The CIA, the KGB, MI5, Mossad, Boss, Savak, Dina - the names read like a rollcall of the seamier side of history in the years following the Second World War. Today the Cold War is dead; there are fewer dictatorships; and 9/11 has created a whole new raison d'etre for covert action.

This book explains how the war on terrorism provides a wholly new context for the murky world secret services and intelligence agencies operate in, and describes in detail how ultra-modern new technologies have vastly increased their power to spy abroad and eavesdrop at home.

This up-to-date account raises important issues, including the new roles the secret services have found for themselves as they target 'rogue states', 'the war on drugs', and 'terrorists'. Most important of all, its authors explore the unsolved contradiction between the world of these secretive and unaccountable agencies operating on the fringes of the law, and the requirements of a free and democratic society. There is, they conclude, 'no easy walk to freedom'.