So where’s the truth here? I sure as hell don’t know. All I can do is guess, just like you.

On the very next page, Tretyakov is quoted. “As a people, you (Americans) are very naïve about Russia and its intentions. You believe because the Soviet Union no longer exists, Russia now is your friend. It isn’t, and I can show how the SVR is trying to destroy the U.S. even today and even more than the KGB did during the Cold War.” That is the Gospel according to Saint Tretyakov, and you can assuredly take it to the bank.

Tretyakov goes on to give up the SVR, the old KGB, family jewels about a number of UN officials who were in Russia’s pocket, and some who still are. He names a few Canadians who were regular sources of Comrade J, and who’ve never been outed. He clears up some anomalies that U.S. intelligence has wondered about, but never able to pin down. He was a double agent for several years before he defected, turning over thousands of SVR Top Secret cables, the highest classification possible, and hundreds of SVR reports, also Top Secret. He relates how and when a Russian spy inside the UN siphoned off as much as a half-billion dollars meant for starving Iraqi women and children before Saddam’s fall, and was given an award for it by Vladimir Putin, because he lined quite a few pockets, including possibly Putin’s, in the process.

In addition, Tretyakov tells how the USSR had once intended to rid itself of nuclear and chemical waste by taking them to a remote Arctic island and destroying them by setting off a nuclear bomb. (!!) He tells how some people had given the businessman who was arranging this disposal a nuclear weapon, because they couldn’t pay him. And he tells how all of this was endorsed by the Kremlin. I could go on for another couple of paragraphs, but I urge you to read Untold Secrets for yourself. Some of you will say I told you so. Others will be amazed. And some of you may feel bound to do something about it.

Gripes. Earley makes a couple of minor mistakes, for instance incorrectly saying that the KGB and SVR always called their operatives intelligence “officers,” while the CIA called theirs intelligence “agents.” [CIA operatives are called officers; the people who spy for them are called agents.] He also leaves a few gaps in parts of his narrative which leave the reader guessing as to the outcome. I can excuse the minor mistakes, since Earley was first a reporter, then an author, and not necessarily knowledgeable about intelligence. The holes in the story, however, should have been addressed, either by him or his editor. Many didn’t seem to be germane to Tretyakov’s story, for the most part, so I can see how they could have been overlooked. But since they were brought up, they should have been seen through, or readers should have been told they’re unanswerable, at least for now. Many of them look like they could have been cleared up with as little as an additional sentence or two.