A must for readers and writers of thrillers:
“A group of researchers at the Center for Applied Criminology at
Birmingham City University in the U.K. has recently analyzed newspaper
articles, court records, and a series of “off-the-record” interviews
with informants “who have, or who had, direct knowledge of contract
killings” in order to construct what they term a “typology” of British
hitmen.” …
“The main thrust of the paper, which will be published in the Howard
Journal of Criminal Justice, is that hitmen do not operate with the
drama, professionalism, or glamour that mob films and spy novels afford
them. In actuality, the majority of killers select jejune settings for
their crimes, have occasionally bumbling performances, and are often
hired by contractors with lame motivations.”
“Here’s the profile of an average British hitman, who seems more
confined by the boxy restraints of reality than the undulating arcs of
fiction:”
“He kills on the cheap. The average asking price was £15,180. It was
£100,000 at the highest level, and a teenager was shafted with £200 at
the low end.” …
“The weapon of choice was a firearm.” …
“Most of the killers were working on first-time contracts, meaning
there weren’t many long-distance snipers taking shots from towers.” …
READ MORE: http://www.psmag.com/navigation/politics-and-law/how-hitmen-operate-73430/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+miller-mccune%2Fmain_feed+%28Pacific+Standard+-+Main+Feed%29
Showing posts with label Thrillers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thrillers. Show all posts
25/03/2013
Agents of Change - Jesuits and Liberation Theology
The people and the revolution that sent tremors through the United States and the Vatican:
The 1960s sparked revolutionary changes that swept the secular and religious world. At the forefront of the battle for a new – better – world was the most powerful Catholic Order.
Progressive Jesuit priests started a movement that would turn the archaic religious institution into the leading force for change, and in the process put them at odds with the United States.
These Agents of Change saw the need to do away with antiquated political and banking systems, with murderous military-industrial complexes, and flawed educational systems.
They became the biggest threat to U.S. interests...
Inspiration and Historical Context:
http://www.spywriter.com/aoc/index.html
SpyWriter Jack King: Agents of Change,
The 1960s sparked revolutionary changes that swept the secular and religious world. At the forefront of the battle for a new – better – world was the most powerful Catholic Order.
Progressive Jesuit priests started a movement that would turn the archaic religious institution into the leading force for change, and in the process put them at odds with the United States.
These Agents of Change saw the need to do away with antiquated political and banking systems, with murderous military-industrial complexes, and flawed educational systems.
They became the biggest threat to U.S. interests...
Inspiration and Historical Context:
http://www.spywriter.com/aoc/index.html
SpyWriter Jack King: Agents of Change,
27/09/2012
Dissolvable espionage
Imagine spy devices that dissolve completely into nothingness...
"The technology, which will be announced in a paper this week in Science, is called transient electronics or resorbable electronics. These systems work until they are no longer needed, at which point they dissolve completely away—the dissolution triggered by ordinary water in their operating environment. ...
It's not hard to imagine the uses of small electronic devices that vanish without a trace when exposed to water. Disappearing sensors and other spy gear could be air-dropped or strategically embedded in hostile environments with no one the wiser. ...
The work is being funded in part by DARPA, the Defense Department's mad science arm, which sees a range of applications. To no one's surprise, though, those uses are classified."I can't get into those details," he tells PM." Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/breakthroughs/transient-electronics-could-dissolve-inside-your-body-13098637?click=pm_latest
The spies can't tell you what their plans are, but this thriller writer can - a spy device based on the above concept is used by characters in my latest novel THE BLACK VAULT: http://www.spywriter.com/tbv/index.html
END OF POST
"The technology, which will be announced in a paper this week in Science, is called transient electronics or resorbable electronics. These systems work until they are no longer needed, at which point they dissolve completely away—the dissolution triggered by ordinary water in their operating environment. ...
It's not hard to imagine the uses of small electronic devices that vanish without a trace when exposed to water. Disappearing sensors and other spy gear could be air-dropped or strategically embedded in hostile environments with no one the wiser. ...
