Sounding out the surveillance network known as Echelon

Recovering Luddites, paranoids, conspiracy theorists, and their worried ilk are all advised to steer wide of Chatter, Patrick Radden Keefe's engrossing survey of American signals intelligence, or Sigint, the global effort to electronically monitor our telephone conversations, our e-mails, and even our street movements.

In Chatter, Keefe gives shape to Echelon, the shadowy worldwide surveillance network operated by the United States and the United Kingdom, with assistance from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Echelon is the hoary white whale of espionage lore, whose existence has never been publicly confirmed by its member governments.
(Benjamin Strong)

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