BEYOND ESPIONAGE STORIES TO ACTUAL ESPIONAGE PRACTICES

 

If you enjoy books and movies about espionage, do you ever think beyond the ‘thriller and suspense’ side to how are the intelligence actions actually accomplished?

The “world of smoke and mirrors” always has spontaneous dimensions – uncertainties, often with deadly consequences.

The reality of the “world of smoke and mirrors” is that intelligence operations and the lives of spies have tremendous background amount of conceptual preparation, planning, training, discipline and choreography going on before and during the actual operation.

Deception is a key pillar in the foundation of intelligence. Deception has been an integral part of warfare and intelligence since the dawn of time. Double agents are a part of deception from the Garden of Eden and continue so now.

Check the GaryBowserBooks website in early September for a special announcement about how you can delve into “deception and double agents”.

 

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 Essays written by Gary Bowser, a True Believer, sharing his thoughts regarding a wide range of topics based on his life and work experiences. Mr. Bowser is a retired military officer with over 50 years experience in the areas of intelligence and national security. He served two years in Special Operations during the Vietnam conflict. After that, he served overseas as a HUMINT Case Officer and directed a clandestine HUMINT organization as Operations Officer for over six years. Mr. Bowser also has extensive experience in the Washington D.C. arena as a DIA Directorate of Estimates Branch Chief.

You'll find more information about Gary Bowser and his books at www.garybowser.net.

 

We are pleased to announce the audio book for LIES ARE TRUTH is now available on Amazon, Audible, and Barnes & Noble. Check with your favorite audio book resource! Let us know where you downloaded your copy!

DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE NOVEMBER 2025 NSS IS?

You should know because NSS stands for National Security Strategy. The 2025 NSS discusses profound policy changes for the US approach to national security from November 2025 forward.

The National Security Act of 1947 set the basis for our military and intelligence community organizations. During the Cold War this was followed by 19 formal NSSs and a plethora of informal statements on specific security policies.  All these, until now, were consistent with a Cold War/NATO mindset despite evolving threats, such as the global Islamist terrorist networks.

This all changed officially in November 2025.

Things you should know about the 2025 NSS:

•  The 2025 NSS is a political document that addresses national security priorities
•  The 2025 NSS is the first major step away from the ideological focus on the “worldwide communist threat” of the Cold War.
•   The European members of NATO need to ‘step-up’ and bear the responsibilities to defend Europe.
•   The US and China need to establish a new relationship that recognizes mutual economic and strategic realities. This also implies the decline of Russia from a ‘superpower’ to a nation with nuclear weapons.
•  The US now has our priority security interest in the Western Hemisphere

The November 2025 NSS is 33 pages long with most being political versus policy changes and clarifications. Even so, I recommend you take a look at this document. If you do not want to read the full document, take a look at pages 1-2, 15-18, and page 27.

2025 National Security Strategy

 

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 Essays written by Gary Bowser, a True Believer, sharing his thoughts regarding a wide range of topics based on his life and work experiences. Mr. Bowser is a retired military officer with over 50 years experience in the areas of intelligence and national security. He served two years in Special Operations during the Vietnam conflict. After that, he served overseas as a HUMINT Case Officer and directed a clandestine HUMINT organization as Operations Officer for over six years. Mr. Bowser also has extensive experience in the Washington D.C. arena as a DIA Directorate of Estimates Branch Chief.

You'll find more information about Gary Bowser and his books at www.garybowser.net.

 

SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT AI

 There is a ‘diversity’ of views about AI ranging from: “AI will destroy mankind” to “AI is the great hope for future progress of humanity”.

My view is, AI is ‘hype without boundaries’.

What is the definition of AI? There is no single agreed objective definition of AI. I assert, if you cannot define something, you do not understand it!

What is AI then? This question has a simple answer given the above two thoughts.

AI is “software”. It is code written by human coders. All software codes include the biases of the individual coders. These biases are wide ranging from political, scientific, intellectual, emotional, religious; that is, the biases reflect the range of coders’ thinking.

AI is a complex software code, but just a code which uses rules and algorithms to guide ‘a process’.

AI does not and cannot “think”. AI merely follows the respective AI code.