The work is being funded in part by DARPA, the Defense Department's mad science arm, which sees a range of applications. To no one's surprise, though, those uses are classified."I can't get into those details," he tells PM." Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/breakthroughs/transient-electronics-could-dissolve-inside-your-body-13098637?click=pm_latest
The spies can't tell you what their plans are, but this thriller writer can - a spy device based on the above concept is used by characters in my latest novel THE BLACK VAULT: http://www.spywriter.com/tbv/index.html
END OF POST
18/06/2012
The Black Vault
THE BLACK VAULT is any spy agency's most prized possession - those dirty and unaccountable funds that provide operational freedom outside of governmental scrutiny. They fund black operations - the stuff too dirty for any government to admit to.
How is the black vault funded, and what purpose does it serve?
"In the past, the CIA has been implicated in numerous scandals involving drug and weapons trafficking. From Vietnam and Iran to Latin America, the agency has repeatedly been caught importing narcotics and exporting arms for shadowy and subversive purposes."
"Citing an unnamed CIA source, a Washington Times article theorizes that U.S. officials were actively aiding organizations such as the Sinaloa cartel with guns and immunity in an effort to stymie Los Zetas. That’s because, according to the piece, the powerful and brutal criminal Zetas syndicate has the potential to overthrow the government of Mexico — and might be planning to do so."
Source: http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-mainmenu-26/north-america-mainmenu-36/8599-reports-cia-working-with-mexican-drug-cartels
What are black operations? What is the Black Vault? How is The Black Vault used? This, and more, in Jack King's new thriller novel: THE BLACK VAULT
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The black vault"]
[/caption]
### END OF POST ###
www.SPYWRITER.com
How is the black vault funded, and what purpose does it serve?
"In the past, the CIA has been implicated in numerous scandals involving drug and weapons trafficking. From Vietnam and Iran to Latin America, the agency has repeatedly been caught importing narcotics and exporting arms for shadowy and subversive purposes."
"Citing an unnamed CIA source, a Washington Times article theorizes that U.S. officials were actively aiding organizations such as the Sinaloa cartel with guns and immunity in an effort to stymie Los Zetas. That’s because, according to the piece, the powerful and brutal criminal Zetas syndicate has the potential to overthrow the government of Mexico — and might be planning to do so."
Source: http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-mainmenu-26/north-america-mainmenu-36/8599-reports-cia-working-with-mexican-drug-cartels
What are black operations? What is the Black Vault? How is The Black Vault used? This, and more, in Jack King's new thriller novel: THE BLACK VAULT
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The black vault"]
[/caption]### END OF POST ###
www.SPYWRITER.com
16/12/2011
WikiJustice: WikiLeaks meets The Assassination Bureau, Ltd.
A friend of mine once asked, "What would Jack London do with his thriller, The Assassination Bureau. Ltd., had he lived in the beginning of the 21st century?"
Jack London wrote a thriller? I was stumped. So I rushed to my local library to read it. "The Assassination Bureau, Ltd.", is an unfinished novel by Jack London, later completed by Robert L. Fish. The idea of an agency devoted to "extirpating" socially detrimental characters was fascinating, alas, the novel left an unsatisfactory feeling in my reading taste.
My friend's question has haunted me for over a year, when at last world events set a spark in my writerly imagination. What, indeed, if a novelist set out to write a thriller in a similar vein, in the age of WikiLeaks, the Occupy Movement, and the general discontent with the World Order, that we witness today?
In the age of crowdsourcing - a collaboration of countless minds from across boundaries - the idea of a single person (Ivan Dragomiloff in London's novel) deciding arbitrarily who ought to be assassinated ("extirpated"), seemed incompatible. A collaborative effort, on the other hand, was much more alluring.
It was, thus, natural that in the time of social networking the people should decide who is detrimental for the wellbeing of society.
WikiJustice was born.
Jack London wrote a thriller? I was stumped. So I rushed to my local library to read it. "The Assassination Bureau, Ltd.", is an unfinished novel by Jack London, later completed by Robert L. Fish. The idea of an agency devoted to "extirpating" socially detrimental characters was fascinating, alas, the novel left an unsatisfactory feeling in my reading taste.
My friend's question has haunted me for over a year, when at last world events set a spark in my writerly imagination. What, indeed, if a novelist set out to write a thriller in a similar vein, in the age of WikiLeaks, the Occupy Movement, and the general discontent with the World Order, that we witness today?
