Britain at a time the U.S. was engaged in a full-scale civil war. The U.S. protested but could not intervene directly until its civil war was over in 1865.
When the British and Spanish discovered that the French planned to invade Mexico, they withdrew.

The subsequent French invasion resulted in the Second Mexican Empire, which was supported by the Roman Catholic clergy, many conservative elements of the upper class, and some indigenous communities. Conservatives, and many in the Mexican nobility, tried to revive the monarchical form of government when they helped to bring to Mexico an archduke from the Royal House of Austria, Maximilian Ferdinand, or Maximilian I of Mexico (who married Charlotte of Belgium, also known as Carlota of Mexico), with the military support of France.

France had various interests in this Mexican affair, such as seeking reconciliation with Austria, which had been defeated during the Franco-Austrian War, counterbalancing the growing U.S. power by developing a powerful Catholic neighbouring empire, and exploiting the rich mines in the north-west of the country.

Live those times in the Civil War adventure Spy Hunt in Dixie;
Knee-deep, pushing back the German invasion of Britain, MI6 is busy intercepting loads of enigma messages. Bringing down a defector isn't a priority for the Directorate, but for one disillusioned senior operative. He believes the mole runs deep.

Starting with the American Civil war (1861-1865), the French Mexican war (1862-1867), reaching WWII (1939-1945) and back, the search for a mole in the British Secret Intelligence was never more challenging.

"A feat of complex story writing accomplished through a multiplex of narration. Blindfolded, the reader is lead by the voices of characters into a maze of fantastic, yet believable adventures."

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Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S. The U.S. government (The Union) rejected secession as illegal, and, after its army was fired upon at the Battle of Fort Sumter, used military action to defeat the C.S.A. No foreign nation officially recognized the Confederate States as an independent country, but they did allow their citizens to do business with the Confederacy. The Confederate government in Richmond had an uneasy relationship with its member states, with some historians arguing the Confederacy "died of states rights" because of the reluctance of several states to put troops under the control of the Confederate States government. The Confederacy's control over its claimed territory shrank steadily during the course of the American Civil War, as the Union took control of much of the seacoast and inland waterways. The leading Confederate General Robert E. Lee successfully stopped repeated Union attempts to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, but after four years of very bloody fighting, the Confederates faced an insurmountable disadvantage in terms of men, supplies and public support. By June of 1865 its armies surrendered, its government collapsed, its slaves were emancipated, and the Union imposed a program of Reconstruction to restore the seceding states to normal status.

Secessionists argued that the United States Constitution was a compact among states that could be abandoned at any time without consultation and that each state had a right to secede. After intense debates and statewide votes, seven Deep South cotton states passed secession ordinances by February 1861 (before Abraham Lincoln took office as president), while secession efforts failed in the other eight slave states. Delegates from the seven formed the C.S.A. in February 1861, selecting Jefferson Davis as temporary president until elections could be held in 1862. Talk of reunion and compromise went nowhere, because the Confederates insisted on independence which the Union strongly rejected. Davis began raising a 100,000 man army.

The fighting began with the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Lincoln called for 75,000 troops to recapture lost federal properties in the South, the same number of arms the disunionists confiscated from US forts and arsenals in six seceding states prior to his inauguration. With the developing Federal policy of military action to suppress the rebellion, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia also declared their secession and joined the Confederacy. All the main tribes of the Indian Territory (later Oklahoma) aligned with the Confederacy, but efforts to secure secession in Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland failed in the face of federal military action and occupation of those states.

The Confederacy effectively collapsed after Ulysses S. Grant captured its capital of Richmond, Virginia and Robert E. Lee's army in April 1865. The remaining Confederate forces surrendered by the end of June, as the U.S. Army took control of the South. Because Congress was not sure that white Southerners had really given up slavery or their dreams of Confederate nationalism, a decade-long process known as Reconstruction expelled ex-Confederate leaders from office, enacted civil rights legislation (including the right to vote) that included the freedmen (ex-slaves), and imposed conditions on the readmission of the states to Congress. The war and subsequent Reconstruction left the South economically prostrate, and it remained well below national levels of prosperity until after 1945.

