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Loading... Agent Sniper: The Cold War Superagent and the Ruthless Head of the CIAby Tim Tate
   None No current Talk conversations about this book.   ) ikeman100 | Mar 18, 2022 |  Agent Sniper: The Cold War Superagent and the Ruthless Head of the CIA by Tim Tate tells of Michał Goleniewski, a Polish agent who volunteered to spy for the CIA. Mr. Tate id a British documentary film-maker, and a bestselling author. The subject of Agent Sniper: The Cold War Superagent and the Ruthless Head of the CIA by Tim Tate is an agent working for the Polish Intelligence services and the KGB. Michał Goleniewski has decided that he can no longer support the regime he is serving. Calling himself “Sniper”, Goleniewski started feeding the American Intelligence Services valuable information. Over the course of three years, Sniper has passed loads of quality intelligence, identify moles in America, England, Sweden, Israel, and other countries. Once the Soviets were onto the fact that someone is passing information to the West, Goleniewski fled. Leaving his wife and three kids, he showed up at the US Embassy in Berlin with his mistress. At first, the CIA welcomed Goleniewski, who kept on giving accurate information. However, politics, fiefdoms, egos, and incompetency got in the way. CIA director James J. Angleton had his own defector, Antoliy Golitsyn, who he considered more reliable, despite not being placed as high as Goleniewski. Insisting that other defectors were fakes, Goleniewski fell out of favor, a vicitim to foe, and friendly, disinformation campaigns, as well as with it his status and financial support. Becoming paranoid, Agent Sniper became delusional making outrageous claims, such as being Tsarevich Aleksei, son of the last Tsar. This is a fascinating book, trying to find the truth from a world built on lies. Question the odd choice of the CIA to cut Sniper loose despite the excellent, reliable, and truthful information he was providing. This is one place, however, where the book falls short. There really isn’t a good answer of the CIA’s treatment of Goleniewski, for instance. Many of the files are, as per the author, are still classified, and his treatment remains a puzzle even after 350+ pages. The book is an interesting piece of the Cold War, an espionage/cautionary tale of what happens when grey people living in a grey world start believing their own lies. Some of the book was certainly dry, but the excellent research – of available materials – is undeniably a tremendous achievement. (  ) ZoharLaor | Jan 4, 2022 | This is the story of one of the Cold War’s most effective counter-agents Michal Goleniewski, cover name Sniper. Citing from declassified sources and British and American materials the author details the amazing career of a lieutenant colonel in Poland’s intelligence service and KGB spy who defected to the US in 1961. This is well-researched but tedious Cold War espionage saga that exposed more than 1600 Soviet bloc spies operating undercover in the West after WW11. From April 1958 to December 1960 Gloleniewski risked his life to smuggle thousands of top-secret Soviet bloc intelligence and military documents and in 1961 with the Polish agents hard on his heels he made a dramatic defection across divide Berlin. To the CIA, he was one of the West’s most valuable counterintelligence sources and the best defector the CIA ever had. But CIA chief James Angleton believed that the Soviet spy was passing bogus leads and distrusted him. By the end of 1963 Goleniewski was abandoned by the US Government and the CIA reneged on its agreement to pay and protect him and secretly briefed journalists that he had lost his mind. But what is the truth...In the final 100 pages; Mr. Tate chronicles 30 years of bizarre behavior until the sniper’s death in 1993 and alternates his narrative with the dysfunctional CIA behavior thus revealing fascinating dirt from the early years of the Agency. Although filled with riveting facts the account is told with a dry tone and without cinematic punch or thrilling scenes. It is overflowing with minutia details and extensive use of quotes. The pace slows down in the later years after the Sniper’s defection and I found what came next less interesting but in all, this is an account that will arouse our curiosity... In exchange for an honest and unbiased review I received a copy of this book from St-Martin Press and Netgalley (  ) Tigerpaw70 | Dec 18, 2021 | Well written and very interesting portrait of a brilliant espionage agent who believed his own press and the western spy organizations he both provided incredible intel and embarrassed them with his abilities. I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley. Thank you. ( ) jetangen4571 | Aug 20, 2021 | no reviews | add a review
"The thrilling never-before-told story of Agent Sniper, one of the Cold War's most effective counter-agents Michal Goleniewski, cover name Sniper, was one of the most important spies of the early Cold War. For two and a half years at the end of the 1950s, as a Lt. Colonel at the top of Poland's espionage service, he smuggled more than 5,000 top-secret Soviet bloc intelligence and military documents, as well as 160 rolls of microfilm, out from behind the Iron Curtain. In January 1961, he abandoned his wife and children and made a dramatic defection across divided Berlin with his East German mistress to the safety of American territory. There, he exposed more than 1600 Soviet bloc agents operating undercover in the West-more than any single spy in history. The CIA called Goleniewski "one of the West's most valuable counterintelligence sources," but in late 1963, he was abandoned by the US government because of a split in the agency over questions about his mental stability and his trustworthiness. Goleniewski bears some of the blame for his troubled legacy. He made baseless assertions about his record, notably that he was the first to expose Kim Philby. He also bizarrely claimed to be Tsarevich Aleksei Romanoff, heir to the Russian Throne who had miraculously survived the 1918 massacre of his family. For more than fifty years, American and British intelligence services have sought to erase Goleniewski from the history of Cold War espionage. The vast bulk of his once-substantial CIA and MI5 files remain closed. Only fragments of his material crop up in the de-classified dossiers on the KGB spies he exposed or the memoirs of CIA officers who dealt with him. A never-before-told story, Tim Tate's Agent Sniper is a crackling page-turner that takes readers back to the post-war world and a time when no one was what they seemed"-- No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)327.12092Social sciences Political science International Relations Foreign policy and specific topics in international relations Espionage and subversion Intelligence Gathering - subdivisions Biography And History BiographyLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.7)
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