Sunday 28th of April 2024
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spy vs spooks in books...

spy vs spooks...

(an earlier cartoon repeated)...

Fed up with those popular images of the female secret agent, Ms. Wilson decided to draft her own. Eight years after her cover was blown by the political columnist Robert Novak, she has signed a book deal with Penguin Group USA to write a series of international suspense novels, with a fictional operative, Vanessa Pearson, at the center. Ms. Wilson will write them with Sarah Lovett, a best-selling author of mysteries, who also lives in Santa Fe.

The idea for the books, Ms. Wilson said, “was born out of my frustration and continuing disappointment in how female C.I.A. officers are portrayed in popular culture.”

Of course, she is a sensational figure herself, memorably posing like Grace Kelly in Vanity Fair in 2004, perched in the passenger seat of a Jaguar convertible, wearing a headscarf and large black sunglasses. (Her husband, the former ambassador Joseph Wilson, has called her Jane Bond.)

The books, the first of which will be released next year, will draw on many of her own experiences as a former undercover operative, as well as invented ones. Vanessa Pearson, she said, is an operative who is having a relationship with another C.I.A. officer — she is under deep cover, and he is not — a forbidden situation in that world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/books/valerie-plame-wilson-to-write-series-of-spy-novels.html?hp

the CIA black magic marker...

She came to this book project with some experience in the publishing industry. In 2006, Ms. Wilson landed a $2.5 million deal with Crown Publishing to publish “Fair Game,” her memoir of her days in the C.I.A. (Her book, along with her husband’s memoir, “The Politics of Truth,” was turned into a film starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.) That deal eventually fell through, and Ms. Wilson moved to Simon & Schuster, whose flagship imprint was then led by David Rosenthal.

Mr. Rosenthal published the book, which was heavily vetted and redacted by the C.I.A. and eventually released with blackened-out passages.

“It was a complicated publication, as you recall,” Mr. Rosenthal said. “Valerie obviously knows the drill.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/books/valerie-plame-wilson-to-write-series-of-spy-novels.html?hp

The drill? : fiction cannot get too close to the truth...

dodge the spooks and the dog poo...

The UK agency has released booklet amid the ongoing anti-Russian hysteria over the alleged poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal. According to it, the danger of being involved in espionage awaits travelers behind every corner, when they are visiting Russia or China.

Visiting Russia (or China) is not an easy trip — spies have set up their webs around every lucrative entertainment corner and are waiting for their prey, according to the Smart Traveler booklet, issued for UK businessmen by the British MI5 agency, reports Daily Mail. Those possessing sensitive information are in the high risk zone, according to the paper.

READ MORE: Danish Soldiers in Estonia Urged to Beware Russian 'Honey Traps'

The booklet warns such people against falling for the most common tourist "sins" such as gambling, substance use, excessive drinking and, as everyone still remembers the glorious Anna Chapman, for a hot Russian date. These honey traps could make British citizens vulnerable to blackmail and may result in vital information be stolen and reputational damage to both the UK and the company the person is representing.

The brochure also reminds readers about such commonly known practices as changing passwords, avoiding public Wi-Fi networks, avoiding sensitive conversation in public places (even if you believe others do not understand English) and publishing information about your location on social networks.

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/europe/201803251062888400-honeytraps-uk-businessmen-russia/?