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SPOOKED

Barry Meier

The Trump Dossier, Black Cube, and the Rise of Private Spies

A Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist's journey into a billon-dollar secret industry that is shaping our world the booming business of private spying, operatives-for-hire retained by companies, political parties and the powerful to dig up dirt on their enemies and, if need be, destroy them.
For decades, private eyes from Allan Pinkerton, who formed the first detective agency in the U.S., to Jules Kroll, who transformed the investigations business by giving it a corporate veneer, private spies were content to stand in the shadows. Now, that is all changing. High-profile stories grabbing recent headlines the Steele Dossier, Black Cube, the Theranos scandal, Harvey Weinstein's attacks on his accusers - all share a common thread, the involvement of private spies. Today, operatives-for-hire are influencing presidential elections, the news media, government policies and the fortunes of companies.. They are also peering into our personal lives as never before, using off-the shelf technology to listen to our phone calls, monitor our emails, and decide what we see on social media. Private spying has never been cheaper and the business has never been more lucrative - just as its power has never been more pervasive. Spooked is a fast-paced, disturbing and, at times, hilarious tour through the shadowlands of private spying and its inhabitants, a grab-bag collection of ex-intelligence operatives, former journalists and lost souls. In this hidden world, information is currency, double-crosses are commonplace, and hacking can be standard procedure. Drawing on his journalistic expertise and unique access to sources, Barry Meier uncovers the secrets private spies want to keep hidden. Barry Meier is a former New York Times reporter and a member of the Times' team that won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. He is also a two-time winner of the prestigious George Polk Award for Investigative Reporting and other professional honors. Prior to joining the Times in 1989, he worked for the Wall Street Journal and New York Newsday. He is also the author of Pain Killer and Missing Man. Meier lives in New York City.
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Published 2021-05-18 by HarperCollins

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Operatives-for-hire have the power to influence elections, harass journalists into dropping investigations and prop up dictatorships. Meier is a lively guide to this dark and dangerous world; Spooked looks at headline-grabbing cases, like Harvey Weinstein's hiring of Black Cube to get information about his accusers, or the infamous Steele dossier on Donald Trump. Read more...

20th Television (formerly known as 20th Century Fox Television, and makers of Homeland and 24) have acquired the TV rights to Barry Meier's SPOOKED for either a limited or ongoing series.

a comprehensive, page-turning narrative... "Spooked" is a critique of the kind of journalistic malpractice evident in the dossier saga. The fact that someone with Meier's resume devoted the time and effort to write it is mildly stunning. Many of his peers still refuse to admit any need to examine the record he has chronicled in painstaking detail. Read more...

UK: Sceptre ; France: Les Editions Saint-Simon ; Japanese: Shobun-sha

A gobsmacking book detailing the rise of wannabe James Bonds. Spooked, an enjoyable romp through the stranger-than-fiction world of private intelligence agencies, is filled with gobsmacking revelations. But oddly enough, maybe the biggest eye-opener is just how amateurish and cack-handed there wannabe James and Jemima Bonds can be... Meier is a Pulitzer-winning former New York Times reporter, and he stirs an incredible amount of well-researched material into this book.

Meier adds color and depth to the political saga... an illuminating look at a shadowy industry.

[Meier] has said what hardly anyone else in his circle of elite mainstream journalists has had the courage to say. Read more...

Spooked is a horrible, fascinating account of just how far the modern surveillance state has leeched in the private sector - and into private lives. Read more...

Excerpt in the New York Times (on the cover of the Sunday Business section): Secret Sharers: The Hidden Ties Between Private Spies and Journalists - A booming, renegade private intelligence industry is increasingly shaping (and misshaping) the news. ... Read more...

An adroitly handled, disturbing exposé, clearly relevant to discussions of the tactics of Trump and company.... The labyrinthine narrative reveals a slick, high-stakes dark side to the proliferation of private intelligence firms via such flashpoints as the "Steele dossier" on Donald Trump and the "sleazy tactics" employed by Israeli firm Black Cube on behalf of Harvey Weinstein. Decrying "the oversized impact" of these private spies, the author circles back to a grim secret: 'the big money is made not by exposing the truth but by papering it over or concealing it.

Excerpt: The Panama Papers Double Cross - How a spy-for-hire got closely guarded dirt on the global elite. ... Read more...