AFIO National Winter Luncheon
Friday, 26 January 2007 - Tysons Corner, VA
Stephen Kappes, Deputy Director, CIA
on "CIA 2007 New Directions and Missions"
and James M. Olson, former CIA DDO Officer, now at Texas A&M University
on "FAIR PLAY: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying"
Location: Holiday Inn, Tysons Corner, VA. Generous covered parking.
Three course luncheon, Cash Bar.
Badge Pick-up at 10:30 a.m.; Olson at 11 a.m.; Lunch at noon; Kappes at 1:00 p.m.
Borders Books will have many new intelligence titles available to browse or purchase. Other authors present.
Members given preference on date of registration basis. Kappes talk is OFF THE RECORD. $48 pp members; $59 pp non-members.
Space limited. Click here to register NOW using secure online, fax, or mail-in form.[This is an important book. The comments below comes from publisher promotional materials and is followed by one of the reviews to appear in AFIO's Intelligencer Journal.]
Fair Play The Moral Dilemmas of Spying by James M. Olson
Potomac Books, $28.95 Hardcover | 288 pages | 1574889494 | September 2006Revolutionary War officer Nathan Hale, one of America’s first spies, said, “Any kind of service necessary to the public good becomes honorable by being necessary.” A statue of Hale stands outside CIA headquarters, and the Agency often cites his statement as one of its guiding principles. But who decides what is necessary for the public good, and is it really true that any kind of service is permissible for the public good? These questions are at the heart of Olson’s book. Olson, a veteran of the CIA’s clandestine service, takes readers inside the world of thorny intelligence issues to describe the dilemmas field officers face on an almost daily basis. Far from being a dry theoretical treatise, this fascinating book uses intelligence ops "case studies" to illustrate how murky moral choices can be. Readers will be surprised to learn that the CIA provides very little guidance on what is, or is not, permissible. Rather than empowering field officers, the author has found that this lack of guidelines actually hampers operations. Olson believes that U.S. intelligence officers need clearer moral guidelines to make correct, quick decisions. Significantly, he believes these guidelines should come from the American public, not from closed-door meetings inside the intelligence community.
Dustjacket comments on FAIR PLAY - The Moral Dilemmas of Spying, by James Olson, our morning speaker:
"A thoughtful, provocative analysis of practically every possible moral dilemma that is ever likely to prick the conscience of an assiduous case officer. The scenarios presented by James Olson, himself a veteran insider, have the authentic whiff of cordite that suggest little has been drawn from his imagination, but much has been looted from the operational files." — Nigel West, author of The Third Secret: The CIA, Solidarity and the KGB's Plot to Kill the Pope
"James Olson is a legend in the clandestine service, having served in some of the most difficult, dangerous, and complicated assignments at the height of the Cold War. As director of central intelligence, I trusted him without reservation when he was chief of counterintelligence not only because he was enormously capable but also because I knew he thought deeply about the ethical and moral dimensions of what we did every day. Amid the countless books and memoirs of retired spies, especially at this time, this one is essential reading." — Robert M. Gates, Director of Central Intelligence, 1991-1993, AFIO Honorary Board Member
"Under veteran intelligence officer James Olson’s sure direction, the reader enters a world few Americans ever see or even know exists. From his insightful summary of intelligence history through each of his fifty reality-based scenarios, he confronts the difficult ethical issues head-on. An unprecedented examination of the challenging moral dilemmas of human intelligence operations, Olson’s work will soon be the standard reference." — Peter Earnest, executive director, International Spy Museum, Chairman, AFIO, and former CIA officer
"Do the ends ever justify the means? CIA veteran James Olson explores the complex choices, limitations, and moral dilemmas facing U.S. intelligence officers who attempt to operate within an ill-defined standard of ‘acceptable moral behavior.’ Fascinating and thought provoking, Fair Play will become a must-read for officers on the frontlines of the global war on terror. There isn’t anything else like it!" — H. Keith Melton, intelligence historian, AFIO member, and author of The Ultimate Spy
A REVIEW by Hayden Peake, Historical Intelligence Collection, CIA - printed here with permission of the reviewer
James M. Olson, Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying (Washington, DC: Po-tomac Book, Inc., 2006), bibliography, index.
James Olson, a retired operations officer cum teacher and author, has given the literature of intelligence one of its most interesting, unusual and forthright books. At the outset he dis-misses the ‘anything goes’ concept of espionage. Fair Play boldly presumes that the Great Game has moral boundaries and then sets about describing how to find them and know when you have.
After a short but informative chapter summarizing his career and his family—his wife Me-redith was also an Agency employee—Professor Olson discusses the philosophical and historical arguments for and against state actions when “lying, cheating, manipulation, de-ception, coercion and other techniques of espionage and covert action” are involved. From biblical examples at one end of the continuum to the excessively harsh Machiavelli tenets at the other, he compares ‘intrinsically evil and never morally acceptable acts,” with those acceptable to philosophers like Aristotle, Cicero, St. Thomas Aquinas and Kant. He con-cludes with a look at realpolitk, utilitarianism, and the views of Pope Paul II.
Then, after a discussion of the U.S. approach to espionage—several historical examples are given—he asks, what are the alternatives to spying in today’s world? His answer is that it remains an historical necessity, though not without moral boundaries. The several chapters that follow are concerned with establishing guidelines to help the reader recognize those boundaries and act accordingly. His methodology is uncomplicated. Fifty short scenarios are presented, each describing realistic operational moral dilemmas that intelligence officers are likely to encounter. Examples include: use of truth serum, torture training, use of child prostitutes, Romeo operations, bogus web sites, homosexual blackmail, and interrogation techniques. After each one, he asks ‘what should the officer do?’ He does not supply any “school solutions.” He does provide, after each scenario, the views of selected commentators with varying back-grounds—intelligence professionals, academics, and layman. Each gives an opinion as to what should be done under the circumstances. Olson leaves the ultimate judgment to the reader as it would be in the real world.
In the final chapter—Notes: Spying 101—Olson adds some valuable comments on careers under cover beginning with the difference between the terms intelligence officer and an agent that the media consistently confuses. Other topics include CIA recruiting, hiring and training; handling agents; attitudes toward spying; examples of successful espionage cases; essential tradecraft techniques; double agent operations; defector resettlement; the prob-lems and techniques of espionage communications; a discussion several foreign intelli-gence services and how they operate; and some examples of worthwhile spy fiction read-ing.
Jim Olson, currently on the faculty at Texas A&M, served in Moscow, Vienna and Mexico City before becoming chief of the CIA’s Counterintelligence Center. Fair Play draws on this experience. It is his attempt to enlighten those considering a career in intelligence and to fill a gap that existed in his career—the morality of espionage was never addressed, it was learned on-the-job. Now recruits have the opportunity to consider the issue at the out-set. It should be mandatory reading for all.
©2007 AFIO
