Raelynn Hillhouse
Encyclopedia
Raelynn Hillhouse is an American
national security
and Intelligence Community
analyst, former smuggler during the Cold War
, and a spy novelist.
and was a professor
of political science at the University of Hawaii
. She is a founding member of the International Thriller Writers
.
When living as a student in Europe, she claims to have engaged in the black market between East and West, running Cuban rum, smuggling jewels from the Soviet Union
and laundering East Bloc currencies. She claims to have been recruited by the East German secret police, the Stasi
, and by the Libyan Intelligence Service. Some sources assert that she was an American intelligence officer
, but Hillhouse denies this.
Hillhouse studied in Central and Eastern Europe
for over six years at various institutions including Moscow State University
, Moscow Finance Institute, Humboldt University of Berlin
, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen
(Germany
) and Babes-Bolyai University (Cluj
, Romania). She earned her undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis
and her MA in Russian and East European Studies as well as her Ph.D.
in political science from the University of Michigan
.
Hillhouse was born in the Ozarks and currently lives in Hawaii
.
granted her an exclusive interview. In June 2007, Hillhouse discovered the US national Intelligence Community budget metadata in a declassified PowerPoint presentation released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
On August 7, 2011 Hillhouse published an account of Osama bin Laden's death
on her blog that suggested Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI) had been sheltering bin Laden in return for Saudi cash and that he was betrayed by a Pakistani intelligence officer.
. The American Booksellers Association
Book Sense program selected it as one of the best books of 2004 and Library Journal
named it one of the year's most promising debuts. Her second novel, Outsourced (2007) is a political thriller about the outsourcing
of the CIA and Pentagon
and the turf wars between the two agencies.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
national security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
and Intelligence Community
Intelligence community
Intelligence community may refer to* Bangladeshi intelligence community* Croatian intelligence community * Israeli intelligence community* Italian intelligence community, see SISMI...
analyst, former smuggler during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, and a spy novelist.
Personal history
Hillhouse taught at the University of MichiganUniversity of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
and was a professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of political science at the University of Hawaii
University of Hawaii
The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...
. She is a founding member of the International Thriller Writers
International Thriller Writers
International Thriller Writers, Inc., was founded October 9, 2004, at a meeting at Bouchercon World Mystery and Suspense Conference in Toronto, Canada. Six months later, some 150 authors with more than one billion books sold worldwide had joined the organization as founding members.Co-founders...
.
When living as a student in Europe, she claims to have engaged in the black market between East and West, running Cuban rum, smuggling jewels from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and laundering East Bloc currencies. She claims to have been recruited by the East German secret police, the Stasi
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
, and by the Libyan Intelligence Service. Some sources assert that she was an American intelligence officer
Intelligence officer
An intelligence officer is a person employed by an organization to collect, compile and/or analyze information which is of use to that organization...
, but Hillhouse denies this.
Hillhouse studied in Central and Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
for over six years at various institutions including Moscow State University
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
, Moscow Finance Institute, Humboldt University of Berlin
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...
, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen
Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen
Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen is a public university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of Germany's oldest universities, internationally noted in medicine, natural sciences and the humanities. In the area of German Studies it has been ranked first among...
(Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
) and Babes-Bolyai University (Cluj
Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...
, Romania). She earned her undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...
and her MA in Russian and East European Studies as well as her Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in political science from the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
.
Hillhouse was born in the Ozarks and currently lives in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
.
Blog
Hillhouse writes a national security blog which was featured in the New York Times Week in Review after the head of the private military corporation Blackwater USABlackwater USA
Xe Services LLC, better known by its former names, Blackwater USA and Blackwater Worldwide, is a private military company founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark.. Xe is currently the largest of the U.S. State Department's three private security contractors...
granted her an exclusive interview. In June 2007, Hillhouse discovered the US national Intelligence Community budget metadata in a declassified PowerPoint presentation released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
On August 7, 2011 Hillhouse published an account of Osama bin Laden's death
Death of Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden, then head of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, shortly after 1 a.m. local time by a United States special forces military unit....
on her blog that suggested Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence
Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...
(ISI) had been sheltering bin Laden in return for Saudi cash and that he was betrayed by a Pakistani intelligence officer.
