American Spy: Wry Reflections on My Life in the CIA

by H. K. Roy

Overview

This ain't your daddy's spy story. In a memoir written as a series of narrative vignettes, a former CIA operations officer recounts his years of danger, intrigue, and adventure. This candid and darkly witty memoir recounts an exhilarating life —and a few close brushes with death. With remarkable sangfroid and a humorist's eye for absurdity, H. K. Roy describes his many strange and risky exploits in his long career with the CIA. Whether he was pursuing Soviet and Cuban spies, running "denied area" operations in Eastern Europe, hunting Bosnian War criminals, or providing actionable intelligence to US government and coalition forces in Iraq, Roy usually found himself at the right place at the right time. Except when he didn't—like the time he stumbled into a life-threatening ambush by Iranian terrorists while dodging Serb snipers and shelling in Sarajevo. Eight summers later, caught in a blinding sandstorm between Amman and Baghdad, he learned his fate was in the hands of an Iraqi tribal chief who had just lost his entire family to a US airstrike in Ramadi, in a failed attempt to kill Saddam Hussein that had tragic consequences. Combining dedication to duty with a maverick's disdain for bureaucracy, Roy makes it clear that he prefers foreign locales to Washington and thrives on the adrenaline rush that comes with danger. He also sheds much light on why intelligence is an essential component of national defense, even our very survival as a nation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781633885882
Publisher:	Prometheus Books
Publication date:	09/24/2019
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	645,855
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

H. K. Roy was a staff CIA operations officer for thirteen years. During his time of service (1983 to 1996), he served in Latin America, Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Bosnia, and Croatia, and received numerous awards from the US government. Since resigning from the CIA, he has continued to support its global mission. In 1996, he founded a private business intelligence firm focused on Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Since 2003, he has developed and continues to run a business operation in Iraq. He has published articles on intelligence operations in World and I magazine and in the Foreign Service Journal. He holds a JD degree from George Washington University.

Table of Contents

Preface 11

A Note about Secrecy 17

Abbreviations 19

Part I Balkan Trilogy

Chapter 1 Betrayal in the Balkans: Hillary Sent Me, but Bill Nearly Got Me Killed 23

Chapter 2 CIA Leak 37

Chapter 3 Srebrenica Madness 45

Part II The Making of a Spy

Chapter 4 Don't Get Me Started 61

Chapter 5 CIA Paramilitary Training 73

Chapter 6 Secure Your Chutes 83

Part III Latin America

Chapter 7 Going Operational 93

Chapter 8 Cuban Ops 99

Chapter 9 Internal Operations: Nicaragua 105

Chapter 10 Messing with Chinese Spies 109

Chapter 11 Moon over Libya 115

Part IV Russian Spies

Chapter 12 CIA vs. KGB 125

Chapter 13 How-and Why-to Recruit a Russian Spy 133

Part V CIA Family

Chapter 14 Real Housewives of the CIA 141

Chapter 15 Spy Kids 155

Chapter 16 CIA Safe Sex Practices 161

Part VI Hot and Cold Running War: Yugoslavia

Chapter 17 Denied Area Operations 167

Chapter 18 I Vant a Weeza 175

Chapter 19 Komandante Giška 181

Chapter 20 From War Virgin to War Weary 185

Chapter 21 Life Imitates Art Imitates Life-Hunting Bosnian War Criminals 195

Part VII Iraq: It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

Chapter 22 The Road to Babylon 205

Chapter 23 Mission: Improbable 215

Chapter 24 Tribalism 225

Chapter 25 Travels in Arabia 241

Part VIII Brushes with Celebrity

Chapter 26 Did I Inspire an SNL Skit? 253

Chapter 27 Breaking Bad in Tijuana 255

Chapter 28 Sitting Next to a Rock Star 257

Part IX The Spy Who Came Down with a Cold

Chapter 29 Ignore My Intelligence at Your Peril (I Am Not As Stupid As I Look) 263

Chapter 30 Iraq Intelligence Failure 273

Chapter 31 The Spy Who Came Down with a Cold 279

Epilogue 285

Spookstock and H. K. Roy Website 291

Acknowledgments 293

Notes 297

Editorial Reviews

Roy is the real thing, his brush with a foiled assassination legendary in the CIA. His life is the stuff of movies, and a great read.” — Bob Baer: Former CIA operations officer, author of four New York Times bestsellers, and an intelligence and security analyst for CNN.

