# World War One Topics--Espionage **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 22, 2024, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-one-topics-espionage/1006025 "2024-08-22T03:13:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-one-topics-espionage/1006025/1 "2024-08-22T03:13:52Z")
My memory fails me, & my Google-Fu has fizzled. During World War One, the US created an essentially all-amateur security & counterintelligence force that was 100% Civilian, & utterly useless. Bully-boys, who wound up abusing people with German last names. What was the name of this organization? After World War One, a German spy, who operated in the US wrote a tell-all titled “Dark SOMETHING-OR-OTHER”. I cannot recall the “something-or-other”, nor the Author’s name. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-one-topics-espionage/1006025/2 "2024-08-22T03:19:48Z")
To your second, it’s: > **[Franz von Rintelen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_von_Rintelen)** > > Captain Franz Dagobert Johannes von Rintelen (19 August 1878 – 30 May 1949) was a member of the German nobility and a veteran field agent in the intelligence wing of the German Imperial Navy who operated covertly in the still-neutral United States during World War I. > Captain von Rintelen came from a banking family with good connections in American banking since he had served with Deutsche Bank as well as acting as U.S. representative for Disconto-Gesellschaft, then Germany's second-largest bank... _The Dark Invader_ ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-one-topics-espionage/1006025/3 "2024-08-22T03:49:46Z")
It wasn’t civilian, but could you be thinking of the [Corps of Intelligence Police](https://www.army.mil/article/182075/february_1918_wwi_counterintelligence_agents_get_their_man)? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-one-topics-espionage/1006025/4 "2024-08-22T04:39:07Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > During World War One, the US created an essentially all-amateur security & counterintelligence force that was 100% Civilian, & utterly useless. Bully-boys, who wound up abusing people with German last names. What was the name of this organization? The American Protective League. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-one-topics-espionage/1006025/5 "2024-08-22T15:43:18Z")
My thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-one-topics-espionage/1006025/6 "2024-08-22T15:43:50Z")
No, but thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-one-topics-espionage/1006025/7 "2024-08-22T15:44:26Z")
Bingo. Much thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-one-topics-espionage/1006025/8 "2024-08-22T16:14:41Z")
NYPD Detective Tom Tunney’s bomb squad did some good anti-espionage work during WWI. Their most famous exploit came when a squad member was tailing German commercial attache Heinrich Albert, who was involved in financing sabotage using a $30 million slush fund. Albert fell asleep while riding the subway one day, and almost missed his stop, jumping up and out of the car but forgetting his briefcase, which the tailing agent stole and got away with after a fruitless pursuit by Albert. Documents from the briefcase which revealed an astonishing level of German espionage against the U.S. got widely publicized, and the hapless Albert became known as the “minister without portfolio”. 🤣 It’s one of the stories told in Howard Blum’s book about German spying and sabotage efforts against the U.S. in WWI, “Dark Invasion”. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-one-topics-espionage/1006025/9 "2024-08-22T16:32:02Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > It’s one of the stories told in Howard Blum’s book about German spying and sabotage efforts against the U.S. in WWI, “Dark Invasion”. Just don’t get confused like I once did and mix up Howard Blum and Howard Bloom. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-one-topics-espionage/1006025/10 "2024-08-22T17:59:58Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Bingo. > Much thanks! Hey, I’m just glad I was able to uncover the truth as a civilian amateur who gets badmouthed by his German-last-named ex.