No, this is not about rendition and black sites. Instead, it's a campy, fun look at a recently found for-real manual that the CIA commissioned in the '50s to train secret agents by using magic tricks.

"Stage magician John Mulholland wrote this pair of manuals for the CIA in the early 1950s. All copies were believed to have been destroyed, though stories of the sleight of hand and secret communication documents have carried down through the decades. One copy of each manual were discovered though, and now declassified, appear here in print. It's an interesting book for both the stage magic and the history of CIA spycraft folks. Though the cover makes it clear that they figure the market will be from those interested in the CIA "trickery and deception."

It's not as exciting as a James Bond version would be, unless you can put the movies and fiction aside and feel the thrill of the real deal. These manuals were written to help CIA case officers pass documents to agents without notice, or to hold-out hide small objects. The real nuts and bolts of espionage. Makes sense to go to the magicians who do that sort of thing daily, though with lower consequences of failure.

Anyway, it's an odd glimpse into the CIA's past, before electronics and email intercepts, before senate investigations, and with the looming threat of the Cold War a very real part of the story. I enjoyed it."

***

Buy more progressive premiums to support BuzzFlash progressive news and commentary (we accept no advertising, corporate or otherwise to maintain our complete independence) by going to The BuzzFlash Progressive Marketplace.