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Articles by Jonna Mendez
Book Review: "Nuclear War" by Annie Jacobsen
In This Review In This Review In this work of creative nonfiction, Jacobsen urges readers to fear a nuclear war even more than they already do, imagining a terrifying scenario that ends in Armageddon.
Countdown: The Blinding Future of Nuclear Weapons
In This Review In This Review Countdown: The Blinding Future of Nuclear Weapons The west of the United States is home to many of the research and production facilities connected to the U.S. nuclear arsenal, including the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore labs, and also to Scoles, a science journalist living in Colorado who took advantage of her proximity to visit the facilities and talk to the staff.
Cracking the Nazi Code: The Untold Story of Agent A12 and the Solving of the Holocaust Code
In This Review In This Review Cracking the Nazi Code: The Untold Story of Agent A12 and the Solving of the Holocaust Code Until recently, the Canadian academic Winthrop Bell was known largely as a talented philosopher, a student of the German philosopher Edmund Husserl in the early twentieth century. The Canadian journalist Jason Bell (no relation) was curious to learn more and, in the course of his research, chanced on an extraordinary trove of Winthrop’s personal papers.
In True Face: A Woman’s Life in the CIA, Unmasked
In This Review In This Review In True Face: A Woman’s Life in the CIA, Unmasked Mendez’s engaging memoir of her life in the CIA, in which she served from 1966 to 1993, has two main themes. One is familiar: the challenges talented women of her generation faced as they tried to make careers in areas that had traditionally been reserved for men. She joined the CIA as a “contract wife,” given a job so she could travel with her first husband, John, who was already in the agency.
The CIA’s former master of disguise tells her story
The CIA is the world's most famous secret intelligence agency. Its directors, in retirement, write best-selling memoirs. Reporters detail its covert operations when they go wrong, and sometimes when they go right. Scribes like me write history books about the CIA, interviewing spies who have spent their lives undercover.
How Field Work Kept Jonna Mendez Hooked During Her Long Career in the CIA
I’d been told to wait at the airport for an official car to arrive. There were always detailed, specific instructions in case the car was late or didn’t show up at all. Under no circumstance was I, a single, unescorted woman, to get into a “taxi.” That would be “provocative” behavior, marking me as a woman looking for trouble, so instead I sat on an airport bench and waited.
Chatter: Spy Disguises in Fact and Fiction with Jonna Mendez
David Priess is Director of Intelligence at Bedrock Learning, Inc. and a Senior Fellow at the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security. He served during the Clinton and Bush 43 administrations as a CIA officer and has written two books: “The President’s Book of Secrets,” about the top-secret President’s Daily Brief, and "How To Get Rid of a President," describing the ways American presidents have left office.
The Lawfare Podcast Shorts: How Do You Spy When the World is Shut Down?
Published by The Lawfare Institute in Cooperation With Like a marriage, a healthy relationship between an intelligence officer and an asset usually features ample attention and extensive energy. And of course, a lot of time spent with one another. But how do intelligence officers have the necessary face-to face-meetings when going outside is all but forbidden? What about conducting surveillance detection or servicing dead drops on empty streets in the coronavirus era?
How Do You Spy When the World Is Shut Down?
The novel coronavirus presents significant challenges to the mission and operations of every government agency and department—and the Central Intelligence Agency is no exception. In fact, the agency’s intelligence officers now face a more difficult challenge than ever when it comes to their efforts to recruit spies. Normal techniques don’t work under the unique circumstances created by the virus. Bumping up against disaffected foreign diplomats or disgruntled terrorists?
How Do You Spy When the World Is Shut Down?
The novel coronavirus presents significant challenges to the mission and operations of every government agency and department—and the Central Intelligence Agency is no exception. In fact, the agency’s intelligence officers now face a more difficult challenge than ever when it comes to their efforts to recruit spies. Normal techniques don’t work under the unique circumstances created by the virus. Bumping up against disaffected foreign diplomats or disgruntled terrorists?
The Lawfare Podcast: Jonna Mendez on 'The Moscow Rules'
Published by The Lawfare Institute in Cooperation With In the 1950s and 1960s, the Central Intelligence Agency had a major problem. The streets of Moscow were a virtually impossible operating environment due to heavy KGB surveillance and other operational difficulties.
Jonna Mendez - Biography & Interviews
Jonna Mendez is a former Chief of Disguise with over twenty-five years of experience as a CIA officer working in Moscow and other sensitive areas. She participated in a number of training exercises, along with her late husband Tony Mendez, which ultimately led to the codification of the rules. She co-wrote Spy Dust with her husband about their shared experience in Moscow during the twilight of the Cold War.
'The Moscow Rules' By Tony And Jonna Mendez: How The CIA Evaded KGB Security - NPR
When CIA officers walk out of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, they're shadowed by Russian security. A new book examines how they have operated with this ...
How the CIA Used the Illusions of Magicians to Fool the KGB
This excerpt from The Moscow Rules, which I wrote with my husband, Tony Mendez, deals with a daunting technical operation in Moscow undertaken by the CIA with support from our office, Office of Technical Service or OTS, a group often likened to the “Q” of Ian Fleming’s novels. The target was an underground communication line, newly installed, that connected the Krasnaya Pakhra Nuclear Weapons Research Institute to the Soviet Defense Ministry in the city.
THE MOSCOW RULES
Two former CIA agents stationed in Moscow reveal the ins and outs of spycraft. The golden days of the espionage aspect of the Cold War may have been the early 1960s, but the contest was still going strong in the late-’70s, when the Mendezes (Spy Dust, 2002, etc.) were CIA operatives in Moscow. It was a heady and dangerous time, they write, whose closing months, dating into the mid-’80s, were marred by revelations of double agents and the quick dismantling of the CIA’s spy network.
I was chief of disguise at CIA. 'The Americans' got a lot right.
After 27 years in the CIA working on operational assignments around the world, I am somewhat numbed to the fictional espionage that engulfs us - the books and movies and TV shows that always get it wrong. That's why I have largely shunned the genre, barely noting the reviews of the latest creations that celebrate the life of an intelligence officer. "Homeland"? No. The Bourne movies? No. "Alias"?
Mastering the Art of Illusion and Disguise
How far-fetched are James Bond’s gadgets or shows like Mission Impossible, where under-cover agents switch into different disguises? Not as far-fetched as you think. The CIA’s Office of Technical Service (OTS) is in charge of creating all those gadgets and disguises. Jonna Mendez, who spent 27 years at the CIA, eventually became the Chief of Disguise at the OTS.
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