Live those times in the Civil War adventure Spy Hunt in Dixie;
Knee-deep, pushing back the German invasion of Britain, MI6 is busy intercepting loads of enigma messages. Bringing down a defector isn't a priority for the Directorate, but for one disillusioned senior operative. He believes the mole runs deep.

Starting with the American Civil war (1861-1865), the French Mexican war (1862-1867), reaching WWII (1939-1945) and back, the search for a mole in the British Secret Intelligence was never more challenging.

"A feat of complex story writing accomplished through a multiplex of narration. Blindfolded, the reader is lead by the voices of characters into a maze of fantastic, yet believable adventures."

Check out this historical thriller 

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Kim Philby

Harold (Kim) Philby, the son of the diplomat, John Philby, was born in Ambala, India, in 1911. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. While at university he met Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean and Anthony Blunt. All of them became secret supporters of the Communist Party.


After university Philby went to Vienna where he met Litzi Friedman, a member of the Austrian Communist Party. With the emergence of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, Friedman was in danger of being arrested. Philby married Friedman and was then able to take her to England. Soon afterwards Philby became an agent of the Soviet Union.

To provide a cover, Philby began openly expressed right-wing opinions. Philby and Guy Burgess, who also renounced his communism, joined the Anglo-German Fellowship, a pro-Nazi pressure group. Philby got himself appointed as a reporter with The Times and on the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War he was sent to Spain. Over the next couple of years he provided articles that were very sympathetic to General Francisco Franco and the Nationalist Army. Franco was grateful for the support Philby gave to the Nationalists and on 2nd March, 1938, awarded him the Red Cross of Military Merit.


These reports convinced those on the right-wing of British politics that Philby had abandoned his former political views. In 1939 Guy Burgess suggested to Marjorie Maxse, chief organization officer of the Conservative Party, and chief of staff of MI6 Section D's training school for propaganda, that she should recruit Philby. Maxse agreed and he was given security clearance by Guy Liddell of MI5.

THE COVER OF SPY HUNT IN DIXIE

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ESPIONAGE: ABCs

Who is a SPY?

Definition: person who secretly finds out about another's business.
Other terms: agent, plant, operative


The Spy’s business = ESPIONAGE
 Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it is known that the information is in unauthorized hands.

Espionage is usually part of an institutional effort by a government or corporation, and the term is most readily associated with state spying on potential or actual enemies primarily for military purposes. Spying involving corporations is known as industrial espionage.

One of the most effective ways to compile information about an enemy (or potential enemy) is by infiltrating the enemy's ranks.


Types of Spies/Agents
 § Double agent, is a person who engages in clandestine activity for two intelligence or security services (or more in joint operations), who provides information about one intelligence service to the other, and who wittingly withholds significant information from one on the instructions of the other or is unwittingly manipulated by one so that significant facts are withheld from the adversary.

Re-doubled agent, an agent who gets caught as a double agent and is forced to mislead the foreign intelligence service.

 Triple agent, an agent that is working for three intelligence services.

 § Intelligence agent: Provides access to sensitive information through the use of special privileges. If used in corporate intelligence gathering, this may include gathering information of a corporate business venture or stock portfolio.

§ Access agent: Provides access to other potential agents by providing profiling information that can help lead to recruitment into an intelligence service.

§ Agent of influence: Someone who may provide political influence in an area of interest or may even provide publications needed to further an intelligence service agenda. I.e. The use of the media to print a story to mislead a foreign service into action, exposing their operations while under surveillance.

 § Agent provocateur: This type of agent will instigate trouble or may provide information to gather as many people as possible into one location for an arrest.


Espionage Techniques and Technology
 § Agent handling
§ Concealment device
§ Safe house
§ Surveillance
§ Honeypot


Famous Spies
 · Sidney Reilly


· Cambridge Five


 · Richard Sorge





Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spy