The CIA director is missing: A realpolitik international thriller

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Chris Knowles's latest is The Cambridge Incident. — Photos courtesy of Chris Knowles

The Cambridge Incident, by Chris Knowles; paperback, 162 pages, 2013 from Publish America. Available in print at $19.95 fromwww.tiac.net/~cknowles/ and online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble, or by special order through bookstores.

Island resident Chris Knowles uses his background in the Washington intelligence community and his later experience in military intelligence to offer readers insight into the unseen world of national intelligence and shifting international political alliances.

In his five novels to date, Mr. Knowles makes the case that we are onlookers, often seeing what we are meant to see. Realpolitik is carried out in shadowy silence by the national-intelligence and black-ops players du jour. The Cambridge Incident is the story of the abduction of Beth Edelman, CIA director, off the streets of Cambridge following an appearance at Harvard University.

Mr. Knowles has retired from a lengthy career in the medical-care industry following service in U.S. Air Force intelligence during the Vietnam War. Prior novels include looks at Northern Ireland in the 1970s and a murder mystery during the Cuban missile crisis.

Mr. Knowles’ approach is appealing to us in part because we know by now that we never get the whole story from government, and we are thirsty for insights into the process of international spookery.

And we get them in The Cambridge Incident. Ms. Edelman is the first woman and foreign-born CIA director. An Israeli citizen by birth, she has boots-on-the-ground understanding of the Mideast miasma. Snatching a high-profile person under CIA security protection off Brattle Street requires planning and split-second timing that only professionals bring to an operation. But whose professionals, and why the abduction? Who is motivated enough to incur the wrath of U.S. might by the act?

The meat of the intelligence aspect of the story begins. Tom Halloran, CIA in Washington, and Vince Petrillo, CIA on the ground in Cambridge, working with FBI, begin tracking the UPS van that cut Ms. Edelman off from her security, killing an agent in the kidnapping.

The trail leads them to Martha’s Vineyard, where the abductors, after multiple vehicle switches and a boat ride, have used the airport here to fly Ms. Edelman out of the U.S. to parts unknown. When the plane leaves U.S. airspace, it enters CIA jurisdiction, and CIA human-intelligence specialists Peter Kent and Sam McAdams in Washington, D.C., get the assignment.

Their human intelligence (HUMINT) work unlocks the mystery and makes one of Mr. Knowles’ central points: The development of communication intelligence (COMINT) and signals intelligence (SIGINT) have overshadowed the importance of human intelligence in the shadow world of intelligence-gathering.

In a telephone interview last week, Mr. Knowles explained his belief: “Sept. 11 was the ultimate demonstration that we are too dependent on techno intelligence. Looking back in time, the strength of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor agency to the CIA, was boots on the ground and understanding the thought process going on in the minds of enemies. We’ve been so focused on the techno-intelligence tools that human-intel capabilities have atrophied, and we can’t reverse that, like turning on a dime,” he said.

“We need better knowledge of languages and the ability to think with the minds of potential enemies. Can 9/11 happen again? I make no assumptions about that because the players change — now ISIS is in the public view — but the fact of matter is that different forms of attack exist. I make no assumptions that enemies of the U.S. have made their mark. The definition of terrorism includes acts that change the way we live and act. I don’t see 9/11 as a one-off at all. It was simply one group’s action in what is a very fluid situation,” he said.

We don’t reveal plot endings in these reviews, but it is the failure of COMINT and SIGINT methodology that leads to an ending with implications that are frightening to consider. For example, the unraveling of the abduction leads us to a connection with Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

Mr. Knowles takes pains to include a segment of a transcript of a presentation by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the U.N. General Assembly in 2012 that explained the scope and progress of Iran’s nuclear-capability work. In a subsequent interview with an NBC correspondent on Face the Nation on July 14, 2013, Mr. Netanyahu said Iran was only a few months away from crossing “the red line” of nuclear capability that Israel would not allow them to cross.

What’s happening now? “I’ve looked for information but I haven’t heard anything in the press about [Iran’s nuclear status] for six months. Our attention is being directed to ISIS,” he said.

Hmm.

Mr. Knowles reveals no state secrets in his novels. He cannot. But he can, and does, lift the veil enough so that we can understand the game more clearly, shedding some light for us on a very dark business.