In the age of crowdsourcing - a collaboration of countless minds from across boundaries - the idea of a single person (Ivan Dragomiloff in London's novel) deciding arbitrarily who ought to be assassinated ("extirpated"), seemed incompatible. A collaborative effort, on the other hand, was much more alluring.
It was, thus, natural that in the time of social networking the people should decide who is detrimental for the wellbeing of society.
WikiJustice was born.
25/10/2011
WikiLeaks is dying. WikiJustice is born.
WikiLeaks may cease to exists because there is no way to support it financially (though not for the lack of will among the 99-percenters).
"The shutting down of the WikiLeaks website due to financial problems is unfortunate, even though it had become almost inevitable that its end was nigh. Organisations such as Mastercard, Visa, Western Union and PayPal, though not directly funding WikiLeaks, were effective channels for those who wanted to donate to it from across the world. Once they withdrew support, the donations dried up and the website ran out of cash, after which staying afloat was a struggle. Though no one will officially admit it, the connection between these organisations’ refusal to allow donations to go through them and the United States government’s displeasure at disclosures made by WikiLeaks is too blatant to be ignored." source
How is it possible that no channel exists in the entire world by which a person could support WikiLeaks? It's because of what you always suspected: a handful of companies control the entire financial / economic system:
"The work, to be published in PLoS One, revealed a core of 1318 companies with interlocking ownerships (see image). Each of the 1318 had ties to two or more other companies, and on average they were connected to 20. What's more, although they represented 20 per cent of global operating revenues, the 1318 appeared to collectively own through their shares the majority of the world's large blue chip and manufacturing firms - the "real" economy - representing a further 60 per cent of global revenues.
When the team further untangled the web of ownership, it found much of it tracked back to a "super-entity" of 147 even more tightly knit companies - all of their ownership was held by other members of the super-entity - that controlled 40 per cent of the total wealth in the network. "In effect, less than 1 per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network," says Glattfelder. Most were financial institutions." source
Do not despair! WikiLeaks may suspend its operations, perhaps even cease to exist, but WIKIJUSTICE will set things straight:
"The shutting down of the WikiLeaks website due to financial problems is unfortunate, even though it had become almost inevitable that its end was nigh. Organisations such as Mastercard, Visa, Western Union and PayPal, though not directly funding WikiLeaks, were effective channels for those who wanted to donate to it from across the world. Once they withdrew support, the donations dried up and the website ran out of cash, after which staying afloat was a struggle. Though no one will officially admit it, the connection between these organisations’ refusal to allow donations to go through them and the United States government’s displeasure at disclosures made by WikiLeaks is too blatant to be ignored." source
How is it possible that no channel exists in the entire world by which a person could support WikiLeaks? It's because of what you always suspected: a handful of companies control the entire financial / economic system:
"The work, to be published in PLoS One, revealed a core of 1318 companies with interlocking ownerships (see image). Each of the 1318 had ties to two or more other companies, and on average they were connected to 20. What's more, although they represented 20 per cent of global operating revenues, the 1318 appeared to collectively own through their shares the majority of the world's large blue chip and manufacturing firms - the "real" economy - representing a further 60 per cent of global revenues.
When the team further untangled the web of ownership, it found much of it tracked back to a "super-entity" of 147 even more tightly knit companies - all of their ownership was held by other members of the super-entity - that controlled 40 per cent of the total wealth in the network. "In effect, less than 1 per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network," says Glattfelder. Most were financial institutions." source
Do not despair! WikiLeaks may suspend its operations, perhaps even cease to exist, but WIKIJUSTICE will set things straight:
09/09/2011
Top British Spies
"British spies are back this month. Of course they never went away. The shadowy world of MI5 and MI6 is rarely more than a microdot's distance from everyday life, especially if you live in London, the world capital of the surveillance state, and mise en scene for the popular BBC drama, Spooks. It's tempting to confuse spy fiction with real life, especially as its traditions and antecedents are so mixed up with the history of the secret state in the 20th century. But there is a difference, and here's one guide to the nine lives of the British spy, from the beginning of the 20th century – arguably, the source of the modern spy story – to the present:"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/sep/08/master-spy-novelists
Where thriller writers find Inspiration
The answer is, naturally, life. Imagination plays a role, to be sure, but life provides the necessary inspiration to fill the pages with intrigue, conspiracy, corruption, backroom-dealing, and all that, which delivers the necessary thrills to keep the book pages turning:
"Dear Editor,
I think the American government has gone rogue and no longer follows the will of the people. There is no reliable independent oversight of the CIA or the National Security Agency. The telephone switching systems are run by Israeli companies with direct ties to Mossad, who intercepts calls and intelligence, and Congress does nothing.
