CIA's Unsolved Mysteries: the Nosenko Case, Double Agents & Angleton's Wilderness of Mirrors
Raleigh, NC, January 11, 2008 --(PR.com)-- “Wilderness of Mirrors” is the theme for the fifth annual Raleigh Spy Conference, an internationally acclaimed event that draws top experts in the field of intelligence to Raleigh each year. The 2008 conference will be held March 26-28 at the North Carolina Museum of History in downtown Raleigh.
Association of Intelligence Officers president Gene Poteat says of the Raleigh conference:
“In Washington, it's difficult for the public to comprehend important intelligence and terrorism issues since everything is partisan and politically charged. Outside Washington, there are few voices for the public to hear, and those heard are often wrong or media-driven. Few are able to explain to the public what really has happened, and is happening, in intelligence, counterterrorism and national security - important issues, which, throughout history, have spelled the survival or loss of this or other nations.
“The annual Raleigh Spy Conference is a rare opportunity to hear it straight, with an unusual ‘insider's’ perspective and knowledge. Each year this conference opens that door to share remarkable insights and stellar speakers with the public. If one claims a scintilla of world-affairs knowledge, it cannot be true unless the annual Raleigh Spy Conference is on your calendar.”
Conference founder and Raleigh Metro Magazine editor and publisher Bernie Reeves says of the event: “This year’s conference will present intelligence operatives and experts to discuss the effect of moles, double agents and deception operations during the Cold War and the unsolved questions that continue today to cause disagreement and dissension.”
“Many of these questions remain from the monumental battle between the Soviet Union and the United States,” he adds, “when the wheel of history often turned to the will of moles burrowed inside intelligence and other government agencies. It was indeed a ‘wilderness of mirrors’ that continues today to cast a confused image of history.”
Pete Bagley, the former chief of CIA's Soviet bloc counterintelligence division, will appear at the 2008 conference. According to Reeves, Bagley will discuss his controversial new book on KGB defector Yuri Nosenko entitled Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries and Deadly Games. Nosenko’s mysterious references to Lee Harvey Oswald, his inconsistent recall and the suspicion he was a KGB plant sent to discredit other defectors kicked off 40 years of unresolved internal strife at CIA.
Other speakers include:
-- David Robarge, Chief Historian for CIA and expert on controversial counterintelligence chief James Angleton, will discuss the dissension created at CIA by the former chief of counterintelligence due to his obsessive hunt for a Soviet mole.
-- Brian Kelley, the wrong man in the Robert Hanssen spy case, and former counterintelligence officer for CIA, will use examples of defectors and double agents he draws on as case models for courses he teaches to train espionage agents.
-- Jerry Schecter, former bureau chief for Time magazine in Moscow during the Cold War, later a spokesman for the National Security Council, and a respected expert and author of books on Cold War espionage, will discuss important cases of defectors and double agents in the heat of the Cold War.
-- David Ignatius, former foreign editor - now columnist for the Washington Post – and author of espionage fiction, is respected in the "community" for his insights on the impact of defectors and double agents on the craft of espionage.
Special Guest M. Stanton Evans, columnist, editor and author of the new book Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies is a surprise addition to this year’s conference. According to Reeves, Evans used previously classified FBI and governmental files to “upend the McCarthy myth and turn the tables on the real guilty parties. “The Evans book is new and is causing comment”, says Reeves. “Although the McCarthy Era is not part of the conference subject matter, we feel the new book is of great interest to our audience as it deals with penetration of the US government by Soviet operatives.”
The Raleigh Spy Conference was founded “to bridge the gap between intelligence and current history,” according to Reeves. “The calculus of modern events is intelligence. We don’t really know what happened until someone declassifies something”.
Reeves first conceived the Raleigh Spy Conference after it was revealed in the late 1970s that the British were reading the German code during World War II, altering the accepted history of the most dramatic event in human history.
Today, says Reeves, “after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992 and the brief opening of the Comintern Archives, the CIA and NSA announced that the US had been decrypting and reading messages from Moscow to Soviet agents in the US government. Add to these revelations the proliferation of books and articles by former intelligence officers from both sides of the Cold War, and you realize the actual history of the era requires a fresh examination”.
The first Raleigh Spy Conference in 2003 featured speakers on Cold War politics and included KGB major general Oleg Kalugin and Cambridge intelligence scholar Chris Andrew. In year two, speakers presented information on the connection of intelligence and terrorism, featuring experts on al-Qaeda and Hamas. The third year, top Cold War experts offered sessions on the fast-moving topic of Cold War scholarship, featuring Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes. Last year, the conference focused on Fidel Castro and the future of Cuba at the moment Castro fell ill and turned the reins of government over to his brother Raul.
C-SPAN-TV has broadcast several sessions and C-SPAN Radio has broadcast the entire Raleigh Spy Conference. BBC, CBS radio, other national and area media have covered the conference extensively. Recaps of previous conferences are available at http://www.raleighspyconference.com. The website also contains the 2008 schedule, speaker biographies, registration forms and other events and information.
Tickets to the three-day event are $250 for the general public, $175 for seniors, and $145 for teachers, students and members of the military and intelligence community. Early registration is available by calling Jennifer Hadra at 919-831-0999. For more information, go to http://www.raleighspyconference.com.
