🚨 UK Readers! Last summer, after the release of
#SPIES
, I found myself officially sanctioned by the Russian government. This is the book that Putin DOES NOT want you to read.
Today, the paperback edition hits the shelves in the UK. Order here:
"The West - the US and its allies - are determined to push back. But senior officials worry the West has not taken the challenge from China seriously enough and has fallen behind in intelligence terms, leaving the West more vulnerable to Beijing's spying, and both sides at risk
The West is in a new cold war with Russia and China
That's clear if you look at the activities of their intelligence services
I've set out my views— some of the conclusions of my book
#SPIES
— below
@ForeignAffairs
Spy balloons, TikTok…
Relax, it’s much worse than you think.
My thoughts
@ForeignPolicy
“China Has Been Waging a Decades-Long, All-Out Spy War on the United States”
👇
*** BOOK LAUNCH: Monday, June 5, 4pm EST***
After six years of research, on three continents, and multiple languages, I'm excited to launch my book:
"SPIES. The Epic Intelligence War between East and West"
The launch will be online, is open to the public, but you need to
After last week’s Russian-West prisoner exchange, former Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, grimly warned those going West:
“Let the traitors now frantically pick up new names and actively disguise themselves under the witness protection program.”
Easy to dismiss such
Grateful to all my readers— over a year after publication, my book
#SPIES
is holding strong in sales
Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West
#Amazon
With news that Trump had a “very good” meeting with Lavrov in the Oval Office, re-upping my old piece
@politico
about the long history of the Kremlin planting bugs in sensitive parts of US government
@AshaRangappa_
KEEP CALM & READ ON
If you want to know about true life Russian spies, pick up a copy of my new book below (also on audiobook)
Some of the book's highlights in film below 👇
@michaeldweiss
And— purely theoretically of course— being an asset of, or being blackmailed by, a hostile foreign power, would not necessarily rise to the level of conspiracy under criminal law.
So it’s possible to be an foreign asset but for it not to be treason or a conspiracy.
Greatly looking forward to talking at
#ChalkeValley
history festival on Friday June 28 about my book
#SPIES
!
Looking forward to seeing some old friends, and meeting new ones there.
Please come & join. Tickets are available here
If you’re seeing
#Oppenheimer
this weekend—it’s a masterpiece— check out these documents from MI5’s dossier on Oppenheimer
First, an FBI liaison report, describing the infamous approach by Chevalier (depicted in the film)
Thread 1/
NEWS for
#SPIES
: book website!
I wanted
#SPIES
to be interactive, so have built an accompanying website, including:
· Original docs
· Video & audio (with bugged conversations)
· Espionage cases
· Essays
& the lengthy bibliography
Hope you enjoy!
“The ground in Italy is fertile for yet a greater swing toward Moscow.”
Interesting article below.
(I examined in
@TXNatSecReview
the long history and origins of such disinformation campaigns & what can be done to defeat them.)
“Every leader kills people”
Tucker responds when asked about his interview with Putin and the death of Nalavny
There we have it.
The MAGA alt right normalisation of eliminating political dissidents
Q: In your interview with Putin, you didn’t talk about freedom of speech in Russia, you did not talk about Navalny, about assassinations
Tucker Carlson: Leadership requires killing people
I mean this sincerely: There is absolutely no scenario where Trump's diehard base abandons him.
"It doesn't matter if he have delivered nuclear secrets to the Saudis on a platter next to a cheeseburger... Trump did nothing wrong."
Why did Trump try to stop the
#RussiaInvestigation
(firing Comey, reportedly trying to fire Mueller) if there was nothing there?
If it transpires there was no collusion between Trump and Russia, what explains Trump’s actions?
Maybe we are looking at compromise, not collusion
Some thoughts below on the
#leakeddocuments
After 9/11, US government moved from "need to know" to "need to share"
These leaks show it's time to move back to greater restrictions
US government has failed to learn lessons of
#Snowden
leaks a decade ago
@Turkewitz
Doesn’t look like Jones’s lawyer expressly asserted in his email that the documents were privileged. “Please disregard” surely carries no legal weight.
