Melissa Boyle Mahle
{{Short description|Writer and former CIA officer}}
{{Infobox spy
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Melissa Boyle Mahle
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| allegiance =United States
| service =United States-Central Intelligence Agency
| serviceyears = 1980s-2000s
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| nationality = American
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| occupation = former intelligence officer, movie consultant non-fiction author, co-founder of SpyGirls Press
| alma_mater = University of California, Berkeley
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Melissa Boyle Mahle is a writer and former Central Intelligence Agency officer.
Background
She graduated from University of California, Berkeley and went on to acquire fluency in Arabic.
{{cite news
| url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7714-2005Jan13.html
| title = Spy-Turned-Author Looks Back At a CIA Mired in Bureaucracy
| first = Steve
| last = Coll
| newspaper = Washington Post
| date = 13 January 2005}}
Asked how she became a spy, Mahle told a group of high school students in 2017 that she had never entertained having a career in intelligence work until, one day, while living in the Middle East and working as an archaeologist, she realized that she didn't "want to spend the rest of [her] life in a ditch." She returned to the United States to pursue "a graduate degree in modern political economy, and ... was spotted by a CIA recuiter.""[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q43R4rRphiI Meet A Spy: Melissa Mahle]" (video). Washington, DC: International Spy Museum, March 3, 2017.
Covert career
Mahle worked as a CIA "field officer" (spy) for the CIA from the mid-1980s until 2002 in the Middle East. She was involved in US intelligence operations in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa, including the oversight of operations against al-Qaeda and networks involved in the sale of weapons of mass destruction."Meet A Spy: Melissa Mahle" (video), International Spy Museum, March 3, 2017. Her service spanned the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and to the beginning of George W. Bush.
{{cite web
| title = Melissa Boyle Mahle
| publisher = Amazon
| url = https://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Boyle-Mahle/e/B001K8T5FM/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
| date =
| accessdate = 14 May 2016}}
=Awards and honors=
Public career
Since leaving the CIA, Mahle has worked as a commentator, movie consultant, author, and publisher.
In 2004, after leaving the CIA, Mahle published Denial and Deception, in which she criticized in detail the CIA as rudderless and adrift in a post-Cold War world up to 9/11. She also described the challenges of being a married woman field agent (in a covert career that overlapped with Valerie Plame).
{{cite web
| title = Books
| publisher = Melissa Boyle Mahle
| url = http://www.melissaboylemahle.com/#!books/cee5
| date =
| accessdate = 14 May 2016}}
She appeared as a guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in 2005. For the documentary Secrecy in 2008, which opened at the Sundance Film Festival, she featured in and advised filmmakers Peter Galison and Robb Moss on practices within the Intelligence Community. For the film Salt (2010), she advised actors Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, and Chiwetel Ejiofor on their as well as director Phillip Noyce on script and visuals. For the film Hanna (2011), she advised actress Cate Blanchett on her role and director Joe Wright on script.
{{cite web
| title = Melissa Boyle Mahle
| publisher = Comedy Central
| url = http://www.cc.com/video-clips/f13v0d/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-melissa-boyle-mahle
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160623165236/http://www.cc.com/video-clips/f13v0d/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-melissa-boyle-mahle
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = June 23, 2016
| date = 7 March 2005
{{cite web
| url = https://www.wired.com/2010/07/salt/
| publisher = Wired
| title = Salt
{{cite web
| title = Film and Television
| publisher = Melissa Boyle Mahle
| url = http://www.melissaboylemahle.com/#!film-and-television/cg5v
| date =
| accessdate = 14 May 2016}}
She often speaks at the International Spy Museum, particularly youth programs.
{{cite web
| title = Events
| publisher = Melissa Boyle Mahle
| url = http://www.melissaboylemahle.com/#!events/psdvb
| date =
{{cite web
| title = Melissa Boyle Mahle
| publisher = International Spy Museum
| url = http://www.spymuseum.org/host-an-event/spy-speaker-series/melissa-boyle-mahle/
| date =
| accessdate = 14 May 2016}}
She co-founded Spy Girls Press with Kathryn Dennis.
{{cite web
| title = About
| publisher = Spy Girls Press
| url = http://www.spygirlspress.com/#!about-us/c57s
| date =
| accessdate = 14 May 2016}}
Selected works
- Denial and Deception: An Insider’s View of the CIA from Iran-Contra to 9/11 (The Nation Press, 2004) [http://www.spymuseum.org/host-an-event/spy-speaker-series/melissa-boyle-mahle/ Spy Museum Profile]
- Lost in Petra - Anatolia Steppe Mystery, Book 1) (Spy Girls Press, 2012)
- Camp Secret - Junior Spies, Volume 1 (Spy Girls Press, 2013)
- Uncovered in Istanbul - Anatolia Steppe Mystery, Volume 2 (Spy Girls Press, 2014)
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Portal|Children's literature}}
- [http://www.melissaboylemahle.com/ Melissa Boyle Mahle site]
- [http://www.spygirlspress.com/ Spy Girls Press site]
- "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boyGigccHKc Mother, Daughter, Sister, Spy]" (video of panel discussion about women in the intelligence community). Washington, DC: International Spy Museum, January 6, 2017.
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahle, Melissa Boyle}}
Category:20th-century American women
Category:21st-century American women writers
Category:20th-century United States government officials
Category:People of the Central Intelligence Agency