The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth

The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth
Mark Mazzetti (Author)

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Middle Eastern

A Pulitzer PrizeAwinning reporter’s riveting account of the transformation of the CIA and America’s special operations forces into man-hunting and killing machines in the world’s dark spaces: the new American way of war

The most momentous change in American warfare over the past decade has taken place away from the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, in the corners of the world where large armies can’t go. The Way of the Knife is the untold story of that shadow war: a campaign that has blurred the lines between soldiers and spies and lowered the bar for waging war across the globe. America has pursued its enemies with killer drones and special operations troops; trained privateers for assassination missions and used them to set up clandestine spying networks; and relied on mercurial dictators, untrustworthy foreign intelligence services, and proxy armies.

This new approach to war has been embraced by Washington as a lower risk, lower cost alternative to the messy wars of occupation and has been championed as a clean and surgical way of conflict. But the knife has created enemies just as it has killed them. It has fomented resentments among allies, fueled instability, and created new weapons unbound by the normal rules of accountability during wartime.

Mark Mazzetti tracks an astonishing cast of characters on the ground in the shadow war, from a CIA officer dropped into the tribal areas to learn the hard way how the spy games in Pakistan are played to the chain-smoking Pentagon official running an off-the-books spy operation, from a Virginia socialite whom the Pentagon hired to gather intelligence about militants in Somalia to a CIA contractor imprisoned in Lahore after going off the leash.

At the heart of the book is the story of two proud and rival entities, the CIA and the American military, elbowing each other for supremacy. The CIA, created as a Cold War espionage service, is now more than ever a paramilitary agency ordered by the White House to kill off America’s enemiesAin the mountains of Pakistan and the deserts of Yemen, in the tumultuous civil wars of North Africa and the chaos of Somalia. For its part, the Pentagon has become more like the CIA, dramatically expanding spying missions everywhere. Sometimes, as with the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, their efforts have been perfectly coordinated. Other times, including the failed operations disclosed here for the first time, they have not. For better or worse, their struggles will define American national security in the years to come.

• Rank: #13381 in Books
• Published on: 2013-04-09
• Released on: 2013-04-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .0" h x .0" w x .0" l, 1.00 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

Description #1 by Barnes & Noble:

Categories: Middle East - Poltics & Government * General. Contributors: Mark Mazzetti - Author. Format: Hardcover

Description #2 by Barnes & Noble:

Categories: Middle East - Poltics & Government * General. Contributors: Mark Mazzetti - Author. Format: NOOK Book

Description #3 by Overstock.com:

A Pulitzer Prize?winning reporters explosive account of the transformation of the CIA and Americas special forces into competing covert manhunting and killing operations?the new American way of war Osama bin Ladens demise was merely one sensational moment in the first decade of Americas shadow war, the transformation of the national security apparatus into a machine calibrated for manhunting operations. Beyond the ?big wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, America has pursued its enemies with killer robots and special operations troops; trained privateers for assassination missions and used them to set up clandestine spying networks; and relied on mercurial dictators, unreliable foreign intelligence services, and ragtag proxy armies. The shadow war has blurred the lines between soldiers and spies, lowered the bar for waging war around the globe, and changed for good how America fights its battles: This is the new way of war. A new military-intelligence complex has emerged. The CIA, created as a Cold War espionage service, is now more than ever a paramilitary agency ordered by the White House to kill off Americas enemies: from the sustained bombing campaign in the mountains of Pakistan and the deserts of Yemen and North Africa to the simmering clan wars in Somalia. For its part, the Pentagon has turned into the CIA, dramatically expanding spying missions in the dark spaces of US foreign policy, like Iran. The countries where radical groups have carved out wide, remote swaths of territory are often the very places most openly hostile to American intervention. Where the soldiers cant go, the United States sends drones, proxies, and guns for hire. Pulitzer Prize winner Mark Mazzetti examines these secret wars over the past decade, tracking key characters from the intelligence and military communities across the world. Among the characters we meet in The Way of ...