Robert Eringer (born October 5, 1954) is an American author, investigative journalist and private-sector counterintelligence operative. Salon magazine described Eringer as an "obscure journalist" with ties to Clair George, the former deputy director of Operations of the CIA. Eringer freelanced for the FBI's Foreign Counter-Intelligence Division to assist with the apprehension of Edward Lee Howard, an ex-CIA officer who defected to the Soviet Union in 1985. In this ruse, Eringer commissioned Howard to write the Spy's Guide to Central Europe. Eringer describes his assignments for the FBI, which also included keeping tabs on Ira Einhorn, in his book Ruse: Undercover with FBI Counterintelligence (2008).
Career
In 1976, "Bilderberg File: The Men Who Rule the World?" was published in the UK magazine, Verdict, commencing Eringer's journalism career. Research for the book that later followed, The Global Manipulators (1980), led to professional relationship with Dr. Carroll Quigley, the author of Tragedy and Hope (1966), and Eringer sat-in on Quigley's Western Civilizations course at Georgetown University in 1976. In 1978, Eringer completed coursework at the University Southern California (London, UK) in International Relations. The graduate-level program included field-trips to places such as the U.S. Army Russian Institute in Garmisch, Germany, which led to his writing a feature article, "U.S. agents learn ropes at 'school of spies'" (1986), for the Toronto Star. Subsequent undercover journalism led to damaging exposé magazine articles to the Liberty Lobby, "The Force of Willis Carto" was published in Mother Jones and he went undercover to expose Ku Klux Klan (klavern) activity in Europe for The Sunday People.
Controversies
Pottker et al. v Feld et al. As a Washington D. C. based literary agent and book consultant in the 1990s, Eringer found himself working a controversial assignment for Clair George, a former deputy director of Operations of the CIA who was convicted on one count and later pardoned in the Iran-Contra scandal. In 1990, a celebrity journalist, Janice Pottker, published an 11,000 word article about the Feld family in Regardie's magazine. Upon reading, Kenneth Feld (Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus) took umbrage to her portrayal of his parents and hired Clair George as a consultant to mitigate damages that the proposed book might cause the family and business. George in turn, assigned Eringer (1993–95) to distract the author by encouraging her to write about other topics. Pottker suspects that the unauthorized Feld family biography became an untouchable topic in literary circles, but two of Pottker's books, Crisis in Candyland (1995) and Celebrity Washington (1996), were published during this time period.(p3) In 1999, Pottker sued for $60 million, claiming, "invasion of privacy, fraud and infliction of mental distress." Citing ongoing litigation, Feld Entertainment refrained from commenting for the May 4, 2003, 60 Minutes feature and the outcome of Pottker et al. v. Feld et al. appears to be unresolved or sealed as of October 2014. However, Pottker informed the St. Petersberg Times that she has "no plans to write about Feld or Ringling Bros. ever again."
On January 18, 2004, the St. Petersburg Times retrospectively reported that Janice Pottker had filed a complaint against the Feld family, Clair George, and Robert Eringer in 1999, seeking $120 million for invasion of privacy, interference in business relationships, infliction of emotional distress, fraud, conspiracy and breach of contractual obligations. Pottker filed the lawsuit after discovering that Ken Feld and Clair George paid Eringer to "...to steer her away from stories on Feld..." and prevent Pottker's proposed book, "Highwire" an unauthorized biography of Irvin Feld and the Feld family from being published. "I interviewed this man once in 1988, and I feel as if he's been stalking me ever since," Pottker said of Kenneth Feld.
Monaco
Eringer vacationed in the Principality of Monaco throughout the 1980s and wrote Monaco Cool (1992), while living in Monaco for two years (1988–89). He returned to reside in Monaco on behalf of a private intelligence client in 1994 and 1995. In late 1999, Prince Albert II, the hereditary prince, commissioned Eringer for a report on a Monaco-based Russian businessman named Alexey Fedorichev; subsequently, the reigning monarch, Prince Rainier III, declined to allow Fedorichev to invest in ASM, Monaco's football club. While completing ongoing counterintelligence activities for the FBI, Eringer's additional intelligence reports on Russian activities in Monaco led to a full-time retainer on June 16, 2002, as Prince Albert's intelligence adviser.