Customer Reviews

The Professional Paranoid

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The appendices alone are worth the price. H. Michael Sweeney, the author, has done exemplary research, both in quantity and quality, and has provided anyone who feels they are being targetted/stalked/harassed some very practical suggestions on how to defeat this, based on his own experiences in security work and in being a target of harassment.

Sweeney presents customized procedures for each different type of harassment source, including stalkers and personal enemies, private detectives, gangs and petty criminals, professional criminals, corporate bullies, law enforcement, intelligence groups and multi-jurisdictional groups.

The advice is not presented for the benefit of those who are criminals. However, anyone alert to the news media and who has lived a while knows that there are genuine cases where those with any kind of power are willing to abuse it and do sometimes latch on to a target who is not deserving of the abuse.

Allies and potential allies are also listed, including ways to make perfect strangers appear as allies on the spot. For a targetted individual under duress and probably in a state of confusion, Mr. Sweeney offers clear headed ways to seek help from potential allies one would probably not identify immediately on discovering they are targets of deliberate harassment.

Among the suggested strategies is a practical section titled "Resources and Props" which contains very detailed suggestions for choosing and using cameras, film, tape recorders, computers, as well as tactical props like fake ID and a dummy mail box. It is obvious that the author knows cloak and dagger work very well.

Tips on information gathering, like the various information which can be found on public record, could be of great help when preparing a case. If the harasser is affiliated with a business, an innovative suggestion is to interview the competitors for information about the person(s) doing the harassing.

Having read a number of "security manuals", this book's section on specialized surveillance and anti-surveillance devices, including an exhaustive list of suggestions to anyone who believes/knows they have been bugged, must rank with the best - 150 practical questions used by members of security firms are included.

The final section before the appendices summarizes the recommendations of the main body of the book. These are called "Rules for the Paranoid", and take up only two pages, for quick access if the materials in the book need to be recalled in a hurry.

This book ventures well into the domain of the most serious types of harassment - the government agency harassment. The author makes the point that not all CIA affiliated companies are "bad guys", and many serve as simple "listening posts", doing otherwise normal business. But seven pages of fairly close-spaced print identify quite a few, and are quite an eye opener to those of us who think of the CIA as mainly an "offshore" agency doing nothing in particular within the borders of the U.S.

Another appendix details the operations of the "big ear" agency, the NSA, again, quite an eye opener about an agency most of us hardly ever hear about.

This is the kind of book senior business people and those with connections to any form of power - government, corporate, or even who operate in an area controlled by organized crime - may want to read and have handy on the shelf should the information ever be needed.

--Eleanor White, Hamilton, Ontario Canada

When I was targeted by the Clinton Administration, I experienced several years of round the clock physical surveillance and harrassment and all manner of risks for which my experience on Wall Street and in Washington had not prepared me. This included friends and family who helped me during this extraordinary period also being targeted.

Thank goodness for H. Michael Sweeney and his book, The Professional Paranoid. To this day, I believe that this book helped save my life. This was a period when websites kept death lists of people who had been targeted and died. I sure did not want to end up on one of those lists.

Sweeney has lived through the real thing, bested it and his lessons learned can work for you, whether you are dealing with being targeted by the government, by private organized crime, or just a pesky landlord or neighbor. It's well written too.

Unfortunately, the time has come in American when many of us have to protect ourselves, our family and our neighbors without much help from law enforcement. In the face of covert operations by intelligence agencies or the wishes of drug cartels, local police hands are often tied. Local police can be as scared of the powers that be as we are, or as mystified by the latest "tools of the trade" such as non-lethal weapons.

H. Michael Sweeney can teach us how to "hold the line" despite what is happening and do it with a marvelous sense of humour. I recommend it highly.

H. Michael Sweeney made a lot of psychological observations and recommendations that are invaluable for people trapped in a war with electronic eavesdroppers and other stalkers. I would recommend the book on that basis to anyone with an interest in the subject. The book is a treasury of practical suggestions that I very much enjoyed.

At the same time I would advise anyone to disregard his technical opinions and read more technologically competant authors like M. L. Shannon for defense startegies based on using or avoiding electronics.

Mr. Sweeney said, for instance, to only use an analog cell phone, never digital. He should know that analog is open to everyone with a scanner. DES and CDMA are essentially unbreakable. Why would he tell people--with no explanation--that a mode that isn't even encrypted is the only type safe enough to use? I was so horrified at a mistake of this magnitude that I could barely read past this point.

If he has a defense I would be interested in hearing it. No competant technical author I have read agrees with this...

Great little book unless you are "unstable," then it could push you over the edge. Stalkers, Corporate Bullies, Gangs, Professional Criminals, the IRS and a Host of Government 'Intelligence' Agencies... are groups mentioned.

Interestingly the "how to fight back" are far from the "Get Even" and "Screw You" series by another author.

Best chapter (and point of the book) is "Awareness is the First Line of Defense" unless of course you are already freaked out, then skip this chapter AND the book.

There's also a useful Internet Resource listing in the book.

A great and useful read. Recommended.

Professional Paranoid by H. Michael Sweeney was a very enjoyable read. It cut to the core of the matter, that is: How spooks think and how they can play psychological games with your mind. This knowledge is important to me, as I have been the victim for the past 13 years of government and underworld harassment; it has already helped me to level the playing field against these cowards who think of themselves as spooks. Of special interest to me was the section on Caller ID; I was astonished to learn the uses I could put it to. If, all of this seem too familiar to you, and you don't know where to turn next, give this excellent book a try.

I am a whistleblower in a state Supreme Court Case and must say that this book is all it purports to be. I used the text to help resolve many of the problems I was having dealing with a certain government agency for which I worked. The methods of self protection outlined can be of use to any whistleblower involved in a serious situation. Mr. Sweeney, I applaud you for this timely work.

My dad read this book back in 1984 and though it was
good because it was honest about what was going on back then.