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The Secret History of the Fight Against Terror
Bloomsbury Press
January 2012
On Sale: January 2, 2012
272 pages ISBN: 1608194817 EAN: 9781608194810 Kindle: B006VRY19W Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
The shock of the 9/11 attacks sent the American intelligence
community into hyperactive growth. Five hundred billion
dollars of spending in the Bush-Cheney years turned the U.S.
spy network into a monster: 200,000-plus employees, stations
in 170 countries, and an annual budget of more than $75
billion. Armed with cutting-edge surveillance gear,
high-tech weapons, and fleets of armed and unarmed drone
aircraft, America deploys the most advanced intel force in
history. But even after the celebrated strike against Osama Bin
Laden, America's spies are still struggling to beat a host
of ragtag enemies around the world. In Intel Wars, preeminent secrecy and intelligence historian
Matthew Aid ("our reigning expert on the NSA"-Seymour M.
Hersh) delivers the inside stories of how and why our shadow
war against extremism has floundered. Spendthrift,
schizophrenic policies leave next-generation spy networks
drowning in raw data, resource-starved, and choked on
paperwork. Overlapping jurisdictions stall CIA operatives,
who wait seventy-two hours for clearance to attack
fast-moving Taliban IE D teams. U.S. military
computers-their classified hard drives still in place-turn
up for sale at Afghan bazaars. Swift, tightly focused
operations like the Bin Laden strike are the exception
rather than the rule. Intel Wars-based on extensive, on-the-ground interviews, and
revelations from Wikileaks cables and other newly
declassified documents-shows how our soldier-spies are still
fighting to catch up with the enemy. Matthew Aid captures
the lumbering behemoth that is the U.S.
military-intelligence complex in one comprehensive
narrative, and distills the unprecedented challenges to our
security into a compelling- and sobering-read.
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