Three Minutes to Doomsday : An Agent, a Traitor, and the Worst Espionage Breach in U. S. History

An intense cat-and-mouse game played between two brilliant men in the last days of the Cold War, this shocking insider's story shows how a massive giveaway of secret war plans and nuclear secrets threatened America with annihilation. In 1988 Joe Navarro, one of the youngest agents ever hired by the FBI, was dividing his time between SWAT assignments, flying air reconnaissance, and working counter-intelligence. But his real expertise was "reading" body language. He possessed an uncanny ability to glean the thoughts of those he interrogated. So it was that, on a routine assignment to interview a "person of interest"—a former American soldier named Rod Ramsay—Navarro noticed his interviewee's hand trembling slightly when he was asked about another soldier who had recently been arrested in Germany on suspicion of espionage. That thin lead was enough for the FBI agent to insist to his bosses that an investigation be opened. What followed is unique in the annals of espionage detection—a two-year-long battle of wits. The dueling antagonists: an FBI agent who couldn't overtly tip to his target that he suspected him of wrongdoing lest he clam up, and a traitor whose weakness was the enjoyment he derived from sparring with his inquisitor. Navarro's job was made even more difficult by his adversary's brilliance: not only did Ramsay possess an authentic photographic memory as well as the second highest IQ ever recorded by the US Army, he was bored by people who couldn't match his erudition. To ensure that the information flow would continue, Navarro had to pre-choreograph every interview, becoming a chess master plotting twenty moves in advance. And the backdrop to this mental tug of war was the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the very real possibility that its leaders, in a last bid to alter the course of history, might launch a devastating attack. If they did, they would have Ramsay to thank, because as Navarro would learn over the course of forty-two mind-bending interviews, Ramsay had, by his stunning intelligence giveaways, handed the Soviets the ability to utterly destroy the US. The story of a determined hero who pushed himself to jaw-dropping levels of exhaustion and who rallied his team to expose undreamed of vulnerabilities in America's defense, Three Minutes to Doomsday will leave the reader with disturbing thoughts of the risks the country takes even today with its most protected national secrets. It is 1988 and Florida-based FBI agent Joe Navarro divides his time between SWAT assignments, flying air reconnaissance, and working counter-intelligence. A body-language expert with an uncanny ability to "read" those he interrogates, Navarro is known as super-intense - an agent whose work ethic quickly burns out partners. He craves an assignment that will get him noticed by the FBI top brass but then again, as he'll come to learn: be careful what you wish for ... It was while on a routine assignment - interviewing a 'person of interest', a former US soldier named Rod Ramsay with links to another soldier, Clyde Conrad, recently arrested in Germany as a traitor - that Navarro thought he smelled a rat. He noticed a tic in Ramsay's hand when Conrad's name was mentioned. Not a lot to go on, but enough for Navarro to insist that an investigation be opened. What followed was extraordinary - and unique in the annals of espionage detection - a game of cat-and-mouse played at the highest level: on one side, an FBI agent who must not reveal that he suspects his target; on the other, a traitor, a seller of his country's secrets, whose weakness is the thrill he gets from sparring with his inquisitor. To prise from Ramsay the full extent of the damage he had wrought, Navarro had to pre-choreograph every interview because Ramsay was exceptionally intelligent, with the second highest IQ ever recorded by the U.S. Army. It would become an interrogation that literally pitted genius against genius - a battle of wits fought against one of the most turbulent periods of the 20th century - the demise and eventual collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union - and the very real possibility that Russia's leaders, in a last desperate bid to alter history's trajectory, might engage in all-out war. As Navarro was to learn over the course of nearly fifty exhausting and mind-bending interviews and interrogations, Ramsay had handed the Soviets the knowledge needed to destroy America and its western allies ... In Three Minutes to Doomsday, Joe Navarro tells this extraordinary story for the first time - a story of the exposure and breaking of one of the most damaging espionage rings in US history whose treachery threatened the entire world 1 online resource (xiv, 349 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates) : This edge-of-your-seat memoir from former FBI agent Joe Navarro reveals the shocking, inside details of how he spearheaded a 1980s investigation into a colossal espionage breach that would have left the US defenseless in a Soviet attack Includes index "Subject Ramsay was naked ..." -- Lifestyle issues -- Tired and wired -- Clarifications and evasions -- Triumph and despair -- Work-arounds -- Taking stock -- My year in the desert -- She-moody -- The education of Navarro -- Smartest guy in the room -- This changes everything? -- Cognitive dissonance -- "Something's got to give" -- First date -- Josef Schneider Plaza #4 -- Holy shit! -- French cuffs and suspenders -- Inside the antenna farm -- Multiple choice -- Up close and personal -- Places, everyone! -- "Does Joe Navarro know about this?" -- Staying alive Print version record