Just ask Kristie Macrakis. The Washington Times ran a recent story on a books about spying in the era of the Iron Curtain — both sides, in fact. On the East German side, they discuss Seduced by Secrets.

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Joe Goulden

Meanwhile, a third of the world away, the East German spy agency, STASI - formally the Ministry for State Security, or MfS - put together its own tradecraft treasure chest. It was different from CIA in one cardinal respect: much of STASI’s spying was directed at its own citizens, rather than foreign adversaries. Hard and thorough research by Kristie Macrakis isreflected in Seduced by Secrets (Cambridge University Press, $28, 392 pages). Ms. Macrakis teaches espionage at Michigan State University.

Drawing upon declassified documents seized from STASI files (it is now defunct) and interviews with former officers, Ms. Macrakis has produced a first-rate read. The East Germans, predictably, were especially adept with concealed spy cameras - a carved wooden deer grazing in a field, bird houses, a flowerpot. She gives her book a personalistic twist with portraits of former STASI officers.

Perhaps the most interesting - surely the most colorful - of these characters was Werner Stiller, who defected to West Germany and exposed a raft of STASI spies. He told Ms. Macrakis that CIA paid him $250,000 for a debriefing in which he fingered agents in the United States.

Thereafter, he womanized his way through Europe, working for spells at the banking houses of Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs. Ms. Macrakis found him in Hungary, where he ran clothing stores with a girlfriend and drank “a bottle of red wine every night.” He avoids former STASI friends, who consider him still under a death sentence, the demise of East Germany notwithstanding.

Read the full story here!

As the spy world celebrates the birthday the noted author, Ian Fleming of the James Bond series, spy-tech historian Kristie Macrakis reflects on his role in bringing the world of spies and their gadgets to the masses.

With enthusiasm and trepidation I taught a new seminar on the Technology of Bond, James Bond several years ago. While planning the course I imagined my colleagues whispering in the corridors “she’s up to no good again.”

When I started teaching intelligence history as background for my last book, the stodgiest colleagues scoffed, but later relented as the field became more accepted.

But what my students really wanted was a course on James Bond. And so did I. Why not study how James Bond conquered the world and our imagination? Comparing fact with fiction proved to be fun and educational.

Read the rest of this entry »

Goodness, it’s Monday already. The sky is gray here at Cambridge Americas, and the office is quiet. But I’m in high spirits, because we have some itty-bitty spy toys to showcase today. Kristie Macrakis, what do we have here?

It’s Mini Monday!

Spies can conceal cameras in many places, not just bras.

This is a “microdot” camera with a remote release.

It’s about as big as my thumbnail, you can catch a glimpse of it on the cover of Seduced by Secrets.

Just to fully convey the teensyness, have a look at this:

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What a cool-looking old cigarette case. The brand is “Ernte 23.”

It looks straight out of James Bond. Wait until you see what’s inside of this one:

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This is an exquisitely crafted, and very expensive Swiss-made Tessina Wristwatch Camera. It fits very nicely into that cigarette case, and looks very Dick Tracy! Click the image to zoom in and see the full detail–all of the controls are there.

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Seduced by Secrets chronicles the Stasi, their culture, and the gadgets they produced. Kristie Macrakis is visiting professor at Harvard University and professor at Michigan State University.

Good morning, everyone. Feeling tired? On your third cup of coffee? I am. What better pick-me-up than one of the Stasi’s most ludicrous investigative methods, and one of their more amusing gadgets? Yes, it’s time to join Kristie Macrakis for another Spy-Tech Monday.

This week: Taboo — Hide the Children!

…and you wondered why the book is called Seduced by Secrets. They say that necessity is the mother of invention. This bra hides an F 21 Soviet observation camera. Spies could wear this under a light summer dress without it being noticed.

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These yellow dust cloths stuffed in jam jars became synonymous with Stasi perversity. They had shelves and shelves of these things, and collected them by discreetly dusting personal objects of suspects. It seems downright disturbing that they’d keep such things, but it had a weird purpose. Called “Smell Science,” the items were said to contain the unique body odor of the person in question, and were used to track people with dogs. Fortunately for the rest of us, they didn’t work too well.

It’s that time again. Kristie Macrakis, author of Seduced by Secrets, unveils some more Stasi spy gadgetry.

The Stasi had a way about them. They loved their toys. As Macrakis argues, this obsession was part of their own undoing — rather than performing their duties as an intelligence agency, they focused on hoarding secrets and spy-gear.

This week:

Too bad they don’t conceal the harmful effects of smoking!

During the Cold War a lot of spy paraphernalia was related to smoking. When I visited Mr. Regenhardt at the Criminal Evidence Collection, he handed me this ashtray and told me to open it. I twisted and turned and nothing happened. Feeling foolish I handed it back to him and, like a wizard, he took out a pin and pricked a hole and the ashtray popped open to reveal this next image:

…the open ashtray with a Minox camera inside.

Here’s another number, well several numbers in fact. This desktop lighter comes apart, concealing a cypher.

Come back next Monday for more Stasi gizmos, assuming my computer isn’t wiped clean by rogue agents.