There is no such thing as a “perfect software code”, AI or any code. Among other things, the term ‘perfect’ is an unrealistic subjective abstraction. All AI will have various types of flaws.

AI has promise for certain well defined tasks and, at the same time, presents dangers in many areas for misinformation, crime, and, in particular, ‘unintended consequences’. Perhaps the greatest danger will be  an “AI reality” that cannot be distinguished from “objective reality”.

The ‘Intelligence business’, collection and analysis, will find AI a monumental challenge as an ‘AI reality’ could make deception profoundly difficult to discern.

AI competition, with a myriad of forms of AI codes, is worldwide involving governments, private companies, and sinister entities including international and local criminal groups, ISIS, China, Russia, and North Korea as a few examples.

Hype eventually evolves to conform with ‘objective reality’ and the roles of AI, good, bad, and ugly, will become clear – sooner than later.

 

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Essays written by Gary Bowser, a True Believer, sharing his thoughts regarding a wide range of topics based on his life and work experiences. Mr. Bowser is a retired military officer with over 50 years experience in the areas of intelligence and national security. He served two years in Special Operations during the Vietnam conflict. After that, he served overseas as a HUMINT Case Officer and directed a clandestine HUMINT organization as Operations Officer for over six years. Mr. Bowser also has extensive experience in the Washington D.C. arena as a DIA Directorate of Estimates Branch Chief.

You'll find more information about Gary Bowser and his books at www.garybowser.net.

 

We Love You Old Glory!

 

14 June 2025 (President’s Trump’s birthday; the 250th Birthday of the US Army; a military parade in Washington DC)

And as a friend reminded me – National Flag Day

National Flag Day happens each year on June 14 to honor Old Glory and commemorate the adoption of the United States flag on June 14, 1777.

Old Glory is the most visible symbol for our country and our culture. There are many symbols that are part of this great nation: The Constitution; The Declaration of Independence; national buildings such as the Capital, Lincoln Memorial, Arlington Cemetery, and so on.

But, our flag is celebrated almost continuously at sports events, military funerals, public events – it is cheered, saluted, and solemnly revered.

Why is this important? For thousands of years, flags have been part of every significant culture in the history of the world. Those flags gave each of those cultures a rally point for their shared values, sense of a cohesive society, and unity of beliefs which help their society endure for generations.

I expect every one of you reading this comment respects and honors Old Glory – and many of you proudly fly our Old Glory at your home to announce I love America and love this Flag.

If anyone reading this disagrees with honoring our national symbol, that is your right. That is another symbol of our great country – freedom of speech. But - burning this revered symbol is not freedom of speech – burning our flag is called disrespect and desecration - as a citizen and veteran I assert – burning our flag should be a crime.

Celebrate tomorrow with other patriots – We love you Old Glory! 

 

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Essays written by Gary Bowser, a True Believer, sharing his thoughts regarding a wide range of topics based on his life and work experiences. Mr. Bowser is a retired military officer with over 50 years experience in the areas of intelligence and national security. He served two years in Special Operations during the Vietnam conflict. After that, he served overseas as a HUMINT Case Officer and directed a clandestine HUMINT organization as Operations Officer for over six years. Mr. Bowser also has extensive experience in the Washington D.C. arena as a DIA Directorate of Estimates Branch Chief.

You'll find more information about Gary Bowser and his books at www.garybowser.net.

 

Intelligence Analysis

Intelligence analysis is the bedrock of national security. These security analyses are challenging because the collected intelligence data is never complete, contains ambiguities, often is erroneous as an intentional deception, or the various disparate pieces form a misleading direction for the analyst.

We talked about biases in intelligence analyses and the fact the intelligence analyst must understand that biases are normal and an unavoidable part of human nature. The intelligence analyst must recognize the various biases and ensure that these prejudices do not inhibit an objective analysis of an intelligence threat.

World War II offers great examples how information was manipulated to lead an enemy to draw the wrong conclusions – these wrong conclusions creating major vulnerabilities for that enemy.

There is a jargon term in the intelligence analysis community which combines many of the worst practices by analysts – “The Enemy Is Ten Feet Tall Syndrome”. “The Enemy Is Ten Feet Tall” trap is a self-inflected wound based on trying to please political masters, pushing for bigger defense budgets, and laziness to avoid the heavy lifting to get past biases.

