Alan Simon spent almost 30 years as an operations officer in the CIA, many of them as Chief of Station. During those years, he engaged in a wide variety of clandestine and covert operations in many different parts of the world. For another 10 years, Mr. Simon served as a consultant to the CIA, both as a tradecraft trainer and as a supervisor of counter-terrorist operations in the CIA Counter Terrorist Center. Currently, he works as a consultant on intelligence matters. Mr. Simon is the author of three espionage thrillers, "To Live among Wolves", "Wolf Trap" and "The Chimera Legion". Mr. Simon's blog site is www.onetimespook.blogspot.com. He regrets having permitted the blog to lapse but promises to reawaken the site shortly with his commentaries on the world of international politics and other dirty practices.