Articles
She has also published stories on national security in the Washington Post and the Nation. In the controversial Washington Post article, Hillhouse wrote that "the private spy industry has succeeded where no foreign government has: It has penetrated the CIA and is running the show." In the Nation article, Hillhouse revealed that private companies are heavily involved in the nation’s most important and most sensitive national security document — the President’s Daily Brief.- “The Government Can Find You.” The New York Times, 7 August 2007.
- “Outsourcing Intelligence.” The Nation, 31 July 2007.
- “Who Runs the CIA?” Washington Post, Sunday op-ed. 8 July 2007.
- “A Security Contractor Defends His Team, Which, He Says, Is Not a Private Army.” The New York Times, 29 April 2007.
- "Communist Politics and Sexual Dissidents. Social Movements in Eastern Europe." Sexual Minorities and Society: The Changing Attitudes toward Sexuality in 20th Century Europe. Tallinn: Estonian Academy of Sciences, 1991.
- "Out of the Closet behind the Wall: Sexual Politics and Social Change in the GDR." Slavic Review, 49:4 (Winter 1990), 585-96.
Government response
Hillhouse's controversial articles have twice elicited a response from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence -- the only times the office of the nation's chief spy has ever publicly responded to the writings of a private citizen.Books
Hillhouse's debut novel, Rift Zone (2004), is a spy thriller about a female smuggler who becomes entangled in an East German plot to stop the fall of the Berlin WallBerlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
. The American Booksellers Association
American Booksellers Association
The American Booksellers Association is a non-profit industryassociation founded in 1900 that promotes independent bookstores in the United States and Canada. The ABA and its members support freedom of speech, literacy, and programs that encourage reading...
Book Sense program selected it as one of the best books of 2004 and Library Journal
Library Journal
Library Journal is a trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey . It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional practice...
named it one of the year's most promising debuts. Her second novel, Outsourced (2007) is a political thriller about the outsourcing
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the process of contracting a business function to someone else.-Overview:The term outsourcing is used inconsistently but usually involves the contracting out of a business function - commonly one previously performed in-house - to an external provider...
of the CIA and Pentagon
Pentagon
In geometry, a pentagon is any five-sided polygon. A pentagon may be simple or self-intersecting. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagram is an example of a self-intersecting pentagon.- Regular pentagons :In a regular pentagon, all sides are equal in length and...
and the turf wars between the two agencies.
- Outsourced. New York: Forge Books, 2007.
- (Audio). Blackstone Audiobooks, 2007.
- (Italian). Mondadori, 2008.
- (Dutch). Uitgeverij Luitingh, 2008.
- “Diplomatic Constraints.” Thriller. Ed. by James Patterson. New York: Mira Books, 2006.
- “I knew Julius No. Julius No was a friend of mine. Osama, you are no Dr. No.—An open letter to bin Laden from James Bond’s Greatest Villains.” James Bond in the 21st Century: Why We Still Need 007. Dallas: BenBella Books, 2006.
- “Secret Agent Chick.” This is Chick-Lit. Ed. by Lauren Baratz-Logsted. Dallas: BenBella Books, 2006.
- Rift Zone. Forge Books: New York, 2004.
- (Mass market paperback) Forge Books: New York, 2005.
- (Russian translation, Шпионка по случаю), St. Petersburg: Alpharet, 2006.
- "East Germany--Lothar DeMaizière," Leaders of Nations. Lansdale [Penn.]: Current Leaders Publishing Co., 1990.
- "A Reevaluation of Soviet Policy in Central Europe: The Soviet Union and the Occupation of Austria." Eastern European Politics and Societies, 3:1 (1989), 83-104.
Further reading
- Nolan, Tom (May 18, 2004). "Women Writers Infiltrate the Realm of Spy Novels." The Wall Street Journal, p. D10.
- (Sept. 6, 2004). "Last Gasp!" People, p. 60.
- Dick Adler (August 22, 2004). "Smugglers, Spies, Killers and More." Chicago Tribune.
- Eugene Weber (Oct. 17, 2004). "Freedom, Fire and Ire." Los Angeles Times, part R, p. 9.
External links
- Official website
- The Spy Who Billed Me, National Security blog
- An online video interview with Hillhouse about her smuggling background