Presidents use lies to initiate wars, and Congress does nothing.
The U.S. engages in a so-called war on drugs for 40 years, spending more than what was spent on World War II with the result being more drugs, more citizens in jail, the U.S. arming drug gangs, the U.S. being invaded by those gangs, and nothing done about it. Drug money is laundered by the biggest banks, funding clandestine programs, and used to buy off police, enforcement agents, and politicians. The real solution is decriminalization, regulation, tax, and treatment. If we did that, all drug violence and crime would end. Politicians, banks, intelligence agencies, and enforcement agencies don't want that because they are making too much money off the drug war and will fight tooth and nail to keep it going.
The so-called war on terror is an unending war on an abstract idea that is impossible to "win" as the number of things called "terror" increase at officials' whims. It is not a coordinated activity by a shadowy group, unless you are talking about the CIA, which created al Qaeda. The so-called "terror events" are staged by our intelligence services in coordination with the media to scare the public and ram through unconstitutional laws that take away our liberty.
All the airport "security measures" are theatre used to intimidate and scare the public, reducing us to submissive concentration camp slaves to have the most intimate parts of our persons and our loved ones radiated and groped. And the criminal congress-persons go along with it. Too much money is being made to end it, and it is one more step to control and a police state.
Our politicians are part of this cabal of control. We all need to wake up and take action before it gets any worse. Speak up. Push back. We still have freedoms, and we need to use them before this horrid police state goes any further."
Source: http://www.austinchronicle.com/postmarks/2011-07-12/1215604/
19/08/2011
How to restore profits in America
Worried about the state of the economy? You're not the only one. Others worried before you, and they had a plan... Here's a piece that sends chills for its resemblance to current affairs:
"In 1934 a special Congressional committee was appointed to conduct an investigation of a possible planned coup intended to topple the administration of president Franklin D. Roosevelt and replace it with a government modelled on the policies of Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
The Congressional committee had discovered that some of the foremost members of the economic elite, many of them household names at the time, had indeed hatched a meticulously detailed and massively funded plot to effect a fascist coup in America. The owners of Bird's Eye, Maxwell House and Heinz, among others, totaling about twenty four major businessmen and Wall Street financiers, planned to assemble a private army of half a million men, composed largely of unemployed veterans. These troops would both constitute the armed force behind the coup and defeat any resistance this in-house revolution might generate. The economic elite would provide the material resources required to sustain the new government.
The plotters hoped that widespread working-class discouragement at the stubborn persistence of the Great Depression would have sufficiently disenchanted the masses with FDR's policies to make the coup an easy ride. And they were appalled at Roosevelt's willingness after 1933 to initiate economic policies that economists and businessmen considered dangerously Leftist departures from economic orthodoxy. Only a fascist-style government, they thought, could enforce the kind of economic 'discipline' that would reverse the Great Depression and restore profits."
Source: CommonDreams, August 2, 2007
Stand by for Jack King's suspense novel that was inspired by the above events: www.spywriter.com
22/01/2009
What is truth serum?
Here's an article on "truth serum":
A must read for some thriller writers, who far too often rely on "truth serums" to leap forward a story.
The only way that interrogators can tap a man's memory is to ask him. But what if the person is unwilling to spill the beans or, at least, the real ones? If only there were only a way to plug a USB cable to the back of Kasab's head and just download the experiences.
