CIA at War: Inside the Secret Campaign Against Terror » (REV)

RONALD KESSLER is the New York Times bestselling author of The Terrorist Watch, The Bureau, Inside the White House, and The CIA at War. A former reporter for the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, he has won sixteen journalism awards. Kessler lives in Potomac, Maryland, with his wife, Pamela.

From the Hardcover edition.

The CIA at War reveals:

- How the CIA devised the plan to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan, rolled up half the senior leaders of al Qaeda, and sent commandoes to prepare the way for U.S. forces invading Iraq.

- Which press report that the U.S. was listening in on conversations of Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants led them to stop using the satellite phone that was being monitored.

- How the CIA clandestinely uses mullahs to convey a more moderate message to the Arab world and to support the U.S. military intervention in Iraq.

- How the CIA bugs or intercepts the communications of al Qaeda leaders, OPEC ministers, United Nations delegates, ambassadors, foreign leaders, and weapons inspectors.

- The truth behind the charge that Vice President Dick Cheney repeatedly visited the CIA as part of an effort to hype the agency's intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

- How a CIA officer in Iraq, who had been targeted for assassination or kidnapping by the Iraqi Intelligence Service, returned to Iraq after the war and captured his own pursuer.

- How the CIA uses sensors to penetrate camouflage, determine if weapons of mass destruction are being manufactured, and pinpoint bombing targets.

- How previous CIA Director John Deutch approved a hare-brained scheme to pay off a CIA operative, whose job had been to break into embassies overseas, to keep him from revealing to his targets that the CIA had stolen their communication codes.

- How the Israelis break into CIA officers' homes to gather intelligence.

- Why the CIA shut out the FBI when interrogating Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Osama bin Laden's chief of operations.

- How the CIA ignored failed polygraph results of 300 of its employees.

- How President Clinton, over CIA protests, diverted satellites from finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

- How the CIA obtains secret communication codes of friendly countries like France and South Korea.

- What George Tenet's and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III's biggest secret is.

Booklist

"An assiduous journalist...His latest book is a history of the FBI since its origin in 1908 and is structured around directors'' tenures . . . Kessler''s access to reliable sources results in a richly detailed overview."

— Gilbert Taylor