Chatter: Dispatches from the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping
Written by Patrick Radden Keefe
Narrated by Robertson Dean
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
In the late 1990s, when Keefe was a graduate student in England, he heard stories about an eavesdropping network led by the United States that spanned the planet. The system, known as Echelon, allowed America and its allies to intercept the private phone calls and e-mails of civilians and governments around the world. Taking the mystery of Echelon as his point of departure, Keefe explores the nature and context of communications interception, drawing together fascinating strands of history, fresh investigative reporting, and riveting, eye-opening anecdotes. The result is a bold and distinctive book, part detective story, part travel-writing, part essay on paranoia and secrecy in a digital age.
Chatter starts out at Menwith Hill, a secret eavesdropping station covered in mysterious, gargantuan golf balls, in England's Yorkshire moors. From there, the narrative moves quickly to another American spy station hidden in the Australian outback; from the intelligence bureaucracy in Washington to the European Parliament in Brussels; from an abandoned National Security Agency base in the mountains of North Carolina to the remote Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.
As Keefe chases down the truth of contemporary surveillance by intelligence agencies, he unearths reams of little-known information and introduces us to a rogue's gallery of unforgettable characters. We meet a former British eavesdropper who now listens in on the United States Air Force for sport; an intelligence translator who risked prison to reveal an American operation to spy on the United Nations Security Council; a former member of the Senate committee on intelligence who says that oversight is so bad, a lot of senators only sit on the committee for the travel.
Provocative, often funny, and alarming without being alarmist, Chatter is a journey through a bizarre and shadowy world with vast implications for our security as well as our privacy. It is also the debut of a major new voice in nonfiction.
From the Hardcover edition.
Patrick Radden Keefe
Patrick Radden Keefe is an award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty (winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction), Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, as well as two previous critically-acclaimed books, The Snakehead, and Chatter. He is the writer and host of the eight-part podcast Wind of Change on the origins of the Scorpions’ power ballad, which The Guardian named the #1 podcast of 2020. He is the recipient of the 2014 National Magazine Award for Feature Writing, was a finalist for the National Magazine Award for Reporting in 2015 and 2016, and also received a Guggenheim Fellowship. He grew up in Boston and now lives in New York.
Related to Chatter
Related audiobooks
Snowden's Box: Trust in the Age of Surveillance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Earth: An Alien Enterprise: The Shocking Truth Behind the Greatest Cover-Up in Human History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Catch a Spy: The Art of Counterintelligence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Espionage: A Concise History Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Puzzle Palace: Inside the National Security Agency, America's Most Secret Intelligence Organization Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Awakening [Dramatized Adaptation] Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ghost Soldiers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLand of Delusion: Out on the edge with the crackpots and conspiracy-mongers remaking our shared reality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Question of Standing: The History of the CIA Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTakedown: A Thriller Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Eugenics Wars, Vol. 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rise of the Water Margin: A Novel of the Near Future Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Year of the Locust: A Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Spymaster's Prism: The Fight against Russian Aggression Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Gangland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5UAPs and the Nuclear Puzzle: Visitations, National Security, and the Need for Transparency Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cover-Ups & Secrets: The Complete Guide to Government Conspiracies, Manipulations & Deceptions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5President Eisenhower's Close Encounters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerican Cryptids: In Pursuit of the Elusive Creatures Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tomorrowland: Our Journey from Science Fiction to Science Fact Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Military Intelligence Blunders Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stuff They Don't Want You to Know Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inside the Real Area 51: The Secret History of Wright Patterson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret War: Spies, Ciphers, and Guerrillas, 1939-1945 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mishap or Murder?: True Tales of Mysterious Deaths and Disappearances Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Near and Distant Neighbors: A New History of Soviet Intelligence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Globalization For You
Agenda 2030: 17 Sustainable Destruction Goals Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnderground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twelve Feminist Lessons of War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYou Will Own Nothing: Your War with a New Financial World Order and How to Fight Back Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Planet of Slums Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Change Your World: How Anyone, Anywhere Can Make A Difference Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power Is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Art of Victory: Strategies for Success and Survival in a Changing World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of Carol Roth's You Will Own Nothing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSuperclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5No Trade Is Free: Changing Course, Taking on China, and Helping America's Workers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Oneness vs. the 1%: Shattering Illusions, Seeding Freedom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Resilience Dividend: Being Strong in a World Where Things Go Wrong Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Globalization Myth: Why Regions Matter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Age of Walls: How Barriers Between Nations Are Changing Our World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Influence of Soros: Politics, Power, and the Struggle for an Open Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion & Truth in the Immigration Debate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Are Not Refugees: True Stories of the Displaced Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flourishing: Why We Need Religion in a Globalized World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Industries of the Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ages of Globalization: Geography, Technology, and Institutions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Chatter
0 ratings0 reviews