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Read the first chapter of CHATTER here.
Boston Globe Editorial Board Pick, one of the Best Books of 2005
“It is absolutely thrilling to see someone as young, as competent, and as gifted as Patrick Radden Keefe taking on the secret world in Washington. We need much more of this kind of work, and Keefe has made a brilliant start.”
Seymour M. Hersh
“Keefe does a wonderful job of exploring the role of SIGINT, or signals intelligence (NSA's $5 word for eavesdropping), in the post-Cold War world; the mysterious Echelon system that links the many listening posts belonging to America's English-speaking allies; the agency's obsession with secrecy; the age-old question of human versus technical intelligence collection.”
James Bamford
The Washington Post Book World
“A useful research primer on today’s surveillance society…Keefe does what a brilliant, persevering law student with no inside sources or a prestigious press pass should do: he surveys much of what has been written about sigint and pores over the public hearing transcripts. He visits worried scientists and some former spooks…[He] is a researcher adept at compiling intriguing bits and pieces.”
William Safire
The New York Times Book Review
“Keefe writes crisply and entertainingly…filled with anecdotes, colorful quotes and arresting statistics.”
William Grimes
The New York Times
“A most useful, challenging, and provocative book.”
The Los Angeles Times
“Deft, trenchant, and eye-opening.”
The Boston Globe
“Unveils much of the inner workings of the National Security Agency.”
The New Yorker
“In his gripping debut as an intellectual sleuth, Patrick Radden Keefe offers sharply observed glimpses of the culture of global eavesdropping. CHATTER is an unusually elegant combination of narrative reporting and analysis that makes a passionate and convincing case for the importance of human intelligence in the post-9/11 world.”
Jeffrey Rosen
“A kind of naturalist’s ramble around the fenced perimeter of the whole vast establishment of technical gear used for intercepting communications…written with fluid grace.”
Thomas Powers
The New York Review of Books
“A tour de force of investigation, analysis, and fine writing. Keefe dares an unblinking look into the abyss of government secrecy, laying bare a tangle of lethal questions few know to ask. This book is every citizen's urgent business.”
James Carroll
“CHATTER reads like a thriller. I trust that Keefe’s provocative exposition of the issues—the glut of information and questions about accuracy, efficacy, interpretation, and privacy—will inspire a much-needed national conversation.”
Senator & 9/11 Commissioner Bob Kerrey
“CHATTER represents a timely and important contribution to the literature of eavesdropping and codebreaking, and an extraordinary introduction to a world about which most Americans know very little.”
David Kahn
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