Undercover Washington

by Kessler, Pamela

• ISBN13: 9781931868976
• ISBN10: 1931868972
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-04-15
• Publisher: Capital Books Inc

Summary

In times of peace or war, Washington, D.C. is the spy capital of the world. The original spymaster George Washington, whose home was in nearby Mt. Vernon, started it all when he had false information planted in British pouches and used disappearing ink to instruct his agents. Since then, the capital has been a hotbed of espionage, chock full of all the targets of any self-respecting spy'”the CIA, the FBI, the Pentagon, NSA, and more. Diplomats, politicians, generals, scholars, secretaries and clerks, mistresses and wives have lied, contrived, connived, denied, cheated, blackmailed, seduced and betrayed each other here, right up to the current war on terrorism. Pamela Kessler, a former Washington Post reporter and an expert on the local espionage scene, takes readers on a guided tour through D.C. and nearby Virginia and Maryland to more than 70 dropsites, safehouses, graveyards, mansions, museums, secure government offices and restaurant rendezvous where the spy game has been played. Kessler reveals the tales behind each featured site and offers more than 60 photographs of secret agents and the hangouts where they lived, worked, loved and sometimes died gruesome deaths. Lurk through Maryland, sneak through Virginia, and hide in Washington as you visit such places as: - Hotel George'”the Washington hotel where the only Soviet general to survive Stalin's blood purge of Red Army officers died a mysterious death. - Mailbox at the corner of 37th and R Streets N.W.'”where Aldrich Ames, who worked for the KGB while serving as the CIA's chief of Soviet counterintelligence, signaled his handler he was ready to make a drop. - The Exchange'”the D.C. restaurant where KGB mole Karl Koecher and his wife Hana met with a swinging couples group for exchange of wives and government secrets. - Foxstone Park'”where 'œDoctor Death' Robert Hanssen dropped his last documents, just before his fellow FBI agents arrested him. - The Georgetown mansion where 'œWild Bill' Donovan, founder of the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA, held secret meetings during World War II. - Au Pied de Cochon'”the Georgetown café where Soviet defector Vitaly Yurchenko had his last meal before redefecting. - The Northwest Washington home where Soviet spy Kim Philby lived while serving as First Secretary of the British Embassy. - FBI Headquarters'”a preview of the redesigned tour that attracts half a million visitors a year. - National Cryptologic Museum'”a former motel in Fort Meade, Maryland, where visitors now can learn the history of American signals intelligence and cryptology and find the largest public collection of Enigma machines. - The Willard Hotel'”where Lafayette C. Baker, the infamous counterespionage officer in the Civil War, was recruited. - Congressional Country Club'”the training place in Potomac, Maryland, for OSS agents to be parachuted behind enemy lines in World War II.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xi
DISTRICT OF COLOMOIH-GEORGETOWN
A Wilderness of Mirrors	1	(2)
The Big Dump	3	(4)
What's a Little Spying Among Friends?	7	(2)
"Oh So Social"	9	(3)
Rendezvous at Georgetown Pharmacy	12	(1)
Pumpkins and Perjury	13	(2)
Under Covers	15	(1)
The Last Supper of Vitaly Yurchenko	15	(3)
Yurchenko the Revisionist	18	(3)
DOWNTOWN WASHINGTON
Codebreaker	21	(4)
Watching Abe Lincoln	25	(1)
Intelligence Central	26	(1)
Swinging Spies	27	(2)
The Spy Who Fed the Meter	29	(1)
A Black-Bag job	30	(4)
Eyes Only	34	(1)
Hoover Ate Here	35	(2)
Rebel Rose	37	(4)
The Defector and the Call Girl	41	(1)
Cloak and Swagger	42	(2)
The Zimmermann Telegram	44	(2)
Open Secrets	46	(2)
"The Nest That Hatched the Egg"	48	(2)
Have You Driven a U-2 Lately?	50	(2)
Shoot/Don't Shoot	52	(1)
FBI II	53	(1)
Schmoozing	54	(3)
CAPITOL HILL AND ENVIRONS
And Then There Were None	57	(2)
The Rebel Press Agent	59	(3)
The Secret Room	62	(1)
The Downing File	63	(2)
Out of Sight, Out of Mind	65	(2)
AROUND THE NATIONAL MALL
The Kremlin, Magic and the On-the-Roof Gang	67	(3)
Clandestine Collectibles	70	(2)
Eye in the Sky	72	(2)
They Never Forget a Spy	74	(5)
UPPER NORTHWEST WASHINGTON
Codename MARY	79	(1)
The Dangle	80	(4)
A Local Mata Hari	84	(3)
G-Girl	87	(3)
The Third Man, a Legend	90	(2)
Hoover Slept Here	92	(1)
Spies in the Attic	93	(2)
MARYLAND
Dead Drops	95	(2)
Club Jed	97	(1)
The Game of Soviet Pursuit	98	(3)
Thee Name It, We Have It	101	(2)
Dog Days at the FBI	103	(2)
SIGINT City	105	(2)
Learning to Love the Bombe	107	(2)
The Fifth Column	109	(4)
The Andersonville of the North	113	(2)
VIRGINIA
The One Who Cracked	115	(1)
In the Line of Duty	116	(3)
The Color PURPLE	119	(2)
Trolling	121	(2)
The First Spymaster	123	(3)
At Sea at a Covert Interrogation Center	126	(2)
Stacking the Deck	128	(3)
The Search for Sasha	131	(1)
Confederate Heroine?	132	(2)
Doctor Death	134	(4)
Jeb Stuart's Secret Muse	138	(2)
Get Your CIA Mugs Here	140	(1)
Self-Appointed Chinese Emissary	141	(1)
Dueling Defectors	142	(2)
Chez Espionage	144	(1)
Inside the Agency	145	(6)
SPY RECIPES
Christian Renault's Recipes for Angleton	151	(1)
Steamed Mussels	151	(1)
Spycatcher's Scampi	151	(1)
Chef Guy Bougere's Poached Salmon for Yurchenko	152	(1)
Tradecraft from Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book	152	(1)
Sherry Cobbler	152	(1)
Roasted Oysters	152	(1)
Advice from The Virginia House-wife	153	(12)
Vinegar of the Four Thieves	153	(2)
Glossary	155	(8)
Acknowledgments	163	(2)
Selected Bibliography	165	(4)
Books	165	(3)
Articles and unpublished papers	168	(1)
Index	169