“The Enemy Is Ten Feet Tall Syndrome” drives the analyst to portray the enemy with capabilities that in fact exceed the reality of the enemy threat.

I argue that the current threats to the USA from Russia and China are classic perversions of “The Enemy Is Ten Feet Tall Syndrome”. The current threats to the USA from Russia and China are real and serious – but the threats from both countries are not on the order you hear in the various media. The Russia nuclear arsenal is a grave strategic threat. Our strategic nuclear forces far outclass the Russian – and why would Russia risk nuclear annihilation for a few more square miles of Ukraine. Think about the facts – Russia has been trying to conquer the Ukraine for over three years – and failed miserably with butcher’s bill of some 900,000 dead Russian soldiers for minor territorial gains. China has so many problems they offer little or no threat to mainland US and, in my view, could not conduct an effective amphibious assault on Taiwan.

I expect many of you may disagree with my assertions and analysis. If so let me know. I am planning follow-up comments regarding the Ukraine War and President Trump’s understanding of the existing weaknesses of Russia and the Ukraine which will lead to a ceasefire and peace. After that, we can talk about the Chinese fortune cookie threat.

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Essays written by Gary Bowser, a True Believer, sharing his thoughts regarding a wide range of topics based on his life and work experiences. Mr. Bowser is a retired military officer with over 50 years experience in the areas of intelligence and national security. He served two years in Special Operations during the Vietnam conflict. After that, he served overseas as a HUMINT Case Officer and directed a clandestine HUMINT organization as Operations Officer for over six years. Mr. Bowser also has extensive experience in the Washington D.C. arena as a DIA Directorate of Estimates Branch Chief.

You'll find more information about Gary Bowser and his books at www.garybowser.net.

 

LIES ARE TRUTH, Book 3

 

LIES ARE TRUTH, Book 3

Team Peregrine conducted a Top Secret Black operation to protect the United States from a Russian strategic nuclear attack during the Cold War, 1945-1991. The US and USSR could execute strategic attacks with a 'push of a button'. Missiles launched at targets thousands of miles distant delivered nuclear warheads on enemy targets 30 minutes later. The US and the USSR both faced a nuclear apocalypse as each superpower had the capability to annihilate the other as a country and do so in minutes. This horrifying specter of destruction was codified by the term Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD). The US and USSR were both restrained from launching a first attack by the ability of the enemy to launch a counterstrike. The MAD concept was well known by everyone in the US as an ominous threat to our survival as a nation. 

Author Gary Bowser pulls from his years of experience running spies as a Case Officer and director of a clandestine organization to write these action-packed thrillers.

The first Superpower to develop an effective defense system against intercontinental nuclear-warhead tipped missiles would radically alter the MAD balance and dominate the world. The US and Soviet Union were locked in a deadly, highly classified 'secret intelligence war' to find cracks in each other's strategic armor.

Team Peregrine was an elite group of Special Operations counterintelligence personnel and US Air Force Foreign Technology Division Det 3 case officers. These case officers were experts in various high-tech domains. The Det 3 case officers ran spies against the Soviet research program to build a missile defense system. Team Peregrine engaged the KGB at every step to stop the Soviets from building a missile defense system which would give the Communists the leverage to dominate the world.

Even today, much of what happened in that "intelligence war" remains classified. However, with the passage of time, some of the curtain can be pulled back to reveal one of the reasons the US won the Cold War. The Team Peregrine series of books gives a peek behind the curtain about a small group of US military and intelligence warriors who helped the US win the Cold War "intelligence war".

September 19, 2024 LIES ARE TRUTH, book 3 of the Team Peregrine series was published.  Specifically, LIES ARE TRUTH is depicted during the Cold War, the US feared a nuclear apocalypse and a world dominated by the Soviet Union. A group of American spies in Wiesbaden Germany had the mission to stop the Soviets from developing a new weapon to destroy the United States. A fierce intelligence war ensued between the KGB and the US spies in Wiesbaden to decide which nation would win the Cold War. KGB Colonel Rostov, the top KGB assassin, was ordered to kill Commander Gary Baumgartner and his wife Annie who were directing the spy operation in Wiesbaden. Survival of the US hung in the balance. (2024)

 All three of these books are available on Amazon.