“H.K. Roy's new book is a fascinating insider's account of a career working in the shadows. American Spy is filled with all the spy operations and tradecraft a reader could hope to find. But more importantly—and what sets it apart from the slew of recent intelligence memoirs—is his insight into the pitfalls and perils of when politics and policymakers unduly influence the ability of intelligence officers to do their jobs. A must-read for any student of intelligence, and casual readers alike.” — Vince Houghton, Historian/Curator, International Spy Museum

“American Spy is a fascinating look into the training and life of a CIA operations officer.” —Fred Burton, former special agent and New York Times bestselling author

“American Spy is an action packed tour de force…. Move over, James Bond and George Smiley—this is the real deal, written by a patriotic American who deserves our gratitude for his service.” — Jack Philip Barsky, author of Deep Undercover: My Secret Life and Tangled Allegiances as a KGB Spy in America

“This is no ordinary spy story of an American hero. What H. K. Roy witnessed and reported on in Srebrenica will make you shudder.” —Joe Navarro, FBI counterintelligence agent and bestselling author of What Every Body Is Saying and Three Minutes to Doomsday

"American Spy takes the reader on a behind-the-scenes journey filled with espionage, intrigue, sex, lies, and betrayal. Spy turned author H. K. Roy offers a firsthand account of being a covert agent in hostile countries and war zones during the Cold War and after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Composed of true stories and down-to-earth personal reflections, American Spy gives us a glimpse into Roy’s life—working in the shadows, stealing secrets, recruiting foreign assets, and staying alive while undercover.” —Francis Gary Powers Jr., founder and chairman emeritus of the Cold War Museum and author of Spy Pilot: Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 Incident, and a Controversial Cold War Legacy

“American Spy is a rollicking spy’s eye view of the conflicts that shaped the modern world, from Bosnia to Basra. H. K. Roy shows readers what it is like to be trained as a CIA officer and to be deployed the front lines.” —Steve Usdin, author of Bureau of Spies: The Secret Connections Between Journalism and Espionage in Washington

From the Publisher

2019-05-26
An ex-intelligence officer delivers a mixture of autobiography, insider tales, and occasional derring-do.

In his first book, former staff CIA operations officer Roy writes that his youthful ambition to become a spy owed less to a macho character than to his love of travel. After finishing law school and passing the bar, he underwent the yearlong CIA training course, which included more fireworks and hardship than he encountered during a 13-year career (1983 to 1996), mostly in Latin America and the former Yugoslavia. Historians have revealed many of the CIA's disastrous covert operations and intelligence failures, but few deny that its central function—gathering information on foreign nations' leaders and public opinion—has been important. The author emphasizes that governments (no less than individuals) ignore accurate information that contradicts their beliefs. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, Yugoslavia began breaking up. American policy insisted that the nation remain united despite CIA warnings that almost no one in Yugoslavia wanted this outcome and that murderous hatred between ethnic groups might require outside intervention. Roy recounts these dismal events and his own adventures when, after several years and many mass atrocities, the U.S. took notice. He adds that, having ignored the facts on Yugoslavia, the American government did the same with Iraq. Despite pressure from above, the CIA could not find a good reason to invade, but the leaders went ahead anyway. Leaving the service, Roy became an entrepreneur, first in the former Yugoslavia and then in Iraq immediately after the 2003 conquest. He recounts often hair-raising adventures, but readers curious about the nature of his business will be frustrated. The book is less an autobiography than a collection of short chapters recounting the mechanics of intelligence-gathering (successes as well as failures), the occasional narrow escape, essays on world hot spots, complaints about political leaders, and plenty of CIA gossip.

Politically neutral, educational, and sometimes insightful adventures of a working spy before and after retirement.

Kirkus Reviews