Dirty Tricks or Trump Cards: U.S. Covert Action and Counterintelligence (Intelligence & National Security Library)

American intelligence is again under intense scrutiny and its future role and organization uncertain. The past 20 years have yielded a wealth of information about spying. But when it comes to two key elements of intelligence, counterintelligence and covert action, our knowedge remains sketchy. Both are viewed with suspicion and distaste in the United States and other democratic societies. Are they "dirty tricks" as portrayed by fiction writers and polemicists? Or, as this book argues, "trump cards" that when well-played provide a winning edge? This book traces the evolution of covert action and counterintelligence through the last 50 years of US history: the successes and failures; the products and the processes; and the organizations. As the United States struggles to deal with rogue states, terrorists, drug barons, increasingly sophisticated financial criminals and a proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the need for effective counterintelligence and covert action becomes more pressing than ever.