This study offers the first detailed examination of the varied means by which parliament through its committees and the work of individual members has sought to scrutinise the British intelligence and security agencies and the government's use of intelligence.

This dissertation represents a comprehensive study of modern surveillance practices in the US. Using large open sources of digital data and quantitative methodologies, I examine contemporary surveillance practices at three distinct levels: 1) structural: the nature and structure of the broader US surveillance network, 2) interactive: the positionality and connectivity between surveillance actors, and 3) physical/material: physical arrangement and material realities of digital infrastructures and surveillance actors. Such analyses are informed by a critical methodological lens of what I term digital sousveillance, which represents the co-optation of digital data and the use of computational methods and techniques to resituate technologies of control and surveillance of individuals to instead observe the observer. This methodological approach lends itself to an extensive range of methodological and theoretical tools, enabling critical examination of surveillance practices that are often hidden and, consequently, difficult to study. In evaluating and demonstrating the utility of such an approach, this dissertation explores the evolving structure of the network of public-private surveillance partnerships, examines the nature of the relationship between network embeddedness and economic capital in the context of surveillance organizations, and investigates the materiality of modern surveillance and its theoretical implications. In doing so, this research contributes to theoretical and empirical understandings of modern surveillance practices in the US, as well as a novel methodological approach to understanding them.

Using exclusive access to key insiders, Shane Harris charts the rise of America's surveillance state over the past twenty-five years and highlights a dangerous paradox: Our government's strategy has made it harder to catch terrorists and easier to spy on the rest of us. Our surveillance state was born in the brain of Admiral John Poindexter in 1983. Poindexter, Reagan's National Security Advisor, realized that the United States might have prevented the terrorist massacre of 241 Marines in Beirut if only intelligence agencies had been able to analyze in real time data they had on the attackers. Poindexter poured government know-how and funds into his dream-a system that would sift reams of data for signs of terrorist activity. Decades later, that elusive dream still captivates Washington. After the 2001 attacks, Poindexter returned to government with a controversial program, called Total Information Awareness, to detect the next attack. Today it is a secretly funded operation that can gather personal information on every American and millions of others worldwide. But Poindexter's dream has also become America's nightmare. Despite billions of dollars spent on this digital quest since the Reagan era, we still can't discern future threats in the vast data cloud that surrounds us all. But the government can now spy on its citizens with an ease that was impossible-and illegal-just a few years ago. Drawing on unprecedented access to the people who pioneered this high-tech spycraft, Harris shows how it has shifted from the province of right- wing technocrats to a cornerstone of the Obama administration's war on terror. Harris puts us behind the scenes and in front of the screens where twenty-first-century spycraft was born. We witness Poindexter quietly working from the private sector to get government to buy in to his programs in the early nineties. We see an army major agonize as he carries out an order to delete the vast database he's gathered on possible terror cells-and on thousands of innocent Americans-months before 9/11. We follow General Mike Hayden as he persuades the Bush administration to secretly monitor Americans based on a flawed interpretation of the law. After Congress publicly bans the Total Information Awareness program in 2003, we watch as it is covertly shifted to a "black op," which protects it from public scrutiny. When the next crisis comes, our government will inevitably crack down on civil liberties, but it will be no better able to identify new dangers. This is the outcome of a dream first hatched almost three decades ago, and The Watchers is an engrossing, unnerving wake-up call.

Beneath Lausanne Cathedral, in Switzerland, there is a secret buried before time began, something unknown to angels and men, until now... Marc Rochat watches over the city at night from the belfry of the cathedral. He lives in a world of shadows and "beforetimes" and imaginary beings. Katherine Taylor, call girl and daydreamer, is about to discover that her real-life fairy tale is too good to be true. Jay Harper, private detective, wakes up in a crummy hotel room with no memory. When the telephone rings and he's offered a job, he knows he has no choice but to accept. Three lives, one purpose: save what's left of paradise before all hell breaks loose.

Something is preying upon the monks of Rion. Broeden is an ancient and dark wizard who seeks their holy relic, the Sword of the Watch, to bestow upon him the gift of immortality. When the mighty Rion guards find themselves powerless to stop him, their leaders hatch a desperate plan to embrace dark magic with catastrophic results. As the Watchers battle to control the forces they’ve unleashed, the world of Erathe is thrown into chaos. Now the only hope for humanity is the resurrection of a sword-bearer, Evliit. Visit SwordoftheWatch.com and join Facebook.com/sotwfan. The Sword of the Watch is told in three books: The Watchers’ War, The Rise of the Western Kingdom, and The Fall of Daoradh.