The advent of the War on Terror has seen intelligence agencies emerge out of the shadows to become major political players. 'Rendition', untrammelled surveillance, torture and detention without trial are now fast becoming the norm. Spies, Lies and the War on Terror traces the transformation of intelligence from a tool for law enforcement to a means of avoiding the law - both national and international. The new culture of victimhood in the US and among partners in the 'coalition of the willing' has crushed domestic liberties and formed a global network of extra-legal licence. State and corporate interests are increasingly fused in the new business of privatising fear. Todd & Bloch argue that the bureaucracy and narrow political goals surrounding intelligence actually have the potential to increase the terrorist threat. This lively and shocking account is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the new power of intelligence.

“A crucial study in the political manipulation of intelligence, understanding how Curveball got us into Iraq will arm us for the next round of lies coming out of Washington.”—Robert Baer, author of See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism Curveball answers the crucial question of the Iraq war: How and why was America’s intelligence so catastrophically wrong? In this dramatic and explosive book, award-winning Los Angeles Times reporter Bob Drogin delivers a narrative that takes us to Europe, the Middle East, and deep inside the CIA to find the truth—the truth about the lies and self-deception that led us into a military and political nightmare. Praise for Curveball “Just when you thought the WMD debacle couldn’t get worse, here comes veteran Los Angeles Times national-security correspondent Drogin’s look at just who got the stories going in the first place. . . . Simultaneously sobering and infuriating—essential reading for those who follow the headlines.”—Kirkus Reviews “In this engrossing account, Los Angeles Times correspondent Drogin paints an intimate and revealing portrait of the workings and dysfunctions of the intelligence community.”—Publishers Weekly “An insightful and compelling account of one crucial component of the war's origins . . . Had Drogin merely pieced together Curveball's story, it alone would have made for a thrilling book. But he provides something more: a frightening glimpse at how easily we could make the same mistakes again. . . . The real value of Drogin's book is its meticulous demonstration that bureaucratic imperative often leads to self-delusion.”—Washington Monthly “Drogin delivers a startling account of this fateful intelligence snafu.”—Booklist “By the time you finish this book you will be shaking your head with wonder, or perhaps you will be shaking with anger, about the misadventures that preceded the misadventures in Iraq. This book is so powerful, it almost refutes its subtitle: The man called Curveball did not cause a war; he became a pretext—one among many.”—George F. Will

'Curveball' was the codename given to the mysterious defector whose first-hand evidence on Saddam's weapons of mass destruction proved vital in giving the Bush administration the excuse it needed to invade Iraq. The only problem - this 'evidence' was nothing more than a pack of lies. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Drogin has written the definitive account of the most notorious intelligence fiasco in US history, revealing how squabbling, arrogance and incompetence within the various intelligence agencies allowed one man's lies to spread higher and higher up the chain of authority, eventually reaching the White House itself. Breathlessly paced and shockingly revelatory, Curveball is an explosive true-life account of how honour and dishonesty amongst spies led to the UK and the US becoming embroiled in a catastrophic war.

Shortly after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the U.S. government began both a ground and aerial military campaign in the Middle East in order to preemptively rout out terrorists. During the War on Terror, the cause of the United States and its allies was aided by many technical innovations in code breaking and espionage. In fact, increased surveillance went so far as to spy on regular citizens. This book explores the evolution of intelligence technologies and how these new methods controversially shape wars, and the dilemma many militaries and governments face in deciding how to use them in order to avoid political fallout in the global age of terrorism.

Intelligence challenges in the digital age : Cloaks, daggers, and tweets -- The education crisis : How fictional spies are shaping public opinion and intelligence policy -- American intelligence history at a glance-from fake bakeries to armed drones -- Intelligence basics : Knowns and unknowns -- Why analysis is so hard : The seven deadly biases -- Counterintelligence : To catch a spy -- Covert action - "a hard business of agonizing choices" -- Congressional oversight : Eyes on spies -- Intelligence isn't just for governments anymore : Nuclear sleuthing in a Google earth world -- Decoding cyber threats.

"David Shayler and Annie Machon worked for MI5's political and counter-terrorism departments in the 1990s. They were so disgusted by its crimes and incompetence that they left and David went on the record about the service's failings. Ministers refused to hear his evidence. Instead, they have used the Official Secrets Act and injunctions to stop journalists from investigating his disclosures. This has led to a life on the run, exile in Paris, a 2-year court case and two spells in prison." "Here, for the first time, Annie writes about her experiences at the heart of the secret state and what happens when you stand up to it. Her revelations about illegal intelligence operations, cover-ups to ministers, and MI6 funding of Al Qaeda operations will shock all of us who like to think that our security services are doing everything in their power to fight terrorism."--BOOK JACKET.

As the events of 11 September 2001 and their aftermath influence new developments in spy fiction as a popular genre, an examination of these literary narratives concerned with espionage and terrorism can reshape our approach to non-fictive representations of the same concerns. Post-9/11 Espionage Fiction in the US and Pakistan examines post-9/11 American spy fictions alongside Pakistani novels that draw upon many of the same figures, tropes, and conventions. As the Pakistani texts re-place spy fiction’s conventions, they offer another vantage point from which to view the affective appeals common to these conventions’ usual deployment in American texts. This book argues that the appropriation by Pakistani writers of these conventions insistently tracks how the formulaic and popular nature of post-9/11 American espionage thrillers forwards and reinforces "appropriate" affective responses, often linked to domestic sites and relations, to "terrorism." It also analyses and compares American and Pakistani representations of the twinned figures of the spy (or his proxy) and the "terrorist," a term frequently conflated with fundamentalist. The insights of these analyses can serve as interpretive interruptions of non-fictive representations of Pakistani-US "war on terror" relations. Offering an innovative analysis of the reflection of narrative conventions in our view of the real-life events, this book will attract scholars with an interest in Pakistani literature, Postcolonial literature, Asian Studies and Terrorism studies.