By Jack Devine

"A refined, deeply expert account of actual existence within the genuine CIA that provides immeasurably to the general public knowing of the espionage culture—the reliable and the bad." —Bob Woodward

Jack Devine ran Charlie Wilson’s conflict in Afghanistan. It used to be the biggest covert motion of the chilly struggle, and it used to be Devine who positioned the brand-new Stinger missile into the palms of the mujahideen in the course of their conflict with the Soviets, paving the right way to a decisive victory opposed to the Russians. He additionally driven the CIA’s attempt to run down the narcotics trafficker Pablo Escobar in Colombia. He attempted to warn the director of valuable intelligence, George guiding principle, that there has been a bullet coming from Iraq along with his identify on it. He was once in Chile whilst Allende fell, and he had an excessive amount of to do with Iran-Contra for his personal style, even though he attempted to forestall it. And he tangled with Rick Ames, the KGB secret agent contained in the CIA, and hunted Robert Hanssen, the mole within the FBI.

       Good searching: An American Spymaster’s tale is the spellbinding memoir of Devine’s time within the valuable Intelligence business enterprise, the place he served for greater than thirty years, emerging to develop into the appearing deputy director of operations, accountable for all the CIA’s spying operations. it is a tale of intrigue and high-stakes maneuvering, the entire extra gripping whilst the destiny of our geopolitical order hangs within the stability. yet this e-book additionally sounds a caution to our nation’s choice makers: covert operations, no longer expensive and devastating full-scale interventions, are the easiest shield of America’s pursuits worldwide.

       half memoir, half old redress, Good Hunting debunks outright the various myths surrounding the organisation and cautions opposed to its misuses. underneath the unique allure—living overseas together with his spouse and 6 young children, operating operations in seven nations, and serving successive presidents from Nixon to Clinton—this is a realist, gimlet-eyed account of the enterprise. Now, as Devine sees it, the CIA is trapped inside of a bigger forms, wasting swaths of turf to the army, and, so much ominous of all, is changing into overly weighted towards paramilitary operations after a decade of struggle. Its capability to do what it does best—spying and covert action—has been heavily degraded.

       reliable looking sheds mild on the various CIA’s inner most secrets and techniques and spans an illustrious tenure—and by no means sooner than has an performing deputy director of operations come forth with such an account. With the old acumen of Steve Coll’s Ghost Wars and gripping situations that evoke the novels of John le Carré while they hew heavily to the evidence at the floor, Devine bargains a grasp type in spycraft.

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Extra resources for Good Hunting: An American Spymaster's Story

Sample text

Rather, I was guarded, both because he could be hard to read and, as I’ve said, difficult to understand. There’s one moment when I understood his words—but failed to understand the wisdom in them. It was unwise of me. I was meeting with him about Afghanistan, and I finished by saying I thought I needed a staff of about six dozen for the Afghan Task Force. He looked at me quizzically. “Jack, are you sure this is right? ” he asked. “Yes, I am,” I said. He was right to question my manpower estimate.

Early in the course, I learned a lesson that stuck with me ever after: you can’t tell a survivor by his looks. Back at camp, embarking on our mission, I spotted a very self-confident colleague who looked like a former Green Beret and was dressed like Jungle Jim, with a feather tucked in his Indiana Jones hat. I figured his was the team to be on, so I positioned myself accordingly. I noticed he wasn’t paying any attention whatsoever to the way we had been instructed to carry a machete into the swamps.

Sadly, I have watched these stars increase in number each year. Many remain anonymous because of their covert status. Because secrecy is so critical to everything the CIA does, the people who work there become obsessed with betrayal. At its worst, this obsession can lead to paranoia, like that demonstrated by the Agency’s legendary spy hunter James Jesus Angleton, who came to believe that nearly all our agents were “moles” penetrating the CIA. Angleton himself had fallen victim to betrayal by the infamous British defector Kim Philby.

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