The Ghost
A Spooky Christmas Story

When one thinks of the history of the CIA the names that readily come to mind are “Wild” Bill Donavan, Allen W. Dulles, and a host of others. One name that sometimes remains in the shadows is James J. Angleton. Of these men it is safe to say that Angleton probably affected American national security......more

"If the ambush in Dallas had been properly planned by CIA men," Angleton advised, referring to the assassination of JFK, "even other CIA men would not have been able to figure out who had done it." Angleton was a powerful, complicated figure within the shadowy world of U.S. intelligence services, and......more

Author Tim Weiner called this book “The best book ever written about the strangest CIA chief who ever lived” and although I’m not knowledgeable enough to know whether it is in fact the best book ever, it is certainly an endlessly fascinating and engaging biography, entertaining, painstakingly resear......more

Among the scholarly writers on subjects related to the JFK assassination, Jefferson Morley is in the top rank. The Ghost is not about JFK, and neither is an earlier biography by the same author, Our Man in Mexico, about longtime Mexico City station chief Winston Scott. But for those of us who retain......more

Too brisk and superficial for what I was expecting. Very little revealed here that wasn't already known. The purported enigma around Angleton is acknowledged as largely myth. Indeed, there doesn't seem to be much "behind" the personality of Angleton beyond what is described here: a top-level fascist......more