The Secret Team
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The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the United States and the World is a book by L. Fletcher Prouty, a former colonel in the US Air Force, first published by Prentice-Hall in 1973.
Publication history
After initial publication in 1973, Prentice-Hall republished The Secret Team in 1992 and 1997. The book was published again in 2008 and 2011 by Skyhorse Publishing, the latter edition including an introduction by Jesse Ventura.<ref>The Secret Team. Simon & Schuster.</ref>
The book was offered for sale by the Church of Scientology through their Freedom magazine, during the time when Prouty was a senior editor of the magazine.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Reception
In Studies in Intelligence, an official journal and flagship publication of the Central Intelligence Agency, Walter Pforzheimer described reading the book as "like trying to push a penny with one's nose through molten fudge".<ref name=pforzheimer>Staff writer. "Book Reviews in Studies: Intelligent Literature About Intelligence Literature." Studies in Intelligence, vol. 49, no. 4, Special Issue: Fifty Years of Studies in Intelligence (2005), p. 4. Published by the Central Intelligence Agency.</ref> Despite what he grants as Prouty's "considerable background and knowledge", he says the book is punctuated by "faulty recollections" and "unwarranted conclusions".<ref name=pforzheimer/> In a later issue, a staff writer provides a retrospective of books reviewed in Studies in Intelligence and wonders aloud "whether word ever got back to [Prouty]".<ref name=pforzheimer/>
Washington Monthly magazine noted that "marvelous anecdotes about the CIA's dirty-trick department are accompanied by a troubling overstatement best suggested by the subtitle, 'The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the United States and the World'".<ref>Staff writer. "Political Book Notes." Review of The Secret Team by L. Fletcher Prouty. Washington Monthly (April 1973), p. 64.</ref>
Assassination researcher and former Office of Strategic Services officer Harold Weisberg was less than enthusiastic about Prouty's book. He was particularly turned off by the claim that Daniel Ellsberg was a CIA agent: "He hemmed and hawed a bit on this when confronted with an unequivocal denial made by E. to Fred Graham and to Prouty by phone. Thus he loses the legitimate point."<ref>Weisberg, Harold. Review of The Secret Team by L. Fletcher Prouty. Harold Weisberg Collection, Hood College (April 2, 1973)</ref>
See also
References
External links
- The Secret Team available for online reading at Open Library
Further reading
- Berlet, Chip. "Populist Party/Liberty Lobby Recruitment of Anti-CIA Critics." Right Woos Left. Political Research Associates, February 22, 1994. Archived from the original.