Spooked: The Secret Rise of Private Spies

by Barry Meier

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist's revelatory look inside the sinister world of private spies.A spy story like no other.Private spies are the invisible force that shapes our modern they influence our elections, effect government policies and shape the fortunes of companies. More deviously, they are also peering into our personal lives as never before.Spooked takes us on a journey into a secret billion-dollar industry in which information is currency and loyalties are for sale. An industry so tentacular it reaches from the Steele dossier written by a British ex-spy to Russian oligarchs in Mayfair mansions, from the devious tactics of Harvey Weinstein to the growing role of corporate spies in politics and the threat to future elections.Spooked reads like the best kind of spy a gripping tale packed with twists and turns, uncovering a secret side of our modern world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Espionage

296 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 22, 2021

About the author

Award-winning journalist, ex-New York Times.
Author, Pain Killer, now a Netflix dramatic series, Missing Man, The American Spy Who Vanished in Iran and Spooked, the Rise of Private Spies.

Reviews

[Khairul Hezry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not sure how a book with an interesting premise (freelance spies working for anyone who can pay them) can be so boring. The meat of the book is the infamous Donald Trump 'pee tape' dossier and the allegation that Russia was involved in the 2016 US Presidential Election. So. Why. Was. It. So. Boring? I ended up skimming through the pages just to say I didn't actually DNF the book.

[Phil Chamberlain · Rating 3 out of 5]

This looks at private eyes employed by corporations to protect them from legal and activist scrutiny and their relationship with journalists. It describes itself as looking as the industry as a whole but really it is about the Steele dossier on Trump and all the characters which came into that orbit.
Meier has an engaging muckraking style consistent with a particular brand of investigative journalism.
It feels a little like a clippings job though Meier says he interviewed a 130 people for it.
The book does cut through some of the frenzied hype around Steele’s dossier which made a number of allegations about Trump’s Russia dealings. It also paints some good pen portraits of the people involved in the often sleazy world of corporate espionage.
However it is an extended magazine read in the end. The issue, particularly how activists are targeted, deserves a deeper dive.

[Ricardo Motti · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weird book to read on holidays in Cyprus where 9 out of 10 people are Russian.

[Ami · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good crash course on the underworld of private spies. Use of Trump’s rise to President of the United States, and subsequent fall, is a brilliant and timely example of their powerful and terrifying influence today.

[Jordison Francisco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este livro não é uma leitura fácil, não por culpa do autor – o tema é labiríntico. A obra não apresenta uma narrativa linear; ela lança luz sobre uma série de organizações privadas de inteligência e suas atividades para clientes ricos, muitas vezes com intenções questionáveis. Um tema central que permeia o livro é o infame dossiê Christopher Steele, que supostamente expôs atividades obscenas, ilegais e impróprias de Donald Trump e outros associados à sua campanha, bem como suas conexões com Moscou. O livro traça a trajetória do dossiê, discute suas fontes obscuras, expõe suas falhas fundamentais, mas deixa em aberto a possibilidade – como em todos os grandes mitos – de que talvez algo do dossiê Steele seja verdade. Este livro reforça um princípio antigo: não acredite em nada que lhe digam, a menos que você tenha verificado, confirmado e aplicado o bom senso. Isso inclui o que você lê na grande mídia.

Investigadores particulares sempre existiram e atuaram em um mundo pouco regulamentado de coleta de informações sobre pessoas. Mas o livro de Meier não se concentra em detetives particulares, e sim em organizações de inteligência de alto nível, criadas deliberadamente (talvez melhor descritas como jornalistas investigativos profissionais), que vendem seus serviços por muito dinheiro para clientes selecionados apenas pela profundidade de seus bolsos. Essas organizações, frequentemente em conluio com advogados que podem alegar sigilo profissional sobre as informações coletadas, trabalharam para encontrar informações prejudiciais sobre as acusadoras de Harvey Weinstein e para descobrir o que grupos como o Greenpeace estão fazendo, infiltrando-se neles. Tais organizações foram contratadas por membros da campanha de Trump para coletar informações sobre Clinton e vice-versa, e têm sido comumente empregadas há décadas em funções semelhantes. Meier discute não apenas políticos e seu uso de espiões particulares, mas também grandes empresas e o submundo do crime.

