Synopses & Reviews
"James Risen has established himself as the finest national security reporter of this generation, a field crowded with first rank talent." —Newsweek
“An important and powerful book that should be read by anyone who believes it is time to take stock after thirteen years and re-evaluate the nature of the threat the country faces and its response to the atrocity of 9/11.” —New York Times Book Review
Ever since 9/11 America has fought an endless war on terror, seeking enemies everywhere and never promising peace. In Pay Any Price, Pulitzer Prize winner James Risen reveals an extraordinary litany of the hidden costs of that war: billions of dollars that went missing from Iraq only to turn up in a bunker in Lebanon; whistleblowers abused, including a staffer on the House Intelligence Committee persecuted by the F.B.I. for expressing her concerns about the NSA spying on U.S. citizens; and an entire professional organization, the American Psychological Association, forced to investigate its own involvement with the government’s use of torture. In the name of fighting terrorism, our government has perpetrated acts that rival the shameful historic wartime abuses of generations past, and it has worked very hard to cover them up. James Risen brings them into the light.
“[Pay Any Price is] a wide-ranging look at consequences of the so-called war on terror and includes stories of shocking thievery during the U.S. occupation of Iraq.” —U.S. News & World Report
“A no-holds-barred tarring and feathering of the past thirteen years of the U.S. national security system. At times frightening, Risen’s book is a strong reminder of the importance of a free press keeping a powerful government in check.” —Daily Beast
Review
and#8220;While the peak of drone usage may have passed, we will be evaluating and reevaluating the legality, justice, and utility of the drone war for decades. Cortright, Fairhurst, and Wall provide an important contribution to the broader discussion on drone warfare. Readers with an interest in political affairs and the use of force will find this book fascinating, and those studying international relations and international law will also find much to like."
Review
andquot;Lichtblau brings ample investigative skills and an elegant writing style to this unsavory but important story.
The Nazis Next Door is a captivating book rooted in first-rate research.andquot; andmdash;
The New York Times Book Review andquot;A fast paced, important book about the Justice Departmentandrsquo;s efforts to bring Nazi war criminals in the US to justice that also uses recently declassified facts to expose the secret, reprehensible collaboration of US intelligence agencies with those very Nazis.andquot; andmdash; Elizabeth Holtzman, United States House of Representatives (former)
and#160;
Review
andldquo;Drones and the Future of Armed Conflict is a welcome addition to the growing literature on drone warfare, bringing together specialists on strategy, human rights, ethics, and law to discuss the implications of drone use for each of these areas. In particular, Cortright and Fairhurst make a forceful and convincing case for why drones or a militarized strategy more generally should not be central to our counterterrorism policy.andrdquo;
Synopsis
A Pulitzer Prize winning 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. 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."
Synopsis
"The new American way of war is here, but the debate about it has only just begun. In The Way of the Knife, Mr Mazzetti has made a valuable contribution to it." --The Economist A Pulitzer Prize-winning 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. 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.
Synopsis
A Pulitzer Prizewinning reporters riveting account of the CIAs transformation after 9/11 and the new American way of war The most momentous change in American warfare over the past decade has taken place in the corners of the world where large armies cant go. The CIA, originally 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. In The Way of the Knife, Pulitzer Prizewinning New York Times reporter Mark Mazzetti recounts the untold story of Americas shadow war, one that blurred the lines between soldiers and spies and lowered the bar for waging war across the globe. This new approachcarried out by CIA operatives and special operations troopshas been embraced by Washington as a lower-risk and cost effective alternative to the messy wars of occupation, but as Mazzetti demonstrates in this revealing book, the way of the knife has created enemies just as it has killed them.
