Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying. By James M. Olson.
The Corporate Spy: Industrial Espionage and Counterintelligence inthe Multinational Enterprise with Case Studies (Abridged Version) by Edward M. Roche

Ahn, Jeffrey

Bechtel, Bart

English

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Journal of Strategic
Security
Volume 1
Number 1 Volume 1, No. 1: November
2008
Article 7
Book Reviews
Bart Bechtel
CTC International Group Ltd
Jeffrey Ahn
Defense Logistics Agency Pacific
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Recommended Citation
Bechtel, Bart and Ahn, Jeffrey. "Book Reviews." Journal of Strategic
Security 1, no. 1 (2010) : 77-80.
DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.5038/1944-0472.1.1.7
Available at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/jss/vol1/iss1/7
Book Reviews
Author Biography
Bart Bechtel is a veteran CIA officer with over twenty years of
experience. He teaches courses in surveillance, counter surveillance,
counterintelligence, professional ethics and threat assessment. Mr.
Bechtel served as a clandestine operations/counterintelligence officer on
deep cover assignments. He is a threat/vulnerability assessor,
counterterrorism & surveillance detection instructor. Mr. Bechtel has
broad experience in conducting analytical antiterrorism assessments
using quantitative methodologies for calculating vulnerabilities and risk
associated with terrorist and criminal threats. Mr. Bechtel has taught
extensively. He was a lead instructor for the US State Department's anti-
terrorism Surveillance Detection (SD) Team Training Program under
contract with SAIC. He trained SD teams in Croatia, Bosnia, Albania,
Macedonia, and Mexico. Previously, Mr. Bechtel was a primary instructor
in Terrorist/Criminal Threat Recognition, Observation Skills and
Surveillance Detection for the Washoe County, Nevada Sheriff's Citizen
Homeland Security Council. He is also a member of the Association of
Former Intelligence Officers. Mr. Bechtel received his BA in History from
Monterey Institute of International Studies in 1972 and a MS in
Intelligence Management from Henley- Putnam University. He is also a
licensed private investigator in Florida and is the Director of Operations
and Training for CTC International Group Ltd of West Palm Beach, FL.
Jeff Ahn, MS, a retired special agent from the U.S. Army is currently
working as a security manager for the Defense Logistics Agency,
handling all facets of security disciplines. Jeff is an adjunct faculty
member at three universities teaching criminal justice courses with a
concentration on computer crime and technology. Jeff is a participating
member of the University and Agency Partnership Initiative (UAPI),
which is a national network of homeland security educational programs
sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security.
Abstract
Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying. By James M. Olson.
The Corporate Spy: Industrial Espionage and Counterintelligence inthe
Multinational Enterprise with Case Studies (Abridged Version) by
Edward M. Roche.
This book review is available in Journal of Strategic Security:
https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/jss/vol1/iss1/7
77
Book Reviews
Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying. By James M. Olson. Dulles, 
VA. Potomac Books, Inc. 2006. ISBN: 1-57488-949-4. Bibliographic Ref-
erence, Endnotes and Index. Pp. xi, 291. $28.95.
Reviewed by Bart Bechtel
It was no surprise to me that James (Jim) Olson wrote Fair Play: The 
Moral Dilemmas of Spying. During his 30-plus years' tenure at the CIA, 
he never backed away from addressing difficult or contentious issues. 
During his storied career as an Operations and Counterintelligence 
Officer, like all conscientious officers, Jim Olson wrestled with ethical and 
moral alligators regularly. To do otherwise is not his nature. Fair Play 
makes a much-needed contribution to the intelligence profession by illus-
trating many of the questions found in what many in society consider an 
oxymoron—intelligence ethics. I know Jim Olson as fellow (albeit senior) 
Operations and Counterintelligence Officer and now fellow educator. 
Though I never worked directly with or for him, it was easy to like and 
respect Jim for his dedication, professionalism, and judgment. He was the 
type of officer for whom others wanted to work. Having followed not too 
distantly on the famed "road less traveled" Jim remains an inspirational 
mentor through his deeds and teaching.
Some readers will find Mr. Olson's book enlightening. Others may be dis-
appointed that it does not contain resolutions to the dilemmas, presented 
as fifty hypothetical scenarios and offered up to an array of commentators 
who were asked to answer the question, "Would it be moral if…?" In 
answer to the question, commentators were to give a 'yes' or 'no' answer, 
along with their reasoning. At the end of each scenario, the author pro-
vides his comments. Resolving the dilemmas was not the purpose of Fair 
Play. Rather, it was to illuminate the dilemmas faced by intelligence offic-
ers in real life. Readers will need to find their own resolutions.
Critics may complain that Mr. Olson should have selected commentators 
from a larger cross-section of professions and society. However, I found 
those chosen to sufficiently demonstrate a broad spectrum of opinions on 
each question. I would challenge those critics to present their own sets of 
dilemmas and commentators from arenas they feel should have been 
Bechtel and Ahn: Book Reviews
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2010
Journal of Strategic Security
78
included. One will see rapidly while reading the scenarios and responses 
that there may never be any one answer. While many consider ethics and 
morality to be the dictates of society, one eventually learns that it becomes 
individual and influenced by time and circumstance. Would Mr. Olson's 
respondents have answered differently before September 11, 2001 or dur-
ing World War II?
Readers will appreciate Mr. Olson's far too brief and modest sketch of his 
career and service, shared by his supportive wife Meredith. This summary 
is nevertheless enhanced with the Notes toward the end of the book. 
Beyond the primary subject matter, Fair Play offers Mr. Olson's anno-
tated list of intelligence books he would want if he were starting his career 
all over today. Some practitioners and students of intelligence may differ 
with Mr. Olson's choices, but the nonprofessional will definitely have a 
