Suvorov, Viktor [Pseud.]
Suvorov, Viktor [Pseud.]
In a comment on Lunev's Through the Eyes of the Enemy, J. Michael Waller, http://www.amazon.com, notes that Suvorov is the pseudonym of "a former GRU officer named Rezun who defected to the United Kingdom." His books "are excellent works but many scholars suspect that they rest heavily on material provided by British intelligence.... Suvorov's books remain valuable, because the GRU has changed little if at all, and its mission remains the same. But being written in the Soviet period, they lack the context of the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War as we knew it."
1. Aquarium: The Career and Defection of a Soviet Military Spy. London, Hamish Hamilton, 1985. Inside the Aquarium: The Making of a Top Soviet Spy. New York: Stein & Day, 1986.
Milivojevi, I&NS 1.2, says that Aquarium is "a vivid, perceptive ... account of Suvorov's career in the GRU.... [T]he three chapters ... he devotes to his time as a Spetsnaz officer are likely to remain the definitive account of the subject for a long time." The author's personal experiences in Vienna "have enabled him to produce a definitive account of how a GRU residency functions."
2. Inside Soviet Military Intelligence. New York: Macmillan, 1984. Soviet Military Intelligence. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1984.
Pforzheimer notes that the book "contains many factual errors, misstatements, and extravagant claims.... The author seems more sure of himself when he writes of the GRU Special Purpose Forces (SPETSNAZ)."
According to Rocca and Dziak, this "is one of the rare works ever to appear on Soviet military intelligence (the GRU)." However, "its value is somewhat marred by error and uncompelling assertions." The author's "insider's insights" on GRU Spetsnaz forces and tactical reconnaissance "make this work a useful addition to the literature."
Milivojevi, I&NS 1.2, calls this book "the most detailed, comprehensive and convincing account to date of the GRU's organizational structure, relations with the KGB and the CPSU(b) and espionage modus operandi in the West." However, the reviewer has reservations about the "absence of footnotes" which "makes it difficult to distinguish between what is based on direct and indirect personal experience, what is generally accepted as being the truth in secondary sources..., and what is just intelligent speculation."
3. Spetsnaz: The Inside Story of Soviet Special Forces. New York: Norton, 1988.
[Russia/Defectors & MI]
Svendsen, Adam D.M. "The Globalization of Intelligence Since 9/11: The Optimization of Intelligence Liaison Arrangements." International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 21, no. 4 (Winter 2008-2009): 661-678.
"Washington still remains the major intelligence 'hub,' even perhaps the intelligence hegemon. This stems from its location at the center of the web of intelligence liaison arrangements that cover the globe.... Washington's greatest area of 'liaison dependency' now appears in the fickle realm of human intelligence (HUMINT) where the emphasis is upon connections with internal security services abroad."
[GenPostCW/00s/Gen]
Swain, Geoffrey. "'An Interesting and Plausible Proposal': Bruce Lockhart, Sidney Reilly and the Latvian Riflemen, Russia 1918." Intelligence and National Security 14, no. 3 (Autumn 1999): 81-102.
Swain finds that, within the context of the time, "the British approach to the Latvians in August 1918 made perfect sense.... [A]nd, if Reilly had concentrated on his initial brief,... things might still have turned out differently."
[WWI/UK/R&L]
Swan, Patrick A., ed. Alger Hiss, Whittaker Chambers, and the Shism in the American Soul. Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2003.
Whitfield, I&NS 18.3, calls this a "superb anthology" of nearly two dozen previously published essays. The work "basically endorses the verdict of 20 of the 24 jurors" in the two Hiss trials. The book's pro-Hiss essays "tend to ignore the documents that incriminated him and instead impugn the motives of his accuser."
[SpyCases/U.S./Hiss]
Swanberg, W.A. "Was the Secretary of War a Traitor?" American Heritage 14, no. 2 (1963): 34-37,
96-97. [Petersen]
[CivWar/Conf/Intel]
Swanson, James L. Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. New York: Harper, 2006.
According to Harter, Periscope (Summer 2006), the author does not answer the questions surrounding possible Confederate Secret Service (CSS) involvement in the assassination plot. However, he "does document meetings between CSS representatives and members of the Lincoln conspiracy, particularly [John Wilkes] Booth and Mary Surratt." This book "is an excellent addition to the credible body of research on the Lincoln assassination."
