the ghost the secret life of cia spymaster

Later, based on what others felt was suspect testimony from a KGB defector to the U.S., Angleton became convinced that there was a high-ranking mole within the CIA. Early in his career, he was a close friend of Kim Philby, a British intelligence officer stationed in Washington, D.C., who turned out to be a double agent for the Soviet Union. He lives in Washington, DC.Few figures in espionage history stand out as starkly as Angleton, a Yale poet who went on to become the chief of CIA Counterintelligence from 1954 to 1975, leaving behind a tangled web of intrigue that continues to fuel conspiracy theories.

The author of Our Man in Mexico, a biography of the CIA’s Mexico City station chief Winston Scott, Morley has written about intelligence, military, and political subjects for Salon, The Atlantic, and The Intercept, among others. Jefferson Morley is a journalist and editor who has worked in Washington journalism for over thirty years, fifteen of which were spent as an editor and reporter at The Washington Post. Here, Morley uses exclusive interviews with colleagues and friends, and never-before-seen correspondence, to piece together a detailed and fascinating portrait of one of the most influential spies of our times. Yet during Angleton’s seemingly lawless reign, he also proved himself to be a formidable adversary to America’s enemies, acquiring a mythic stature within the CIA that continues to this day. After it was revealed that Philby was a double agent, Angleton became obsessed with hunting for communist moles in his own organisation, a search that nearly destroyed the Agency. A former literature student and friend to the poets Ezra Pound and TS Eliot, Angleton was now one of the most powerful men in the country, initiating programs that included the US’s first foray into mass surveillance of its citizens. Mentored in the art of spy craft by British MI6 officer Kim Philby, Angleton took to a life of deception exceptionally well, rising quickly through the ranks of the CIA to become chief of counterintelligence, a position he would hold for over 20 years. In this gripping biography – the first in over twenty years – Jefferson Morley reveals the extent of Angleton’s influence and power during his time at the CIA, from the start of World War II through to the final days of the Cold War.

Virtually untouchable, he operated beyond the view of the public, Congress, and even the president himself. A revelatory new biography of the sinister, powerful, and paranoid man at the heart of the CIA for more than three tumultuous decades.ĬIA spymaster James Jesus Angleton was one of the most important unelected officials in the US government during the 20th century.

The ghost the secret life of cia spymaster