The Extreme Covert Catalog: World's Most Complete Guide to Electronic Surveillance, Covert and Exotic Equipment Supplies & Suppliers

Rating:
Summary: H. Michael Sweeney
Review: As author of The Professional Paranoid, I've had over 45 hours of national radio guest appearances and have provided consulting helps to hundreds of people around the world. It is rare to find such a concentrated wealth of truly useful information about tools of the trade as seen the Extreme Covert Catalog. Mr. Lapin is my hero, because within the first 72 hours of casual review of the manual, no fewer than three of the many exotic (and in this case, very new) toys listed in the handbook were to become useful in suggesting solutions to two different clients.

Regardless of if you are in the counterintelligence or the investigative side of the equation, this book will help you discover the tools available to you AND (more often) THE OTHER SIDE. It would be a significant disadvantage to operate without that knowledge, which includes many advanced toys used by law enforcement and the MIB. Lee Lapin helps you reduce that disadvantage and instead make it an advantage.

For those with an interest in activism, whistleblowing, political science or law (drafting legislation, law enforcement, the court system,) this book also offers significant value and insight into the nature of the beast. He who assumes the world is benevolent and without unwanted eyes and ears (and thus, does not get this book) will likely never realize why things don't seem to go as they should. Those that do get the book will likely rise to the need and be far more successful in reaching their goals.

This book is worth [price] and should be repurchased each year if a professional involved in such matters - unless willing to attend all the security conventions and continually keep in touch with the hundreds of technology providers in the field as has Mr. Lapin...

Rating:
Summary: What happened to Lee?
Review: Is this the same guy who wrote the How to Get Anything on Anybody books? It's hard to believe. This book is a complete waste of time. Most of the sources are old and useless. There's no new technology sourced. Nothing on newer stuff like frequency hopping/spread spectrum or SAW oscillators. Nothing even remotely interesting. It reads like a catalog and is one to some extent because some of the devices are sold by (Lapins?) company.
Save your money. Get a copy of How to Get Anything on Anybody (book II) or Now Hear This by Winston Arrington, or (maybe) the Basement Buggers Bible. There isn't any new info on this topic. If you are looking for high tech gear for the new millenium, you won't find it. It looks like it's been effectively suppressed by the FBI and congress.

Rating:
Summary: A horrible book.
Review: Lee Lapin's How to Get Anything on Anybody books were masterpieces. Buy those instead. This is a waste of money. There are no useful sources inside and Lapin didn't even bother to write much of his old snappy dialogue and witticisms. I am going to return my copy. I'm still waiting for Lee to come out with something like his older books. I'd suggest you pass on this one. Google will give you a better list of sources.