Luke Harding strana 2 z 2

1 November 2006. Alexander Litvinenko is brazenly poisoned in central London. Twenty two days later he dies, killed from the inside. The poison? Polonium; a rare, lethal and highly radioactive substance. His crime? He had made some powerful enemies in Russia. Based on the best part of a decade's reporting, as well as extensive interviews with those closest to the events (including the murder suspects), and access to trial evidence, Luke Harding's A Very Expensive Poison is the definitive inside story of the life and death of Alexander Litvinenko. Harding traces the journey of the nuclear poison across London, from hotel room to nightclub, assassin to victim; it is a deadly trail that seemingly leads back to the Russian state itself. Harding argues that Litvinenko's assassination marked the beginning of the deterioration of Moscow's relations with the west and a decade of geo-political disruptions - from the war in Ukraine, a civilian plane shot down, at least 7,000 dead, two million people displaced and a Russian president's defiant rejection of a law-based international order. With Russia's covert war in Ukraine and annexation of the Crimea, Europe and the US face a new Cold War, but with fewer certainties. This is a shocking real-life revenge tragedy with corruption and subterfuge at every turn, and walk-on parts from Russian mafia, the KGB, MI6 agents, dedicated British coppers, Russian dissidents. At the heart of this all is an individual and his family torn apart by a ruthless crime.

It began with an unsigned email: "I am a senior member of the intelligence community". What followed was the most spectacular intelligence breach ever, brought about by one extraordinary man. The consequences have shaken the leaders of nations worldwide, from Obama to Cameron, to the presidents of Brazil, France, and Indonesia, and the chancellor of Germany. Edward Snowden, a young computer genius working for America's National Security Agency, blew the whistle on the way this powerful organisation uses new technology to spy on the entire planet. The spies call it "mastering the internet". Others call it the death of individual privacy. This is the inside story of Snowden's deeds and the journalists who faced down the pressure from US and British governments to break a remarkable scoop. Snowden's story reads like a globe-trotting thriller, from the day he left his glamorous girlfriend on the island of Hawaii carrying a hard drive full of secrets, to the weeks of his secret-spilling in Hong Kong, and his battle for asylum. Now stuck in Moscow, a uniquely hunted man, he faces US espionage charges and an uncertain future in exile. What drove Snowden to sacrifice himself? Award-winning Guardian journalist Luke Harding answers the question which should trouble every citizen of the internet age.

Julian Assange: Internetes Messiás vagy kiberterrorista? Információs szabadságharcos vagy szexbűnök elkövetője? Ki az az ember, aki a történelem eddigi legnagyobb kiszivárogtatása mögött áll? Julian Assange egyike a legkülönösebb figuráknak, akikből valaha világszerte ismert celebritás lett. "Találmánya", a WikiLeaks internetes leleplező oldal felbőszítette az Egyesült Államokat, a világ egyetlen szuperhatalmát, a brit királyi famíliát, és forradalmat csinált Észak-Afrikában. A vita a WikiLeaks és Assange szerepéről odáig fajult, hogy amerikai politikusok a meggyilkolására szólítottak fel. David Leigh és Luke Harding, a Guardian díjnyertes újságírói központi szerepet játszottak abban, hogy a WikiLeaks és öt, a világ legismertebb orgánumai k özé számító lap közösen publikált válogatást a leleplező oldal által megszerzett több mint 250 ezer amerikai diplomáciai táviratból, valamint a sok százezer afgán és iraki titkosított hadinaplóból. Assange-ról és a WikiLeaksről sokan és sokat írtak m ár. Leihg és Harding a Guardian oknyomozó csapatával együtt azonban eddig ismeretlen terepre viszi az olvasót.