A força vital dessas organizações reside nos ex-agentes de inteligência altamente treinados das principais agências de inteligência do mundo. Esses são os antigos mocinhos que migraram para o setor privado e estão lucrando com o fornecimento de informações para aqueles que pagam quase qualquer preço pelo tipo de informação que desejam. Junto com ex-agentes de inteligência, estão ex-jornalistas investigativos e advogados, todos formados em profissões com estruturas éticas que regem seu trabalho. No entanto, essas estruturas éticas provavelmente sempre foram maleáveis, e o relato de Meier sugere que elas se dissolvem completamente assim que as pessoas entram no mundo da inteligência privada.

As operações de inteligência conduzidas por organizações privadas envolvem roubo descarado, invasão de sistemas, operações cibernéticas ofensivas, uso de bots, disseminação de desinformação, espionagem, pagamento e delação de informantes e infiltração de agentes secretos em organizações para espionar suas atividades. Se não conseguem encontrar o que procuram, podem fabricar, e já o fizeram, as informações que seus clientes querem ouvir. Embora pareça que os agentes de inteligência que migram para o setor privado se convertem ao "lado negro", isso levanta uma questão: quanto do que faziam antes realmente era dizer a verdade aos poderosos? Até que ponto isso envolvia contar apenas o que os poderosos queriam ouvir? O mundo da inteligência privada, claramente falido do ponto de vista moral, está realmente muito distante de seu antecessor estatal?

Meier também lembra constantemente ao leitor que as organizações de inteligência privada não vivem em um ecossistema isolado. Elas interagem constantemente com agências de inteligência governamentais, onde o princípio (se é que se pode chamar de "princípio") da "negação plausível" permite que as agências públicas façam o que não conseguem sozinhas. Tanto o espião privado quanto o cliente privado dependem de advogados como intermediários, como o elo secreto e o freio de emergência entre eles. Por fim, o jornalismo investigativo não pode ser feito sem o persistente desejo jornalístico por um furo de reportagem, transformando a sujeira em matéria e isca de cliques.

Meier conclui com sugestões sobre o que poderia ser feito para limpar a indústria da espionagem privada, e essas parecem medidas plausíveis e sensatas. Essas sugestões também soam desesperançosas e improváveis, e, portanto, a conquista de Meier não será encontrar um novo e melhor caminho a seguir; Trata-se de um alerta sobre as deficiências da "informação" disponível para nós no século XXI.

Para aqueles que se interessam e desejam se informar sobre o que leem na mídia atual, e que têm curiosidade sobre como essas informações chegaram até nós, "Spooked" é definitivamente uma leitura que vale a pena.

[Scott · Rating 1 out of 5]

Blatant attempt at disinformation
If you are looking for a book about private intelligence companies and there super dooper, ookie spookie ops this is not your book.
This book barely touches on the private intelligence industry as it is described it instead is a heavily slanted diatribe arguing there was no collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and russia, and that the collusion was unimportant and 'boring' (yeah get ready for a lot of inconsistencies)
The opening chapter set off alarm bells that this guy is a crackpot. He's portraying himself as a dogged investigative reporter hounding a worthless lowlife, instead he's acting like a creepy stalker with no interpersonal skills.
This book is full of multiple russian disinformation tactics. You could probably assign it as reading in a disinformation course
'Rotten herring' especially noticeable against Bill Browder and Diligence.
'60:40' seems to be in play throughout the whole book, I think a ploy here is using the facts around Ronan Farrow and #Metoo as a crutch of credibility to catch people interested in those topics with disinformation about russia.
'Blind Man' same tactic constantly used by Snowden, when telling a story fully name people with baggage and refer to people who can cast doubt on you as 'Official Title', this helps to build a wall against digging deeper into the story.
'Absolute evidence' if you read alot of these books as I do I am sure you've heard all sorts of theories about the infamous trump tower meeting. I have never seen a well sourced claim and they all say as much, however apparently you will find the answer here! flippantly dropped in the middle of a paragraph with no fanfare.
'Cynical as an 18th century Pirate' Mention every one is bad the world is terrible, call out all the bad things countries and organizations do or have done . . . except Russia, the one bad comment is a thinly veiled threat against journalists

I could go on but I have better things to do and so should you instead of reading this book.

