Carlos D. Luria
In its approach to Intelligence, America is unique: it hungers for the product; disdains its methods – but tolerates them when it feels threatened. That love/hate relationship is mirrored in CIA’s uneven performance: it achieves some brilliant successes – and suffers some abysmal failures. Carlos Luria was steeped in that process for 29 years.
He was born and raised in Germany, educated in England and America, and recruited by CIA’s Clandestine Service as the nation geared up to meet the Soviet threat. His field and Headquarters tours gave him an unvarnished view of both the strengths and weaknesses of America’s approach to Intelligence. As an insider, he saw at first hand what worked and what didn’t, and the lessons are as valid today as they were during the Cold War. They form the basis of his talks.
Carlos was awarded the Career Intelligence Medal, but chose early retirement when his first wife developed cancer. The couple was avid about sailing, bought a 37’ sloop and explored the Caribbean and the South Atlantic for 3 ½ years until she died. The loss of his second wife, also to cancer, spurred him to write a memoir, Skating on the Edge, in part an ode to his wives, and in part a chronicle of his CIA years. The respected quarterly journal, Studies in Intelligence, praised it as a “balanced, honest, first-hand account of life in CIA; definitely worth reading.” The book’s royalties are all donated to charity.
Appalled by the transformation that occurred when America became the world’s only super-power, abandoned its moral compass and panicked on 9/11, Carlos began to speak out. No major, industrial nation, he argues, can survive without timely and accurate information, but a democracy must obtain such intelligence without trashing its core values – too grossly. The terrorist, he insists, can be defeated, but by brains rather than by brawn. With candor and with humor, his multi-media presentations explore the challenges and their solutions.In its approach to Intelligence, America is unique: it hungers for the product; disdains its methods – but tolerates them when it feels threatened. That love/hate relationship is mirrored in CIA’s uneven performance: it achieves some brilliant successes – and suffers some abysmal failures. Carlos Luria was steeped in that process for 29 years.
He was born and raised in Germany, educated in England and America, and recruited by CIA’s Clandestine Service as the nation geared up to meet the Soviet threat. His field and Headquarters tours gave him an unvarnished view of both the strengths and weaknesses of America’s approach to Intelligence. As an insider, he saw at first hand what worked and what didn’t, and the lessons are as valid today as they were during the Cold War. They form the basis of his talks.
Carlos was awarded the Career Intelligence Medal, but chose early retirement when his first wife developed cancer. The couple was avid about sailing, bought a 37’ sloop and explored the Caribbean and the South Atlantic for 3 ½ years until she died. The loss of his second wife, also to cancer, spurred him to write a memoir, Skating on the Edge, in part an ode to his wives, and in part a chronicle of his CIA years. The respected quarterly journal, Studies in Intelligence, praised it as a “balanced, honest, first-hand account of life in CIA; definitely worth reading.” The book’s royalties are all donated to charity.
Appalled by the transformation that occurred when America became the world’s only super-power, abandoned its moral compass and panicked on 9/11, Carlos began to speak out. No major, industrial nation, he argues, can survive without timely and accurate information, but a democracy must obtain such intelligence without trashing its core values – too grossly. The terrorist, he insists, can be defeated, but by brains rather than by brawn. With candor and with humor, his multi-media presentations explore the challenges and their solutions.