Martin Kaiser is a legend within the nation's covert electronic surveillance fraternity. With a hot-wired transmitter the size of a pea, Kaiser built devices that could bring down a government, prevent a terrorist attack, or provide blackmail for a government agency to smear a well-known American Civil Rights leader. Now, in "Odyssey of an Eavesdropper, " he steps from the shadows of national security to tell his own story-a journey from an abusive childhood in a Pennsylvania coal-mining town to icon status in the black ops ...
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Martin Kaiser is a legend within the nation's covert electronic surveillance fraternity. With a hot-wired transmitter the size of a pea, Kaiser built devices that could bring down a government, prevent a terrorist attack, or provide blackmail for a government agency to smear a well-known American Civil Rights leader. Now, in "Odyssey of an Eavesdropper, " he steps from the shadows of national security to tell his own story-a journey from an abusive childhood in a Pennsylvania coal-mining town to icon status in the black ops world of U.S. spy operations as the premier producer of electronic surveillance gadgets and dirty tricks, and then his battle for professional and emotional survival with the FBI bent on his destruction. Kaiser's clients included the FBI, the CIA, DEA, Secret Service, Army, Navy and Air Force Intelligence, as well as foreign intelligence services. However, as a result of his testimony before the National Wiretap Commission in 1975, the FBI began a vendetta against Kaiser, nearly driving his business into bankruptcy and resulting in his eventual indictment on charge of illegal wiretapping, conspiracy and transporting an illegal eavesdropping device across state lines. Acquitted of all charges and having reinvented himself, Kaiser tells his tale.
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Seller's Description:
Good. Former Library book. Hardcover This item shows wear from consistent use but remains in good readable condition. It may have marks on or in it, and may show other signs of previous use or shelf wear. May have minor creases or signs of wear on dust jacket. Packed with care, shipped promptly.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. Signed Copy First edition copy. Collectible-Very Good. Very Good dust jacket. Inscribed by author on half title. (electronic surveillance, spies, wiretapping, biography) [ISBN 0786715464]
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Ted Streshinsky (Cover photograph) Very good in Very good jacket. xxi, [3], 312 pages. Includes Introduction, Prologue, Appendix, Glossary of Terms, Endnotes, Acknowledgments, Index, and About the Authors. Chapters include The Early Years, The New King of Electronic Countermeasures, Trial by Fire, and The Road Ahead. This is the personal story of the American intelligence community's top countersurveillance expert, regarded as the "Michelangelo of Electronic Surveillance, " whose mastery of eavesdropping devices made him the inspiration for the landmark film The Conversation. Martin Kaiser is a legend within the nation's covert electronic surveillance fraternity. With a hot-wired transmitter the size of a pea, Kaiser built devices that could bring down a government, prevent a terrorist attack, or provide blackmail to smear an American Civil Rights leader. In Odyssey of an Eavesdropper, he steps from the shadows of national security to tell his own story-a journey from a coal-mining town to icon status in the black ops world of U.S. spy operations as the premier producer of electronic surveillance gadgets and dirty tricks, and then his battle for professional survival with the FBI bent on his destruction. Kaiser's clients included the FBI, the CIA, DEA, Secret Service, Army, Navy and Air Force Intelligence, as well as foreign intelligence services. As a result of his testimony before the National Wiretap Commission in 1975, the FBI began a vendetta against Kaiser, resulting in his indictment on charge of illegal wiretapping, conspiracy and transporting an illegal eavesdropping device across state lines. Acquitted of all charges and having reinvented himself, Kaiser tells his tale. From the Preface: You probably don't recognize my name-unless you're a spook. I've long preferred that anonymity. In my business, I've worked and lived in the shadows of national security. If you've ever passed me walking down a street in Washington or Baltimore, you would never have looked twice in my direction. I'm not the suave, debonair secret agent type. In fact, I've got an Everyman face and physique that would never give you a clue to what I used to do-or the reputation I once had within the U.S. Intelligence Community. Modesty aside, I was, to the FBI, the CIA and the rest of the Intel community, what "Q"-the British Secret Service technical genius-was to James Bond, Ian Fleming's dashing secret agent with a license to kill. I had a license to design the deadliest eavesdropping devices you can imagine, and some that will forever remain classified. I built and supplied bugs to the FBI, the CIA, the DEA, Secret Service and the intelligence commands of the Army, Navy and Air Force. With a hearing aid microphone smaller than a pea, a transistor, and a capacitor, I could build an eavesdropping device that, planted in the right location, could bring down a government, prevent a terrorist attack, or provide ammunition to a government law enforcement agency to smear a well-known American Civil Rights leader. I built bugs that would fit inside picture frames, hotel room key holes, fountain pens (an FBI favorite), office staplers, envelopes, wrist watches, cuff links, baseball caps, the lining of a suit jacket or trousers, office musak systems and telephones that captured room audio when hung up. I also built some of the first surveillance countermeasure gear ever used by the Intel community including an RF detector (used to find FM frequency bugs), a multi-line telephone analyzer, and one of the first non-Linear Junction Detectors. I was considered to be the model for Harry Caul, the paranoid eavesdropping expert in Francis Ford Coppola's 1974 post-Watergate drama, "The Conversation" and provided technical expertise for the film. In the 1995 film, "Enemy of the State, " I suggested and designed many of the eavesdropping dirty tricks used by actor Gene Hackman in the role of Edward Lyle, a rogue ex-NSA surveillance expert. I am essentially the Bill Gates of the U.S. eavesdropping biz, with...
