Odyssey of an Eavesdropper; My Life in Electronic Countermeasures and My Battle Against the FBI
New York, N.Y. Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2005. First Carroll & Graf edition [stated]. First printing [stated]. Hardcover. xxi, [3], 312 pages. Includes Introduction, Prologue, Appendix, Glossary of Terms, Endnotes, Acknowledgments, Index, and About the Authors. Chapters include The Early Years, The New King of Electronic Countermeasures, Trial by Fire, and The Road Ahead. This is the personal story of the American intelligence community's top countersurveillance expert, regarded as the "Michelangelo of Electronic Surveillance," whose mastery of eavesdropping devices made him the inspiration for the landmark film The Conversation. Martin Kaiser is a legend within the nation's covert electronic surveillance fraternity. With a hot-wired transmitter the size of a pea, Kaiser built devices that could bring down a government, prevent a terrorist attack, or provide blackmail to smear an American Civil Rights leader. In Odyssey of an Eavesdropper, he steps from the shadows of national security to tell his own story-a journey from a coal-mining town to icon status in the black ops world of U.S. spy operations as the premier producer of electronic surveillance gadgets and dirty tricks, and then his battle for professional survival with the FBI bent on his destruction. Kaiser's clients included the FBI, the CIA, DEA, Secret Service, Army, Navy and Air Force Intelligence, as well as foreign intelligence services. As a result of his testimony before the National Wiretap Commission in 1975, the FBI began a vendetta against Kaiser, resulting in his indictment on charge of illegal wiretapping, conspiracy and transporting an illegal eavesdropping device across state lines. Acquitted of all charges and having reinvented himself, Kaiser tells his tale. More