[Jo-Ann Duff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was eager to read this after enjoying Catch and Kill. The rising world (or underworld) of private spies, hackers, and influencers is intriguing. Private agencies popping up with the sole goal to assassinate characters, take down presidents and affect change on a global scale. It’s the stuff of movie thrillers that has become a real-life cat and mouse game.

Barry Meier is one hell of a journalist and writer. The fact-checking and timelines are overwhelmingly accurate. The flow of each chapter ties together and builds as he reveals how these private ‘ spies for hire’ agencies get started, all with details and backstories of the main players in this dark space. Unscrupulous moves are uncovered, and you get a window into the world of the employees of these agencies. The lengths they go to dupe celebrities, businessmen and politicians to retrieve the information they are paid to get is mindblowing.

It’s cold and calculating work.

I found myself intrigued by Spooked at the beginning. However, once I got to the halfway mark, I did find myself getting a little bored and over the egos of all these powerful middle-aged white men f*cking each other over and sharing information in exchange for money and other information.

Yawn.

However, the overall premise of the book, the great journalism and the unnerving nature of this new, growing and shadowy industry will delight anyone who’s into spy games or the infamous Trump Dossier. It’s heavy in the detail and the nature of those involved means Spooked is heavy on the ego too.

[Katie Storr]

Not rating as this was a DNF for me about 90 pages in.

I was hoping for a juicy insight into the history of private espionage told in a captivating and exciting way but unfortunately this was very dry. Far, far too many people and corporations and names introduced too early on with very little reminder of who was who and what was what.

I struggled to follow what was happening and more importantly, why I was supposed to care.

[John Priest · Rating 1 out of 5]

Titled as revealing the rise of private spies, this book (apart from a small mention of Harvey Weinstein) is basically a thinly veiled attack on the authors of the dossier(s) around Trump and potential Russian collusion/interference.

Not sure if Mr Meier is pro/anti Trump (I suspect pro) but this book doesn’t cover anything but.

[Matt Hodson · Rating 2 out of 5]

A depressing and incoherent slog through barely connected anecdotes that never last long enough to engage you with the characters, who, to be fair, are deeply unengaging. Reminder of why we all hate all politicians, and why they are really all as bad as each other.

[Colby · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tittle-tattle.

[Michael Bernard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Muddled and confusing account of what should have been a gripping set of stories. An important subject but a missed opportunity.

[Nicky Chalabi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Super incoherently structured and nothing new.

[Ikki Kaijima · Rating 3 out of 5]

got a bit repetitive, but Meier gave a pretty solid expose of the corporate intelligence industry

[Hannah Hughes · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was good. I have read a lot better non fiction books on the topic.

[Alastair · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had so much promise - offering an insider's look into the complex, murky world of for-hire spies and their interactions with journalists. Unfortunately, the structure - if it can be called that - was so lacking that chapters, names, places, events blur indiscriminately into one another, rendering it almost impossible for the reader to process what is going on.

To take a fairly typical example: nearish the end of the book on page 224, we are treated to a discussion of Neil Gerrard - who we've apparently encountered before but likely many pages before and with no 'gentle reminder' for the reader to re-acquaint themselves with this character. We then run into Mark Hollingsworth again, his links to Gerrard, another private spy called Charlie Carr; two spy firms - K2 Intelligence and Alaco - followed by ENRC and KPMG.

That's in one page. The book does this constantly - wheeling around and dashing to and from different people and entities, as well as whole different plot points. From Christopher Steele's Dossier to multiple other scandals, events and dubious dealings by the industry - it gives the reader informational whiplash.

It didn't need to be this way - the book has an important message and the author seems genuine in their desire to 'out' the private spying industry. But the incredible lack of narrative structure renders the book so hard to follow that it puts all their good work researching this material to waste. Perhaps the long-form book format did not suit a journalist. Either way if I - someone with a fairly good ability to read heavy, dry, technical books - was alienated and almost quit this book several times, I doubt less dedicated readers will get much more out of it. A real lost opportunity this one.