Counterintelligence Training

Our flagship counterintelligence course; taught since January 1995 to thousands of Intelligence Community personnel.

This course focuses on the evolution of the legal, organizational and ethical aspects of counterintelligence and security over the past 100 years.

It is designed to increase the number of personnel who have a broad and current understanding of the development of the counterintelligence discipline in the US.

We highlight the historical consequences of ignoring counterintelligence and the strategic importance of a robust national CI program.

We examine the period from 1916-1954, including intelligence collection by and US the response to the German IIIB during WWI, the enactment in 1917 of The Espionage Act, and Japanese and Nazi espionage before and during WWII.

A comprehensive examination is made of the nexus between communism and Soviet espionage during the period the USSR was our “ally.” We examine in-depth a number of the 235 spies exposed by VENONA, highlighting the deep penetration of the OSS, and later the impact on CIA/FBI relationships and the political and government response and lack of response to the truth of espionage.

We examine the ethical implications of doing it “wrong” with a detailed discussion of the Angleton era and its impact on the CIA covering the period 1954 to 1974. A detailed analytical case study of the widely held myth of “The False Defector” and asset validation is included to challenge the student’s ability to evaluate the key concept that CI is the “art of the probable, not the art of the possible.”

The course includes a detailed examination of the the Ames case and concludes with a discussion of CI today.