Overview
For nearly ten years beginning in 1993, Robert Eringer lived a clandestine life of intrigue, conducting a spectrum of covert operations for the FBI’s foreign counterintelligence division. His primary assignment: to lure American traitor Edward Lee Howard to capture. About to be arrested by the FBI for spying for Moscow, CIA officer Howard defected to the Soviet Union in 1985. But then he wanted to tell his story to the world. Utilizing cover as a book publishing consultant, the author gained Howard’s trust as his editor and confidant. As Eringer’s skillfully orchestrated ruse progressed, he pierced not only Howard’s inner circle of KGB cronies—including the KGB’s former chairman, making him an unwitting intelligence asset—but also Howard’s Cuban intelligence contact network in Havana. Only at the eleventh hour did a highly politicized Justice Department order Howard’s “extraordinary rendition” scrapped; he died mysteriously under ominous circumstances in Moscow in 2002. Nonetheless, the secrets Eringer gathered shed light on such sensitive espionage cases as the treachery of senior CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames and FBI traitor Robert Hanssen. In addition to his counter-espionage docket, Eringer undertook assignments for the FBI’s criminal division, including a ruse he devised to hasten the extradition from France of notorious convicted murderer Ira Einhorn. Ruse tells the unknown side of a significant piece of U.S. intelligence history, an unvarnished insider’s view of the FBI between the end of the Cold War and the events of 9/11.
Editorials
From the Publisher
“…fast-paced, absorbing, and a must-read for anyone with an interest in espionage.”“Like juicy tales you hear from someone sitting at a seedy bar on a lazy afternoon…Its plot as intriguing as a James Bond movie and its style as straightforward as journalism.”
"In Ruse, a self-described 'maverick freelancer' who worked nearly a decade for FBI counterintelligence has spun an irreverent and timely tale of international intrigue and deception. Robert Eringer's adventuresinclude his unsuccessful attempt to lure CIA defector Edward Lee Howard out of Moscow to face American justice. Instead, he encounters a dysfunctional federal bureaucracy that fails to act before Howard dies—or was killed—in Vladimir Putin's Russia. It's a story that Eringer suggests holds some intelligence lessons for September 11, 2001."
"Ruse encompasses both the unique mind-set of intelligence officers and their lexicon. Eringer's true-life account offers first-hand insights into their communication, thought process, and terminology. Truly an insider's book!"