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Company confessions : secrets, memoirs, and the CIA / Christopher Moran.

by Moran, Christopher R., author.

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New York : Thomas Dunne Books / St. Martin's Press, 2016.

United States. Central Intelligence Agency -- Officials and employees -- Biography.

United States. Central Intelligence Agency. Publications Review Board.

Intelligence officers -- United States -- Biography.

9781250047137 :

xx, 346 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

First U.S. edition.

Introduction -- I. If Walls Could Talk -- II. What Would Walter Say? -- III. Blood Sport -- 1. Herbert Yardley: Playing for High Stakes -- I. A 'Magnificent Book' -- II. Codebreaker -- III. Outcast -- IV. Traitor? -- 2. Limited Hangout -- I. Care of Devils -- II. The Rebirth of the US Spy Memoir -- III. the Golden Age -- IV. Secrecy Interrupted -- 3. Renegades and Whistle-blowers -- I. Time of Troubles -- II. Breaking the Brotherhood of Spies -- III. 'The Agency's No. 1 Nemesis' -- 4. Winning Friends and Influencing People -- I. Feeling the Heart -- II. The Last Assignment -- III. The American Model of Intelligence -- 5. The Snepp Problem -- I. The PRB -- II. Institutional Disgrace -- III. Irreparable Harm -- IV. Double Standards -- 6. The Helms Experiment: Righting and Writing the Record -- I. Midlife Crisis -- II. 'The Man Who Kept the Secrets' -- III. Fighting Back -- IV. Quasi-Official History -- Epilogue: 21st-Century Disputes -- I. The Honest Broker -- II. Tightening the Noose, Again -- III. Confessions in the Digital Age.

"Spies are supposed to keep quiet, never betraying their agents nor discussing their operations. Somehow, this doesn't apply to the CIA, which routinely vets, and approves, dozens of books by former officers. Many of these memoirs command huge advances and attract enormous publicity. Take Valerie Plame, the CIA officer whose identity was leaked by the Bush White House in 2003 and who reportedly received $2 million for her book Fair Game. Or former CIA director George Tenet whose 2007 memoir reached no. 2 in the Amazon bestseller list, beaten only by the final Harry Potter novel. If the CIA director is allowed to publish his story, it is little wonder that regular agents are choosing to tell theirs. Company Confessions delves into the motivations those spies that write memoirs as well as the politics and policies of the CIA Publication Review Board. Astonishing facts include: the steps taken by the agency to counter such leaks including breaking into publishing houses, putting authors on trial, and secretly authorizing pro-agency 'memoirs' to repair damage to its reputation. Based on interviews, private correspondence, and declassified files, Christopher Moran examines why America's spies are so happy to spill the beans and looks at the damage done when they leak America's secrets."--

"The absorbing and untold story of how the CIA, the world's most famous and controversial intelligence agency, has managed the problem of whistleblowers and dealt with the age-old puzzle of secrecy in an open society"--

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