Ural'skij, Yu [Lt. Col.]. Tr., Thomas R. Hammant. "Soviet Comint and the Civil War." Cryptologia 25, no. 1 (Jan. 2001): 50-60.
Ural'skij, Yu [Lt. Col.]. Tr., Thomas R. Hammant. "Soviet Comint and the Civil War." Cryptologia 25, no. 1 (Jan. 2001): 50-60.
From abstract: "By January 1919, a radio intelligence service had been established in the Red Army, although shortages of equipment and comint personnel limited its operation during the civil war. Both sides in the civil war suffered from poor communications security."
[Russia/Interwar]
Urban, George R. Radio Free Europe and the Pursuit of Democracy: My War Within the Cold War. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997.
From advertisement: The author is "emeritus director of Radio Free Europe." "This book is a unique, personal account of Cold War combat over the airwaves, of psychological battles that succeeded in eroding the international appeal of the Soviet system and ultimately in helping to bring about the implosion of the Soviet empire."
[CA/Radio]
Urban, John M. "The Sutter Connection." Periscope 4, no. 3 (1979): 6.
John Sutter was the owner of Sutter's Mill during the 1800s California Gold Rush.
[Historical/MexWar][c]
Urban, Mark. Big Boys' Rules: The Secret Struggle Against the I.R.A. London: Faber and Faber, 1992. London: Faber and Faber, 2001.
Greenhalgh, I&NS 9.2, finds that Urban presents a "convincing analysis of the intelligence war in Northern Ireland.... [H]is examination of the role of undercover soldiers ... breaks new ground." This is the "clearest and most balanced analysis of British operations against the IRA to date."
[UK/Postwar/IRA]
Urban, Mark. "The Magnum Force." Electronic Telegraph, 1 Sep. 1996. [http://www. telegraph.co.uk]
The British decision "to part-pay for an American spy satellite came after the ... failure of an attempt to go it alone with an electronic snoop in space -- Zircon.... By the mid-Eighties the inequalities in the GCHQ-NSA relationship was causing real alarm....
"Zircon would be a geosynchronous satellite that would sit over the Soviet Union, feeding information direct to Whitehall. The vision was to survive from 1983, when initial studies began, to the autumn of 1986.... It was cost that doomed Zircon.... In 1987 GCHQ's entire annual budget was about £350 million. The cost to the UK of owning and maintaining a single satellite would have added about £100 million a year in perpetuity.... Ministers ... opted to buy American....
"The complex arrangements were agreed in a super-secret memorandum of understanding between the US and British governments which, it is thought, was signed in the latter part of 1988. One of the satellites would have a metaphorical Union flag on the side, but Britain could also consider itself part-owner of all of them.
"The UK would also have the right to 'task' any of the three satellites, but the 'British' satellite would never be delivered to the UK and the highly-sensitive technology within it remained within the NSA's security system. The NSA could also override GCHQ, even in tasking the craft."
[Liaison; UK/Postwar/Sigint]
Urban, Mark. The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes. New York: HarperCollins, 2001.
Brooks, NIPQ 19.1/2, says that this "history of the Peninsula campaign ... is engagingly written and provides unique insights into Wellington's strengths and ... weaknesses. The story is woven around the [cryptologic] contributions" of Lt. Col. George Scovell.
According to Kruh, Cryptologia 26.4, the author "chronicles Wellington's campaigns against the French from the battle of Corunna in 1809 to the 1815 victory at Waterloo, showing how Scovell's decoding of enemy communications was pivotal to Napoleon's defeat. This is an excellent book about a little known code breaker who helped to change the face of history."
Goulden, Washington Times, 7 Dec. 2003, and Intelligencer 14.1, calls this an "astounding work of historical research... [N]ot a single historain or biographer has addressed the significance" of the work of Scovell to Wellington's victories. This is "[a] good read, even for those of us who are happily ignorant of the mechanics of code breaking."
[UK/Historical]
Urban, Mark. UK Eyes Alpha: The Inside Story of British Intelligence. London: Faber & Faber, 1996.
According to Surveillant 4.4/5, UK Eyes Alpha examines "how Britain's spies reacted to the fall of Communism and to the outbreak of new conflicts around the world ... [and] the state of British espionage agencies, and asks what relevance they have today."
West, WIR 16.1, finds some of Urban's claims "somewhat debatable," and he "relies upon a narrow range of sources." Nonetheless, his iconoclastic and provocative approach is refreshing.
The author's focus on the negative aspects of what he sees as British intelligence reliance on the United States resonates well with Lustgarten, I&NS 13.2, who says that his "only criticism of the book is [Urban's] complete failure to make use of all of scholarly writing."
[UK/Overviews]
Urquhart, Colin. "Enigma Machine Stolen From Bletchley Park." Times (London), 3 Apr. 2000. [http://www.the-times.co.uk]
One of the original Enigma machines has been stolen from the Bletchley Park museum. "The stolen Enigma was a special model used by elite SS units, smaller and more elegantly engineered than others; it is believed there are only two more in the world."
[UK/WWII/Ultra/BP]
Urquhart, Martin I. The Effectiveness of Human Intelligence in Operation Uphold Democracy. Ft. Leavenworth, KS: U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 1996.
[MI/Ops/90s/Other]
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