launching pad for their education.
About the Reviewer
Bart Bechtel is a veteran CIA officer with over twenty years of experience. 
He teaches courses in surveillance, counter surveillance, counterintelli-
gence, professional ethics and threat assessment. Mr. Bechtel served as a 
clandestine operations/counterintelligence officer on deep cover assign-
ments. He is a threat/vulnerability assessor, counterterrorism & surveil-
lance detection instructor. Mr. Bechtel has broad experience in 
conducting analytical antiterrorism assessments using quantitative meth-
odologies for calculating vulnerabilities and risk associated with terrorist 
and criminal threats. Mr. Bechtel has taught extensively. He was a lead 
instructor for the US State Department's anti-terrorism Surveillance 
Detection (SD) Team Training Program under contract with SAIC. He 
trained SD teams in Croatia, Bosnia, Albania, Macedonia, and Mexico. 
Previously, Mr. Bechtel was a primary instructor in Terrorist/Criminal 
Threat Recognition, Observation Skills and Surveillance Detection for the 
Washoe County, Nevada Sheriff's Citizen Homeland Security Council. He 
is also a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. Mr. 
Bechtel received his BA in History from Monterey Institute of Interna-
tional Studies in 1972 and a MS in Intelligence Management from Henley-
Putnam University. He is also a licensed private investigator in Florida 
and is the Director of Operations and Training for CTC International 
Group Ltd of West Palm Beach, FL.
Journal of Strategic Security, Vol. 1, No. 1
https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/jss/vol1/iss1/7
DOI: <p>http://dx.doi.org/10.5038/1944-0472.1.1.7</p>
Book Reviews
79
The Corporate Spy: Industrial Espionage and Counterintelligence in 
the Multinational Enterprise with Case Studies (Abridged Version) by 
Edward M. Roche. New York: Barraclough, Ltd. 2007. ISBN 978-0-615-
20608-0. Charts. Photographs. Glossary. Notes. Sources cited. Index. 413 
pages. $53.95.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Ahn
Not a single day goes by that we don't hear something about the issue of 
homeland security. It is obvious we are serious about protecting our lives 
and properties, especially since the 9-11 attack. When asked by students 
about the "best" book on homeland security, it is extremely difficult to 
locate just "one" from a plethora of homeland security-related materials. 
As an example, Edward Roche's book, The Corporate Spy, highlights the 
specialized topic of industrial espionage. Roche is the Director of Scien-
tific Intelligence at Barraclough Ltd., New York. He was educated at The 
Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and Columbia 
University in the City of New York. He is a member of the Intelligence and 
National Security Alliance (INSA), a member of the Association for Intel-
ligence Officers (AFIO) and InfraGard. He maintains an Intelink Intelli-
pedia page on Economic Espionage. Roche has consulted as an expert 
adviser to the United Nations Mission to Kenya, and to numerous multi-
national corporations. He served as primary investigator for the ODNI 
Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) in a forecasting 
study on the application of virtual worlds to next generation intelligence 
analysis and teaches courses at Henley-Putnam University.
Roche suggests solutions to combat industrial espionage via detection and 
identification of perpetrators, which is the main focus in his book. He 
illustrates many examples of detection and identification methods, such 
as Richard Heuer's approach in analysis. Furthermore, he asserts that les-
sons learned from classical government espionage and security breach 
cases can be adapted to protect many different types of entities. He sup-
ports his assertions—within legal bounds governing the use of collected 
data and publicly available information—by presenting case studies of 
Richard Sorge, Chi Mak, Coca-Cola, Ferrari, Hewlett-Packard, and others. 
Only a few of the cases are well known, and it would have been helpful if 
more of them had been explained more in detail.
Roche candidly confesses challenges in researching the intelligence com-
munity for corporate and state espionage with scanty materials. He tries 
to provide readers with analyzed information to convince them of the sig-
nificance and necessity for survival in our highly-competitive global busi-
Bechtel and Ahn: Book Reviews
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2010
Journal of Strategic Security
80
ness world. Abundance of previous cases and in-depth analysis of 
methods and results identified in each business spy case place his work 
squarely in the business intelligence category. The book is an excellent 
source with three distinct purposes. First, it provides general readers with 
intuitive awareness in industrial espionage. Second, it supplies introduc-
tory pedagogic materials for students in intelligence, counterintelligence, 
and protection fields. Lastly, some obvious typographical and punctua-
tion errors notwithstanding, portions of the historical research materials 
the author uses throughout the book can easily be turned into training 
materials for entities wanting to train employees on how to defend them-
selves from adversaries. The structure and organization of the book 
makes it very suitable as a textbook for college courses and security pro-
fessionals, but the lack of narrative form may limit its attractiveness for 
other readers, particularly business or general readers. There are many 
required and recommended reading materials for business executives or 
managers, and now this book can be added to their library to enhance 
knowledge of how to fight industrial espionage and protect themselves.
About the Author
Jeff Ahn, MS, a retired special agent from the U.S. Army is currently 
working as a security manager for the Defense Logistics Agency, handling 
all facets of security disciplines. Jeff is an adjunct faculty member at three 
universities teaching criminal justice courses with a concentration on 
computer crime and technology. Jeff is a participating member of the 
University and Agency Partnership Initiative (UAPI), which is a national 
network of homeland security educational programs sponsored by the 
Department of Homeland Security.
Journal of Strategic Security, Vol. 1, No. 1
https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/jss/vol1/iss1/7
DOI: <p>http://dx.doi.org/10.5038/1944-0472.1.1.7</p>


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