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Surprise, kill, vanish : the secret history of CIA paramilitary armies, operators, and assassins / Annie Jacobsen.

By: Material type: TextTextLanguage: English Publisher: London : John Murray, 2019Copyright date: ©2019Edition: First editionDescription: xiii, 545 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
  • still image
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781529378528
Subject(s): Genre/Form: LOC classification:
  • JK468.I6 J334 2019
Contents:
Part I. 1941. An office for ungentlemanly warfare -- Tertia Optio -- Surprise attack in Korea -- Special Forces -- Ruin and rule in Guatemala -- Kings, shahs, monarchs, and madmen -- The KGB's office of liquid affairs -- Green light -- The special group -- Part II. 1961. An assassination capability -- JFK, KIA -- The studies and observations group -- Kill or capture -- Green Berets -- Revenge -- Colonel Qaddafi's Libya -- Part III. 1981. Reagan's preemptive neutralization -- Parachute assassins, Saddam Hussein, and Osama bin Laden -- Operation love storm -- Carlos the jackal -- The engineer -- Part IV. 2001. War in Afghanistan -- Poke the bear -- War in Iraq -- Imad Mugniyah -- The moral twilight zone -- Just war -- The hidden hand.
Summary: Surprise... your target. Kill... your enemy. Vanish... without a trace. From Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen, the untold story of the CIA's secret paramilitary units. When diplomacy fails, and war is unwise, the president calls on the CIA's Special Activities Division, a highly-classified branch of the CIA and the most effective, black operations force in the world. Originally known as the president's guerrilla warfare corps, SAD conducts risky and ruthless operations that have evolved over time to defend America from its enemies. Almost every American president since World War II has asked the CIA to conduct sabotage, subversion and, yes, assassination. With unprecedented access to forty-two men and women who proudly and secretly worked on CIA covert operations from the dawn of the Cold War to the present day, along with declassified documents and deep historical research, Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen unveils--like never before--a complex world of individuals working in treacherous environments populated with killers, connivers and saboteurs. Despite Hollywood notions of off-book operations and external secret hires, covert action is actually one piece in a colossal foreign policy machine. Written with the pacing of a thriller, Surprise, Kill, Vanish brings to vivid life the sheer pandemonium and chaos, as well as the unforgettable human will to survive and the intellectual challenge of not giving up hope that define paramilitary and intelligence work. Jacobsen's exclusive interviews--with members of the CIA's Senior Intelligence Service (equivalent to the Pentagon's generals), its counterterrorism chiefs, targeting officers, and Special Activities Division's Ground Branch operators who conduct today's close-quarters killing operations around the world--reveal, for the first time, the enormity of this shocking, controversial and morally complex terrain. Is the CIA's paramilitary army America's weaponized strength, or a liability to its principled standing in the world? Every operation reported in this book, however unsettling, is legal.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode
Book Book UAE Federation Library | مكتبة اتحاد الإمارات General Collection | المجموعات العامة JK468.I6 J334 2019 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) C.1 Library Use Only | داخل المكتبة فقط 30020000061712
Book Book UAE Federation Library | مكتبة اتحاد الإمارات General Collection | المجموعات العامة JK468.I6 J334 2019 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) C.2 Available 30020000061710

Includes bibliographical references (pages 459-525) and index.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 459-475) and index.

Part I. 1941. An office for ungentlemanly warfare -- Tertia Optio -- Surprise attack in Korea -- Special Forces -- Ruin and rule in Guatemala -- Kings, shahs, monarchs, and madmen -- The KGB's office of liquid affairs -- Green light -- The special group -- Part II. 1961. An assassination capability -- JFK, KIA -- The studies and observations group -- Kill or capture -- Green Berets -- Revenge -- Colonel Qaddafi's Libya -- Part III. 1981. Reagan's preemptive neutralization -- Parachute assassins, Saddam Hussein, and Osama bin Laden -- Operation love storm -- Carlos the jackal -- The engineer -- Part IV. 2001. War in Afghanistan -- Poke the bear -- War in Iraq -- Imad Mugniyah -- The moral twilight zone -- Just war -- The hidden hand.

Surprise... your target. Kill... your enemy. Vanish... without a trace. From Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen, the untold story of the CIA's secret paramilitary units. When diplomacy fails, and war is unwise, the president calls on the CIA's Special Activities Division, a highly-classified branch of the CIA and the most effective, black operations force in the world. Originally known as the president's guerrilla warfare corps, SAD conducts risky and ruthless operations that have evolved over time to defend America from its enemies. Almost every American president since World War II has asked the CIA to conduct sabotage, subversion and, yes, assassination. With unprecedented access to forty-two men and women who proudly and secretly worked on CIA covert operations from the dawn of the Cold War to the present day, along with declassified documents and deep historical research, Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen unveils--like never before--a complex world of individuals working in treacherous environments populated with killers, connivers and saboteurs. Despite Hollywood notions of off-book operations and external secret hires, covert action is actually one piece in a colossal foreign policy machine. Written with the pacing of a thriller, Surprise, Kill, Vanish brings to vivid life the sheer pandemonium and chaos, as well as the unforgettable human will to survive and the intellectual challenge of not giving up hope that define paramilitary and intelligence work. Jacobsen's exclusive interviews--with members of the CIA's Senior Intelligence Service (equivalent to the Pentagon's generals), its counterterrorism chiefs, targeting officers, and Special Activities Division's Ground Branch operators who conduct today's close-quarters killing operations around the world--reveal, for the first time, the enormity of this shocking, controversial and morally complex terrain. Is the CIA's paramilitary army America's weaponized strength, or a liability to its principled standing in the world? Every operation reported in this book, however unsettling, is legal.

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