It means a lot to hear from intelligence professionals that one’s research is meaningful
That’s why I was humbled to receive this advance praise for my book
#Spies
from
@BelferCenter
colleague, Paul Kolbe 👇
#OTD
78 year ago, 7 May 1945
Eisenhower, Supreme Commander in Europe, cables:
"The mission of this Allied Force was fulfilled at 0241, local time, May 7th, 1945."
Victory in Europe achieved.
Reading it today still sends shivers down the spine...
As I finish writing my book SPIES, I'm finding history doesn't just rhyme, it often screams.
British intelligence report on Ukraine and Russia.
Not February 2022, but February 1922:
@Chris_D_Steele
I believe that, as a convicted felon, there are now legal restrictions on— perhaps making it impossible?— for Trump to travel to the UK anyway. Beggars belief that this man will be
@GOP
nominee
COVER REVEAL
I'm thrilled to share the cover for my new book:
"SPIES. The Epic Intelligence War between East and West", on sale in June 2023
It's available for pre-order now
@simonschuster
@fmkaplan
@MaxBoot
Trump said he wants the whole report out; the White House states that it needs to see report on basis of executive privilege.
Easy— all you need to do,
@realDonaldTrump
, is waive executive privilege, then the report can be disclosed. Why not? After all, it exonerates you
“Everyone in the [Russian] Ministry of Defense and in the government as a whole is already tired of this war and would like to stop it,” the source said."
Discontent in the Russian MoD will be a goldmine for Western services...
Check out this great piece below by
@michaeldweiss
We don’t know whether US intelligence reports about Russian “false flags” (deceptions) are accurate.
We do know, however, that Russia has a long history of false flags as pretext for military intervention.
My thoughts in
@ForeignPolicy
here 👇
Putin makes much of his KGB past— but scratch the surface, his career wasn’t what he claims
Moreover, Russia’s intelligence services are far less professional & successful than they claim— they are criminals
My take
@thetimes
👇
For the next three weeks, as we approach publication of
#SPIES
, I will be posting the three most remarkable documents I found while researching it
The first: a British intelligence report about Russia and Ukraine from February 1922, exactly one hundred years before Putin's war
Humbled to receive this advance praise for my book
#SPIES
from Fiona Hill, one of the foremost experts on Russia:
“Calder Walton’s deeply researched and artfully crafted book offers a masterclass in 20th century and contemporary history. It is rich with trenchant analysis,
I just heard on the news that only 1,500 people in the US have actually been tested at CDC for the
#coronavirus
. Thought I had misheard and checked. It’s correct.
It’s outrageous.
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
@MichaelSSmithII
@AshaRangappa_
Yes. Quite. Intelligence practitioners and law enforcement officials dealing with national security never use the “s” word.
“Spy” is the language of novels and Hollywood
In the early Cold War, many of the worst Western traitors were motivated by ideology— a faith in communism
In the later Cold War, that was replaced by cash; Soviet ideology was bankrupt. Meanwhile, some of the best agents for the West were driven by — a faith in the West
Why did I think writing a new book about the Cold War and espionage was necessary?
During the Trump-Russia saga, I was frequently approached by journalists to discuss how Russian meddling in the 2016 US election was “unprecedented”.
But the fact was, it wasn’t unprecedented.
SPIES is coming soon
After a five-way auction, I'm thrilled to join
@simonschuster
&
@LittleBrownUK
for my next book about the hundred year intelligence war between East and West
The history of Cold War intelligence offers a warning about what's already underway with China 👇
I just received a box of proof copies of my new book “SPIES” & I want to send you one!
Reply to this video with what you think is the best true spy story of all time, and why, and I'll be selecting three winners to send this advanced copy of my book with some swag 😎
Good luck!
With news today that Russia is claiming
#Ukraine
will launch a "false flag" provocation, I'm re-upping a previous piece I wrote about *Russia's* long history of false-flags
ICYMI -
My book SPIES: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West officially hits US shelves today!
#SPIES
tells the riveting, secret story of the hundred-year intelligence war between Russia and the West with lessons for our new superpower conflict with China.