Synopsis
A Pulitzer Prizeand#150;winning reporterand#8217;s riveting account of the CIAand#8217;s transformation after 9/11 and the new American way of war The most momentous change in American warfare over the past decade has taken place in the corners of the world where large armies canand#8217;t go. The CIA, originally created as a Cold War espionage service, is now more than ever a paramilitary agency ordered by the White House to kill off Americaand#8217;s enemies. In The Way of the Knife, Pulitzer Prizeand#150;winning New York Times reporter Mark Mazzetti recounts the untold story of Americaand#8217;s shadow war, one that blurred the lines between soldiers and spies and lowered the bar for waging war across the globe. This new approachand#151;carried out by CIA operatives and special operations troopsand#151;has been embraced by Washington as a lower-risk and cost effective alternative to the messy wars of occupation, but as Mazzetti demonstrates in this revealing book, the way of the knife has created enemies just as it has killed them.
Synopsis
A revelatory secret history of how America became home to thousands of Nazi war criminals after World War II, many of whom were brought here by the OSS and CIAand#8212;by the New York Times reporter who broke the story and who has interviewed dozens of agents for the first time.
Synopsis
The shocking story of how America became one of the worldand#8217;s safest postwar havens for Nazis and#160; Until recently, historians believed America gave asylum only to key Nazi scientists after World War II, along with some less famous perpetrators who managed to sneak in and who eventually were exposed by Nazi hunters. But the truth is much worse, and has been covered up for decades: the CIA and FBI brought thousands of perpetrators to America as possible assets against their new Cold War enemies. When the Justice Department finally investigated and learned the truth, the results were classified and buried.
Using the dramatic story of one former perpetrator who settled in New Jersey, conned the CIA into hiring him, and begged for the agencyand#8217;s support when his wartime identity emerged, Eric Lichtblau tells the full, shocking story of how America became a refuge for hundreds of postwar Nazis.
Synopsis
During the past decade, armed drones have entered the American military arsenal as a core tactic for countering terrorism. When coupled with access to reliable information, they make it possible to deploy lethal force accurately across borders while keeping oneandrsquo;s own soldiers out of harmandrsquo;s way. The potential to direct force with great precision also offers the possibility of reducing harm to civilians. At the same time, because drones eliminate some of the traditional constraints on the use of forceandmdash;like the need to gain political support for full mobilizationandmdash;they lower the threshold for launching military strikes. The development of drone use capacity across dozens of countries increases the need for global standards on the use of these weapons to assure that their deployment is strategically wise and ethically and legally sound.
Presenting a robust conversation among leading scholars in the areas of international legal standards, counterterrorism strategy, humanitarian law, and the ethics of force, Drones and the Future of Armed Conflict takes account of current American drone campaigns and the developing legal, ethical, and strategic implications of this new way of warfare. Among the contributions to this volume are a thorough examination of the American governmentandrsquo;s legal justifications for the targeting of enemies using drones, an analysis of American drone campaignsandrsquo; notable successes and failures, and a discussion of the linked issues of human rights, freedom of information, and government accountability.
Synopsis
Ever since 9/11 America has fought an endless war on terror, seeking enemies everywhere and never promising peace. In
Pay Any Price, James Risen reveals an extraordinary litany of the hidden costs of that war: from squandered and stolen dollars, to outrageous abuses of power, to wars on normalcy, decency, and truth. In the name of fighting terrorism, our government has done things every bit as shameful as its historic wartime abuses—and until this book, it has worked very hard to cover them up.
Lincoln suspended habeas corpus. FDR interned thousands of Japanese-Americans. Presidents Bush and Obama now must face their own reckoning. Power corrupts, but it is endless war that corrupts absolutely.
About the Author
ERIC LICHTBLAU is a Pulitzer Prizeandndash;winning investigative reporter in the Washington bureau of the New York Times and has written about legal, political, and national security issues in the capital since 1999. He was the co-recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in 2006 for his stories in the New York Times disclosing the existence of a secret wiretapping program approved by President George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks. He was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times for fifteen years before joining the New York Times in 2002. A graduate of Cornell University, he is the author of Bushandrsquo;s Law: The Remaking of American Justice, which one reviewer called andldquo;All the Presidentandrsquo;s Men for an Age of Terror.andrdquo; In the course of research for The Nazis Next Door, he was a visiting fellow at the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. He lives outside Washington with his wife and children.