Described by a former senior Intelligence official as a 'long-term thorn
in the side of the intelligence establishment', Richard Norton-Taylor
reveals the secrets of his forty-year career as a journalist covering
the world of spies and their masters in Whitehall.
Early in his career, Norton-Taylor successfully campaigned against
official secrecy, gaining a reputation inside the Whitehall
establishment and the outside world alike for his relentless
determination to expose wrongdoing and incompetence. His special targets
have always been the security and intelligence agencies and the Ministry
of Defence, institutions that often hide behind the cloak of national
security to protect themselves from embarrassment and accountability.
Encouraged by his trusted contacts in intelligence agencies and
Whitehall departments, Norton-Taylor was among the first of the few
journalists to consistently attack the planned invasion of Iraq in 2003,
and subsequently covered the devastating evidence of every witness in
the Chilcot inquiry in the Guardian . With unique access to a wide
array of defence sources, The State of Secrecy offers a provocative
and rare insight into the disputes among top military commanders as they
struggled to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with under-resourced and
ill-equipped troops.
Winner of numerous awards for his journalism, Norton-Taylor is one of
the most respected defence and security journalists of his generation.
The State of Secrecy is an illuminating, critical and provocative
account of the author's experiences investigating this secret world.