While such technology may be the stuff of science fiction, Indian government officials have announced they will employ another technique that seems to leap from the pages of a 1940s pulp novel: truth serum. Also known as narcoanalysis, administering psychoactive drugs for interrogation purposes has been around for just under a century, but it has been viewed with skepticism from the start. Indeed, the practice is banned in most democracies, and evidence obtained from such an interrogation would have a hard time making it into an American court.
What does the term "truth serum" mean?
That's a term that was used to describe the use of certain drugs, most commonly barbiturates like sodium amytal and sodium pentothal, to try to extract truthful statements from people about their past experiences. What the term really meant was that the people who used the serum believed that it made people unable to censor themselves and they would just empty their memories into a narrative statement.
A must read for some thriller writers, who far too often rely on "truth serums" to leap forward a story.
20/03/2008
The Net
Four years ago I published The Fifth Internationale. The novel dealt with the aftermath of the transformation of intelligence and security agencies of the former Eastern Bloc following the events of 1989 / 1991.
In the 1990s the subject seemed a taboo. That's no surprise given that most of the channels responsible for the funneling of information were owned, financed or controlled by operatives of former secret police.
Well, today one does not need a novel to find out what happened, not that it was ever a secret. Recently RZ published an article which summarizes the transformation very nicely: as the old wisdom goes - power is everything. During commie times the system of oppression guaranteed power, after 1989 the road to power was called money. The first step was to cover tracks - Party and intel files burned for weeks. Then the communists became entrepreneurs: the biggest fortunes were built on money channeled from Party accounts. Banks, mass media, privatized former state owned companies, and their branches in the West were headed and staffed by intelligence operatives, secret police officers, their agents, and Party officials... Officers charged with confiscated private property during communist times were now running businesses that helped rightful owners reclaim their property, for a fee of course...
How was it all possible, how could this be permitted? The very same way it works everywhere else: intel / security agencies' existence in changing times is guaranteed by agents they run. Self preservation, regardless of changes within the administration, is the number 1 concern of any intel agency. Measure of a successful intel agency is its ability to survive and thrive no matter who fancies themselves to be in charge: the System changed in the Eastern Bloc but the net of agents (former revolutionaries / underground opposition) remained and many of them hold key offices in the governments of their respective countries.
In the 1990s the subject seemed a taboo. That's no surprise given that most of the channels responsible for the funneling of information were owned, financed or controlled by operatives of former secret police.
Well, today one does not need a novel to find out what happened, not that it was ever a secret. Recently RZ published an article which summarizes the transformation very nicely: as the old wisdom goes - power is everything. During commie times the system of oppression guaranteed power, after 1989 the road to power was called money. The first step was to cover tracks - Party and intel files burned for weeks. Then the communists became entrepreneurs: the biggest fortunes were built on money channeled from Party accounts. Banks, mass media, privatized former state owned companies, and their branches in the West were headed and staffed by intelligence operatives, secret police officers, their agents, and Party officials... Officers charged with confiscated private property during communist times were now running businesses that helped rightful owners reclaim their property, for a fee of course...
How was it all possible, how could this be permitted? The very same way it works everywhere else: intel / security agencies' existence in changing times is guaranteed by agents they run. Self preservation, regardless of changes within the administration, is the number 1 concern of any intel agency. Measure of a successful intel agency is its ability to survive and thrive no matter who fancies themselves to be in charge: the System changed in the Eastern Bloc but the net of agents (former revolutionaries / underground opposition) remained and many of them hold key offices in the governments of their respective countries.
23/03/2007
Literary Agent representing thrillers, suspense, espionage and mystery
Jake Elwell, formerly of Wieser and Elwell, moved to Harold Ober Literary Agency.
This makes Harold Ober yet another agency representing thrillers / mystery / suspense / espionage. (CLICK TO SEE HUNDREDS MORE)
Sometimes you only get one chance, so be VERY careful before you approach an agent or an editor, do not make the same mistakes I made when I tried to publish my first novel. Learn from my mistakes and become a published author!
This makes Harold Ober yet another agency representing thrillers / mystery / suspense / espionage. (CLICK TO SEE HUNDREDS MORE)
Sometimes you only get one chance, so be VERY careful before you approach an agent or an editor, do not make the same mistakes I made when I tried to publish my first novel. Learn from my mistakes and become a published author!
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