by Robert Wallace, H. Keith Melton, Henry R. Schlesinger

Review By CARL HARTMAN, AP Book Critic
International spying could be called a cat and mouse game — a
frightened mouse scurrying to outwit a powerful feline. The folks at
the Central Intelligence Agency have worked hard with actual dead rats
and a live cat, using them in highly specialized CIA ways.

“Spycraft,” subtitled “The Secret History of the CIA’s Spytechs From
Communism to Al-Qaeda,” describes many of those ways, some for the
first time.

A foreword by George I. Tenet, who headed the agency from 1997 to 2004,
complains that the human drama often obscures the important work of the
techies.

“Regrettably, there have been instances where secrecy was invoked to
deny knowledge of information that has long since lost sensitivity but
is vital for public understanding and consideration,” he writes.

“’Spycraft’ is a history of the CIA’s fusion of technical innovation
with classic tradecraft, and, equally, a call to young men and women
with similar talents to enlist in the battle against America’s new
enemies.”

The authors are Robert Wallace, former director of the CIA’s Office of
Technical Services, historian H. Keith Melton, and Henry R.
Schlesinger, contributing editor of Popular Science magazine.

An Asian head of state 40 years ago used to let cats wander freely
through strategic meetings. So, to listen in, CIA techs created
“Acoustic kitty.” They anesthetized a full grown gray and white female,
put a mike in her ear canal, an antenna wire along her spine and wove a
transmitter with power supply into her chest fur. Her equipment worked,
but her American handler couldn’t control her movements well in a
foreign country. The idea was dropped.

Rats — they had to be dead — were considered good for secret messages; outsiders were unlikely to pick them up.

“Some were freeze-dried and vacuum-packed in tin cans,” the book says.
“Material intended for the agent was wrapped in aluminum foil and
inserted inside the created cavity, and the animal stitched back
together. ... Before the carcass was deployed, it might be doused in
Tabasco sauce as a deterrent to hungry cats roaming the streets.”

The authors tell of personal drama, too. One episode goes back to the
defeat in 2001 of Taliban forces in Afghanistan where they protected
Osama bin Laden — forces now staging a dangerous resurgence.

A six-man CIA bomb disposal team arrived in Kandahar from Washington
with 5,000 pounds of equipment and a duffel bag containing $1 million
in cash. They were lodged in the governor’s palace, days after the
allies had driven out Mullah Omar, Osama bin Laden’s protector. Four
hours after their arrival, team leader “Mark” got word from a local
informant that the earthen roof of the palace was booby trapped.

It was the last day of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting.
Celebrations in the palace were to start at sundown, another four hours
away. Counterterrorism officer “Frank,” one of the team, climbed to the
roof, despite danger from snipers and the booby trap itself. He used
thermal-imaging equipment to find where four holes had been dug in the
earth covering the roof, with a narrow trench connecting them.

But the new Afghan commander of the palace declined to halt preparation for the festivities.

“Mark” then climbed to the roof for deeper exploration. He found
detonators, ammunition and a wire connecting them just under the
earthen surface. The wire led out of the palace.

“Mark left the roof just as the sun was setting,” the book says. “The
end of Ramadan was announced. ... He could not suppress a smile at the
thought that somewhere among the city’s celebrants was a terrorist, his
finger repeatedly pushing a button in vain, wondering why in the name
of Allah his best efforts had come to naught.”

An Afghan de-mining team later removed over 2,200 pounds of explosives,
including 55 tank rounds and more than 100 anti-tank mines.

©Dutton, 549 pages, $29.95.

‘A Voyage Long and Strange’
by Tony Horwitz
Sometime in the 128 years between Columbus sailing the ocean blue in
1492 and the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock (1620), something else
in the way of a European presence happened here in this part of the New
World that we now call the United States. Tony Horwitz sets out to
rediscover America’s forgotten and neglected history with his own epic
journeys across North America — retracing the routes and the lasting
impact of conquistadors, Moorish slaves, castaways and “colonists” who
explored and settled America long before the Mayflower crowd. In fact,
Europeans had already set foot in half of the present-day 50 states by
then, crossed the continent from coast to coast almost 300 years before
Lewis and Clark, and held Thanksgiving celebrations in new settlements
decades ahead of the “first” Thanksgiving that has become our national
holiday.

Horwitz re-revises our
revisionist history, explodes national myths and ties 16th century
America to present day with no-nonsense research, quirky anecdotes and
profound insights. Along the way, he’ll introduce you to the places and
people that still reverberate with the impact of those 400-year-old
events. Structured in the same manner as his previous bestsellers —
“Blue Latitudes” and “Confederates in the Attic”  — Horwitz moves
back and forth between historical accounts and his travels through the
same geography today.

And you don’t have to be a history buff
to enjoy this book. The problem with “A Voyage Long and Strange” is
that we can’t decide in where to shelve it: history, travel, 
adventure, sociology?  That’s been solved by putting it on the
counter and letting it sail out the door. Horwitz’s history of
America’s early exploration became a New York Times bestseller within
days of its release last week and with good reason; it’s eye-opening
informative, captivating and absolute fun. And whether you find
yourself doing Dixie with De Soto, or in the passenger seat beside
Horwitz as he follows Coronado’s path across the desert Southwest onto
the Great Plains, “A Voyage Long and Strange” is a great ride. — Dan
Schultz