Global Intelligence (The World's Secret Services Today)

The Cold War has long gone. Now the “War on Terror” is upon us. What are the secret services–the CIA, the KGB, MI5, Mossad, Boss, Savak, Dina–doing these days? Global Intelligence explains how the war on terrorism has altered the context for the murky world of secret services and intelligence agencies. The CIA and other U.S. agencies, the FSB (successor to the KGB) in Russia, Western Europe’s secret services, Mossad in Israel, and the diverse security services in developing countries continue to operate, albeit with changing priorities and working methods. These shifting means of working, coupled with ultra-modern technologies, allow for more invasive spying in a global and domestic context.

This up-to-date account raises important issues, including the new roles the secret services have found for themselves as they target “rogue states,”the war on drugs,” and “terrorists.” Most important of all, its authors explore the unsolved contradiction between the world of these secretive and unaccountable agencies operating on the fringes of the law, and the requirements of a free and democratic society. There is, they conclude, “no easy walk to freedom.”