BooksBarbecue
Back A Shadow Intelligence Save as PDF
Chapters (58)
  1. Cover
  2. Also by Oliver Harris
  3. ONE
  4. TWO
  5. THREE
  6. FOUR
  7. FIVE
  8. SIX
  9. SEVEN
  10. EIGHT
  11. NINE
  12. TEN
  13. ELEVEN
  14. TWELVE
  15. THIRTEEN
  16. FOURTEEN
  17. FIFTEEN
  18. SIXTEEN
  19. SEVENTEEN
  20. EIGHTEEN
  21. NINETEEN
  22. TWENTY
  23. TWENTY-ONE
  24. TWENTY-TWO
  25. TWENTY-THREE
  26. TWENTY-FOUR
  27. TWENTY-FIVE
  28. TWENTY-SIX
  29. TWENTY-SEVEN
  30. TWENTY-EIGHT
  31. TWENTY-NINE
  32. THIRTY
  33. THIRTY-ONE
  34. THIRTY-TWO
  35. THIRTY-THREE
  36. THIRTY-FOUR
  37. THIRTY-FIVE
  38. THIRTY-SIX
  39. THIRTY-SEVEN
  40. THIRTY-EIGHT
  41. THIRTY-NINE
  42. FORTY
  43. FORTY-ONE
  44. FORTY-TWO
  45. FORTY-THREE
  46. FORTY-FOUR
  47. FORTY-FIVE
  48. FORTY-SIX
  49. FORTY-SEVEN
  50. FORTY-EIGHT
  51. FORTY-NINE
  52. FIFTY
  53. FIFTY-ONE
  54. FIFTY-TWO
  55. FIFTY-THREE
  56. FIFTY-FOUR
  57. FIFTY-FIVE
  58. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Data, hacked or otherwise, was processed in the UK, analysed, written up and fed through to the PR and lobbying company who had hired Vectis on behalf of Saracen: Piper Anderson Communications. They served as the buffer between a FTSE-listed energy company and people affixing listening devices to coffee tables. I knew Piper Anderson – Lucy Piper used to be head of communications at Downing Street. First time I encountered her she was escorting the PM around Basra, corralling press as they documented a new school for girls. Piper Anderson offered an all-in-one package: lobbying, damage limitation, agenda-steering, legal muscle, cleaning of the internet and subversion of any opposition. If you wanted a think tank promoting the concept that human rights thrived on the discovery of oilfields, it would be blogging by breakfast, academics on-message, with politicians having quiet words to journalists over lunch. They had a lot of former ministers on their board.

Piper Anderson hired spies so the corporates didn’t have to.

I read through Joanna’s reports on political groups and systems of decision-making in the Kazakh government, and the tone was flat. A quick search revealed that a lot of it was gleaned from subscription to other intelligence companies like Stratfor, which was common enough practice but not for Joanna Lake. Some came straight from the Oil and Gas Financial Journal. I could see why Walker wasn’t worried about a sudden absence of product.

More useful was a brief summary of those rivals with skin in the game. The US energy company Chevron had big fields in operation in Kazakhstan and had brought over at least three private intelligence firms. Turkey and China both saw Central Asia as their backyard, fielding fierce resources out of vast and well-practised intelligence services. Russia’s FSB loomed large. Then there was Kazakhstan’s own intelligence service: KGB remnants, like most post-Soviet states. That was worth remembering.

Between their Sigint and Joanna’s inquiries they’d counted eleven other intelligence operations currently active, state and private, all in relation to Kazakhstan’s energy sector. Astana was what the Germans called an Agentsumpf, a spy swamp. Things heated up in an Agentsumpf. The chaos bred a sense of impunity, of minimal blowback. You ended up giving each other cover. It got messy.