Frost, Mike and Gratton, Michel. Spyworld: Inside the Canadian and American Intelligence Establishments. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1994. 280 pages.

This book exposes the Communications Security Establishment for the first time. Mike Frost, a 19-year veteran of CSE, wrote it with the assistance of Toronto Sun columnist Michel Gratton. CSE is Canada's equivalent of the National Security Agency, and is responsible for Canada's communications-intercept operations. Much of the equipment Frost used came from the NSA (the U.S. National Security Agency), and Frost visited NSA's facilities several times for training and other official business.

Apart from the descriptions of intercept technology and Moscow's communications satellites, the most significant contribution of this book is that it reveals the extensive cooperation among Canada's CSE, Britain's GCHQ, and the American NSA. The three are almost a single entity, and are able to function outside the laws of their own countries through the simple expedient of secretly shifting assignments among them whenever the legal situation might prove embarrassing. So when Margaret Thatcher asked GCHQ to spy on two of her ministers in 1983, GCHQ felt it was too hot to handle and invited CSE to visit London and bring their intercept equipment. Now the "take" is considered "information from a friendly agency," no warrants are needed, and everyone is laughing all the way to their computers. Except for a couple of cabinet ministers, that is.
ISBN 0-385-25494-6

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