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funyuns_the_movie's review
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Pedophilia, Homophobia, and War
feoh's review against another edition
5.0
I have read a bunch of books on spying and intelligence agencies over the years.
Most of their authors allowed themselves the luxury of blurring the line between plainly observable / provable facts and wild flights of fanciful conjecture.
This book is a refreshing change in that and other regards.
[a: Patrick Radden Keefe|197852|Patrick Radden Keefe|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1538163619p2/197852.jpg] does an excellent job sketching in both broad and detailed strokes exactly what we do know about agencies like the NSA and their counterparts in the UK, AU and NZ and plainly states what we don't.
I'm also quite pleasantly surprised at how even handed this book is. He coolly presents and evaluates arguments from both the left and the right, and isn't afraid to say so when someone is coming off as self deluded or even a bit wacky.
There is a great deal of fascinating data in this book. If you're at all interested in the intelligence business or the very real effect it has on our right to privacy as a society, this is a must read.
Most of their authors allowed themselves the luxury of blurring the line between plainly observable / provable facts and wild flights of fanciful conjecture.
This book is a refreshing change in that and other regards.
[a: Patrick Radden Keefe|197852|Patrick Radden Keefe|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1538163619p2/197852.jpg] does an excellent job sketching in both broad and detailed strokes exactly what we do know about agencies like the NSA and their counterparts in the UK, AU and NZ and plainly states what we don't.
I'm also quite pleasantly surprised at how even handed this book is. He coolly presents and evaluates arguments from both the left and the right, and isn't afraid to say so when someone is coming off as self deluded or even a bit wacky.
There is a great deal of fascinating data in this book. If you're at all interested in the intelligence business or the very real effect it has on our right to privacy as a society, this is a must read.
maryjoens's review
4.0
This was really interesting and also really frustrating. As Keefe acknowledges at the end of the book, he has mostly managed to identify where the gaps in public knowledge about global eavesdropping by government agencies begins and ends, rather than offering any real answers. He does, however, use this to very effectively make a case that the current hyper-secretive, change-resistant culture of intelligence agencies is ultimately to their own detriment.