So, that's a wrap for
#SPIES
! Sent off galleys for US edition
Weighing in on debate about whether trade publishers offer less scholarly weight than university presses: in my experience, absolutely not
SPIES has over 700 notes, covering 68 pages (9 point font) in four languages
Some personal news:
I'm thrilled to announce that I will be general editor, with Christopher Andrew, of the multi-volume "Cambridge History of Intelligence & Espionage" to be published by
@CambridgeUP
@camUP_History
#CHIE
The Kremlin’s Cold War
#disinformation
playbook relied on amplifying existing grievances and half-truths to undermine the US, and it’s a playbook they’ve successfully returned to today.
Listen to the full episode on
@StreamEvergreen
:
@spy_historian
Not sure. MI5 interviewed Philby in 1951– Helenus “Buster” Milmo was convinced he was a Soviet spy, but failed to elicit confession/ sufficient evidence
Suspicions about MI5 and CIA about Philby continued after
So I think fair to say there was search for “third man”
@jbarro
@AlexParkerDC
Presumably Trump will argue that this was a private matter, and was doing it to shield his literal affairs from unwanted publicity-- he was not thinking about election, but his family. Also, after the Access Hollywood tape, we have to ask whether this would have made difference
We must confront state-sponsored erosion of truth, facts, and science, head on— and treat it as the strategic threat it is to democracies.
My latest article for
@TXNatSecReview
:
‼️Pre-order offer ‼️
Today to Friday,
@BNBuzz
is offering a 25% promotion on preorders with code PREORDER25
Use it to get your copy of
#SPIES
SNEAK PEAK of contents pages
#SPIES
features brilliant graphic designs by
@noma_bar
Check it out
MI5 then vetted Fuchs again when he returned to Britain after WW2 to work on British atomic research.
Vetting him caused disagreement within MI5— those worried about him being a Soviet agent were later proved correct
As support for Donald Trump among Republican voters surges to 53% despite multiple indictments, polling experts say he’s roughly three murders away from a landslide.
@AlexParkerDC
@jbarro
Of course, Cohen may have a tape in which it is made clear that Trump know purpose of payment was to influence election. Presumably Cohen knows that he will have to adduce some evidence to support his headline-grabbing claim
This attack was long planned, unprovoked, cruel aggression. No amount of Russian disinformation will now disguise that fact from the international community.
@MaxBoot
@PostOpinions
I think you are right, Max. After over a year of trying to disprove it, so far as I can see, nothing significant in Steele dossier has been disproved. Some details (esp the salacious ones) are unverified. But not disproved.
An impressive first draft intelligence report, I’d say
The film also depicts the Soviet atom spy, Klaus Fuchs
Here are passages from his MI5 dossier
MI5 vetted him in 1941 for work on the British bomb (TUBE ALLOYS) and then in 1943, when he joined the MANHATTAN Project.
They had no reliable positive evidence to say he was
Donald Trump appeared to more fully embrace QAnon on Saturday, playing a song at a rally in Ohio that prompted attendees to respond with a salute in reference to the cultlike conspiracy theory's theme song.
Second, report about British communist, George Eltenton, also depicted in the film
These two incidents became central to Oppenheimer’s later persecution
"David Cameron needs to worry about his own country, and frankly he can kiss my a**"
Republican Congresswoman,
@RepMTG
reacts to the UK Foreign Secretary likening those opposing the US national security bill to 'appeasers of Hitler'
Latest ➡️
Sky 501
@paulmasonnews
This would be a very bad move on the part of BBC
Living in the US, where news is essentially opinion journalism, I always find it refreshing when I get back to the UK to watch
@BBCNewsnight
with its hard hitting questioning
Now more than ever important to keep Newsnight going
BREAKING
Putin's intelligence services were in late-stage planning of an assassination on US soil
As I reveal in
#SPIES
, the target was a former CIA spy. The story's significance is not the target, but the murderous intentions of Putin's regime
"The book is by Calder Walton, a
With news today of the Russia-West prisoner exchange— you can read more about the context of such swaps, during the Cold War, in my book
#SPIES
Available here
"Sorry guvnor, I didn't realise I should not take NSA intercepts home"
"A person familiar with the inventory of 15 boxes taken from Mar-a-Lago in January indicated that signals intelligence material was included in them."