cover image The Intelligence Game: Illusions and Delusions of International Espionage

The Intelligence Game: Illusions and Delusions of International Espionage

James Rusbridger. New Amsterdam Books, $24.95 (320pp) ISBN 978-1-56131-008-1

British author Rusbridger questions the claims of the major intelligence services (CIA, MI5, KGB, Mossad et al.), arguing that espionage has never been as threatening as they want us to believe. Nor are they much good at catching spies, he maintains. What they're good at is scaremongering, and in his view intelligence directorates never hesitate to invent windmills to tilt at in order to justify their hugely expensive peacetime programs. MI5's claim of foiling an ``attempted IRA attack'' at the Prince Andrew-Sarah Ferguson wedding is one of the bogus planted tales he cites. Beyond seeing them as essentially useless, Rusbridger points out that pervasive lawbreaking is part and parcel of the security services. He claims that the British government's vindictiveness over Peter Wright's Spycatcher stemmed from the book's revelations of burgling and bug-planting by the British secret service. Rusbridger argues persuasively that much of the activity carried on by the worldwide intelligence community--especially the collection of information readily available in technical journals and the compiling of dossiers on ``potentially subversive'' individuals--is pointless. Photos. (June)