[CivWar/Conf/Lincoln]
Swanson, Scott. "Indications and Warning Post 9/11: Analyzing Enemy Intent." Military Intelligence 31, no.3 (Jul.-Sep. 2005): 38-40.
This article’s seeks "to address some ... components to construct new methods and approaches to analysis requirements for Early Warning. The focus is to identify critical processes and analytics used to see threats and understand hostile intentions, and improve their reliability by moving from an emphasis of simple cause-and-effect relationships to more intuitive, non-linear associative forms of pattern recognition to understand the enemy."
[Analysis/Warning]
Swearingen, M. Wesley. FBI Secrets: An Agent's Exposé. Boston: South End Press,1995.
Surveillant 4.2 notes that several retired Bureau officials "have stated ... that portions of the book where they are mentioned contain significant inaccuracies, so readers are warned." Nonetheless, there are significant accusations in this book, including "many tales of institutionalized corruption" at the Bureau.
According to Namebase, the author "spent 25 years in the FBI.... Most of his career was spent on political cases.... Swearingen is the first agent to offer an explosive inside look at the FBI's COINTELPRO program."
[FBI/90s]
Sweeney, Conor. "Russia Expels Two Czech Diplomats in Spy Row." Reuters, 18 Aug. 2009. [http://www.reuters.com]
Interfax news agency reported on 18 August 2009 that "Russia has ordered two Czech diplomats out of Russia.... The expulsion follows Czech media reports on [17 August 2009] that two Russians had been ordered out of Prague, including a deputy military attache."
[OtherCountries/Czech; Russia/00s/09]
Sweeney, John. Trading with the Enemy: Britain's Arming of Iraq. London: Pan Books, 1993.
Miller, I&NS 9.3: "There are factual errors where there are no excuses for such mistakes.... Sweeney also misleads." The book is "tarted up with accounts of the suffering of the Iraqi people and gossip." The author "is patronizing of his readership."
[UK/PostCW/MatrixChurchill]
Sweeney, John, Jens Holsoe, and Ed Vulliamy. "NATO Bombed Chinese Deliberately." The Observer, 17 Oct. 1999. [http://www.observer.co.uk]
"NATO deliberately bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the war in Kosovo after discovering it was being used to transmit Yugoslav army communications. According to senior military and intelligence sources in Europe and the US, the Chinese embassy was removed from a prohibited targets list after NATO electronic intelligence (Elint) detected it sending army signals to Milosevic's forces."
Reuters, "NATO Bombed Chinese Embassy Deliberately -- UK Paper," 16 Oct. 1999, and Associated Press, "NATO Denies Deliberate Embassy Hit," 17 Oct. 1999, quote NATO officials as denying The Observer's report.
[GenPostwar/90s/ChiEmb]
Sweeney, Michael S. Secrets of Victory: The Office of Censorship and the American Press and Radio in World War II. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
According to Hanyok, Studies 46.3 (2002), "[h]ow and why ... information restrictions succeeded are the subjects" of this "well-told, lean history."
[WWII/Gen].
Sweeney, Walter C. Military Intelligence: A New Weapon in War. New York: Stokes, 1924.
[Petersen]
[Interwar/U.S.; MI/Overviews]
Sweet-Escott, Bickham. Baker Street Irregular. London: Methuen, 1965.
Constantinides: The author held a succession of positions with SOE, both in London and in field. Although much more is known today about many of the things Sweet-Escott touches on, the book "remains a basic and necessary study of SOE and a rare continuous view from SOE headquarters."
[UK/WWII/SOE]
Swenson, Allan, and Michael Benson. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the CIA. Indianapolis, IN: Alpha Books, 2003.
Jonkers, AFIO WIN 47-02, 11 Dec. 2002, notes that this book is "intentionally aim[ed] for the popular market and written in a way understandable to the general public." However, "[i]t contains a wealth of information, plainly and concisely stated.... For those seeking a popular, easy to understand baseline understanding of intelligence,... this book is a good way to start."
For Peake, Studies 47.3, while this book is "filled with clichés," it also "gives a good overview of the organization, mission, history, and functions" of the CIA. "A number of helpful appendices clarify abbreviations and provide definitions..., a bibliography, and a list of other relevant intelligence organizations. The historical facts sprinkled throughout should not, however, be accepted on faith."
[CIA/Overviews]
Return to S Table of Contents
Return to Alphabetical Table of Contents