Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying Audiobook (Free)

Revolutionary War officer Nathan Hale, among America’s initial spies, said, ‘Any kind of service essential to the public great becomes honorable when you are required.’ A statue of Hale stands outside CIA head office, and the agency often cites his statement as one of its guiding principles. But who decides what is necessary for the public good, and could it be really accurate that almost any service is certainly permissible for the general public good?

These questions are at the heart of James M. Olson’s reserve, Good Play: about Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying The Moral Dilemmas of Spying. Olson, a veteran from the CIA’s clandestine program, takes listeners inside the real life of intelligence to describe the difficult dilemmas that field officers face on an daily basis. Definately not being a dried out theoretical treatise, this exciting book uses real intelligence operations to illustrate how murky their moral options could be. Listeners will end up being surprised to discover that the CIA provides very little guidance on what is, or is not, permissible. Rather than empowering field officers, the author offers found that this insufficient guidelines in fact hampers operations. Olson believes that U.S. cleverness officers need clearer moral guidelines to make right, quick decisions.