David Shayler (born 24 December 1965) is a British journalist and former MI5 (Security Service) officer. Shayler earned notoriety after being prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act 1989 for his passing secret documents to the Mail on Sunday in August 1997 that alleged that MI5 was paranoid about socialists, and that it had previously investigated Labour Party ministers Peter Mandelson, Jack Straw and Harriet Harman. David Shayler's website (davidshayler.com) is no longer being maintained by him.

Shayler was born in Middlesbrough. He attended John Hampden Grammar School in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire whose head teacher once described him as "a born rebel who sails close to the wind ... and suffers neither fools nor their arguments gladly". He later attended the University of Dundee starting in 1984 where he was editor of the student newspaper Annasach and was responsible for publishing extracts of the book Spycatcher by another former MI5 officer Peter Wright (banned in England at the time).^{[citation needed]} He graduated with a 2:1 degree in English (2nd class honours upper division) in July 1989. After leaving university he worked as a journalist at the Sunday Times newspaper although his employment was terminated six months later.

David (Hebrew: דָּוִד, דָּוִיד, Modern David Tiberian Dāwîḏ; ISO 259-3 Dawid; Strong's Daveed; beloved; Arabic: داوود‎ or داود‎ Dāwūd) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the second king of the United Kingdom of Israel and, according to the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, an ancestor of Jesus. David is seen as a major Prophet in Islamic traditions. His life is conventionally dated to c. 1040–970 BC, his reign over Judah c. 1010–1003 BC,^{[citation needed]} and his reign over the United Kingdom of Israel c. 1003–970 BC.^{[citation needed]} The Books of Samuel, 1 Kings, and 1 Chronicles are the only sources of information on David, although the Tel Dan stele records "House of David", which some take as confirmation of the existence in the mid-9th century BC of a Judean royal dynasty called the "House of David".

David is very important to Jewish, Christian and Islamic doctrine and culture. In Judaism, David, or David HaMelekh, is the King of Israel, and the Jewish people. Jewish tradition maintains that a direct descendant of David will be the Messiah. In Islam, he is known as Dawud, considered to be a prophet and the king of a nation. He is depicted as a righteous king, though not without faults, as well as an acclaimed warrior, musician, and poet, traditionally credited for composing many of the psalms contained in the Book of Psalms.

Jon Ronson (born 10 May 1967) is a Welsh journalist, documentary filmmaker, radio presenter and nonfiction author, whose works include The Men Who Stare At Goats. His journalism and columns have appeared in British publications including The Guardian newspaper, City Life and Time Out magazine. He has made several documentary films for television and two documentary series for Channel 4.

Ronson was born in Cardiff, Wales, in 1967; he attended Cardiff High School. He studied for a degree in Media Studies at Westminster University.

He is Jewish.

Ronson has a distinctive self-deprecating reporting style, which incorporates aspects of Gonzo journalism. His articles and stories often detail his process of information gathering and he is usually quite visible in his articles as a character. Ronson's documentary filmmaking style continues this theme and follows that of British documentary filmmaking pioneer Nick Broomfield. The journalist Louis Theroux has reviewed him favourably;John Safran and Harmon Leon have cited Ronson as an influence.^{[citation needed]} He is a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Annie Machon (born 1968) is a former British Security Service (MI5) intelligence officer who left the Service at the same time as David Shayler, her partner at the time, to help him blow the whistle about alleged criminality within the intelligence agencies. By doing this, they had to give up their careers, go on the run across Europe, live in hiding for a year, and then spend the next two years in exile in Paris. They, and many of their friends, family, supporters and journalists, claim to have been intimidated, and some of them were arrested, and put on trial. A death threat was announced against her on a middle eastern radio station.

In 2005, Machon published her first book, Spies, Lies and Whistleblowers: MI5, MI6 and the Shayler Affair in which she offers criticism of the Security Service and Secret Intelligence Service based on her observations of the two whilst in the employment of MI5. Machon has been accused by some of being involved with conspiracy theories.

Machon read Classics at Cambridge University and after her academic years started a career in publishing.