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Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing Kindle Edition

4.1 out of 5 stars 48

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Even James Bond is temping these days. According to investigative journalist Shorrock, the CIA and other intelligence agencies now have more contractors working for them than they do spies of their own. Often former staff hired back at double or triple their former government salaries, these private contractors do everything from fighting in Afghanistan to interrogating prisoners, aiming spy satellites and supervising secret agents. Shorrock gives a comprehensive—at times eye-glazing—rundown of the players in the industry, and his book is valuable for its detailed panorama of 21st-century intelligence work. He uncovers serious abuses—contractor CACI International figured prominently in the Abu Ghraib outrages—and nagging concerns about corrupt ties between intelligence officials and private corporations, industry lobbying for a national surveillance state, the withering of the intelligence agencies' in-house capacities and the displacement of an ethos of public service by a profit motive. However, the bulk of the outsourcing Shorrock unearths is rather pedestrian, involving the management of mundane IT systems and various administrative services, and this exposé insinuates more skullduggery than it demonstrates. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Tim Shorrock is walking, and mapping, a startling fault line of these crazy days: the way government is outsourcing its most basic functions at a time of peril. Replacing public service with private transactions -- often shadowy and unaccountable -- is what helped bring down Rome. Without fierce scrutiny, and the kind of sharp-eyed disclosures this book provides, it can bring down America. A must read." -- Ron Suskind, author of The One Percent Doctrine

"
Spies for Hire is an excellent roadmap to the daunting new terrain of U.S. intelligence, in which the explosive growth of intelligence contracting threatens to overwhelm any possibility of independent oversight. In this groundbreaking work, Tim Shorrock explores who has benefitted, who has paid, and why it matters to us all." -- Steven Aftergood, Project on Government Secrecy, Federation of American Scientists

"Tim Shorrock is a digger, and he has penetrated a secret and fascinating world to write a telling and readable book." -- Evan Thomas, editor at large of
Newsweek, author of Sea of Thunder

"Tim Shorrock's well-researched and convincing book reveals how the intelligence community now subcontracts out most of its work -- 70 percent -- to private-sector companies that inevitably have their own agendas, which may or may not accord with the national interest. By laying out very specifically how all this works, Shorrock has provided a very important service to the country." -- Burton Hersh, author of
The Old Boys: The American Elite and the Origins of the CIA

" A sterling example of why investigative journalists are valuable....A remarkable job." --
USA Today

"A disturbing overview of the intelligence community." --
The New York Times

"Valuable.... Contains some important, timely truths about the influx of private entrepreneurs into America's spy agencies." --
The Washington Post Book World

"A definitive book." --
The Nation

"Path-breaking.... Destined to be the gold standard on intelligence contracting." --
Asia Times

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B001949VEW
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster (May 6, 2008)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 6, 2008
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 788 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 650 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 out of 5 stars 48

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Tim Shorrock
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Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
48 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2008
10 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2008
15 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2010
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Top reviews from other countries

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オーナーオブ・ロンリーハーツクラブバンド
3.0 out of 5 stars 非常に真面目且つストイック
Reviewed in Japan on September 26, 2016
G. Potts
5.0 out of 5 stars Intresting Read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 26, 2013
3 people found this helpful
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Geoff Hill
1.0 out of 5 stars A poor effort at dealing with such a vital topic
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2013
3 people found this helpful
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