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Association of Intelligence Officers president Gene Poteat says of the Raleigh conference:
“In Washington, it's difficult for the public to comprehend important intelligence and terrorism issues since everything is partisan and politically charged. Outside Washington, there are few voices for the public to hear, and those heard are often wrong or media-driven. Few are able to explain to the public what really has happened, and is happening, in intelligence, counterterrorism and national security - important issues, which, throughout history, have spelled the survival or loss of this or other nations.
“The annual Raleigh Spy Conference is a rare opportunity to hear it straight, with an unusual ‘insider's’ perspective and knowledge. Each year this conference opens that door to share remarkable insights and stellar speakers with the public. If one claims a scintilla of world-affairs knowledge, it cannot be true unless the annual Raleigh Spy Conference is on your calendar.”
Conference founder and Raleigh Metro Magazine editor and publisher Bernie Reeves says of the event: “This year’s conference will present intelligence operatives and experts to discuss the effect of moles, double agents and deception operations during the Cold War and the unsolved questions that continue today to cause disagreement and dissension.”
“Many of these questions remain from the monumental battle between the Soviet Union and the United States,” he adds, “when the wheel of history often turned to the will of moles burrowed inside intelligence and other government agencies. It was indeed a ‘wilderness of mirrors’ that continues today to cast a confused image of history.”
Pete Bagley, the former chief of CIA's Soviet bloc counterintelligence division, will appear at the 2008 conference. According to Reeves, Bagley will discuss his controversial new book on KGB defector Yuri Nosenko entitled Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries and Deadly Games. Nosenko’s mysterious references to Lee Harvey Oswald, his inconsistent recall and the suspicion he was a KGB plant sent to discredit other defectors kicked off 40 years of unresolved internal strife at CIA.
Other speakers include:
-- David Robarge, Chief Historian for CIA and expert on controversial counterintelligence chief James Angleton, will discuss the dissension created at CIA by the former chief of counterintelligence due to his obsessive hunt for a Soviet mole.
-- Brian Kelley, the wrong man in the Robert Hanssen spy case, and former counterintelligence officer for CIA, will use examples of defectors and double agents he draws on as case models for courses he teaches to train espionage agents.
-- Jerry Schecter, former bureau chief for Time magazine in Moscow during the Cold War, later a spokesman for the National Security Council, and a respected expert and author of books on Cold War espionage, will discuss important cases of defectors and double agents in the heat of the Cold War.
-- David Ignatius, former foreign editor - now columnist for the Washington Post – and author of espionage fiction, is respected in the "community" for his insights on the impact of defectors and double agents on the craft of espionage.
Special Guest M. Stanton Evans, columnist, editor and author of the new book Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies is a surprise addition to this year’s conference. According to Reeves, Evans used previously classified FBI and governmental files to “upend the McCarthy myth and turn the tables on the real guilty parties. “The Evans book is new and is causing comment”, says Reeves. “Although the McCarthy Era is not part of the conference subject matter, we feel the new book is of great interest to our audience as it deals with penetration of the US government by Soviet operatives.”
The Raleigh Spy Conference was founded “to bridge the gap between intelligence and current history,” according to Reeves. “The calculus of modern events is intelligence. We don’t really know what happened until someone declassifies something”.
Reeves first conceived the Raleigh Spy Conference after it was revealed in the late 1970s that the British were reading the German code during World War II, altering the accepted history of the most dramatic event in human history.
Today, says Reeves, “after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992 and the brief opening of the Comintern Archives, the CIA and NSA announced that the US had been decrypting and reading messages from Moscow to Soviet agents in the US government. Add to these revelations the proliferation of books and articles by former intelligence officers from both sides of the Cold War, and you realize the actual history of the era requires a fresh examination”.
The first Raleigh Spy Conference in 2003 featured speakers on Cold War politics and included KGB major general Oleg Kalugin and Cambridge intelligence scholar Chris Andrew. In year two, speakers presented information on the connection of intelligence and terrorism, featuring experts on al-Qaeda and Hamas. The third year, top Cold War experts offered sessions on the fast-moving topic of Cold War scholarship, featuring Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes. Last year, the conference focused on Fidel Castro and the future of Cuba at the moment Castro fell ill and turned the reins of government over to his brother Raul.
C-SPAN-TV has broadcast several sessions and C-SPAN Radio has broadcast the entire Raleigh Spy Conference. BBC, CBS radio, other national and area media have covered the conference extensively. Recaps of previous conferences are available at http://www.raleighspyconference.com. The website also contains the 2008 schedule, speaker biographies, registration forms and other events and information.
Tickets to the three-day event are $250 for the general public, $175 for seniors, and $145 for teachers, students and members of the military and intelligence community. Early registration is available by calling Jennifer Hadra at 919-831-0999. For more information, go to http://www.raleighspyconference.com.
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Contact
Metro Magazine
Kim Weiss
919-831-0999
www.metronc.com
blueplate pr
919-272-8615
Kim Weiss
919-831-0999
www.metronc.com
blueplate pr
919-272-8615
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