Operation Dark Heart: Spycraft and Special Ops on the Frontlines of Afghanistan -- and the Path to Victory »

LT. COL. ANTHONY SHAFFER is a Bronze Star Medal recipient and a lieutenant colonel in the U. S. Army Reserve. He is a CIA-trained senior intelligence operations officer with more than twenty-two years of experience in the intelligence community. Currently, he is a Fellow and Special Lecturer at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies in Washington, D.C.

IMPORTANT PUBLISHER S NOTE: On Friday, August 13, 2010, just as St. Martin's Press was readying its initial shipment of this book, the Department of Defense contacted us to express its concern that our publication of Operation Dark Heart could cause damage to U.S. national security. After consulting with our author, we agreed to incorporate some of the government's changes into a revised edition of his book while redacting other text he was told was classified. The newly revised book keeps our national interests secure, but this highly qualified warrior's story is still intact.

An exciting eye-witness account of fighting terrorism in Afghanistan using the military’s most cutting-edge espionage tactics

Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer had been part of espionage operations for years before he went into the field to help fight the war in Afghanistan. He led the charge in blocking the Taliban’s resurgence. But the policies that top officials relied on were hopelessly flawed. Shaffer and his team were forced to sit and watch as the insurgency grew just across the border in Pakistan.

This wasn’t the first time he saw bureaucracy stand in the way of national security. He had participated in Able Danger, the aborted intelligence operation that identified many of the future 9/11 terrorists but failed to pursue them. His attempt to reveal it to the 9/11 Commission would not sit well with the top brass and would eventually cost him his job.

For readers of Jawbreaker and Kill Bin Laden, Operation Dark Heart reveals what really went on, and what went wrong, in the Afghanistan war. Filled with stories of espionage and intrigue in the combat zone, Shaffer shows the spy’s side of the story

Library Journal

Shaffer, now an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, was for years a covert intelligence operative for the Pentagon. In this autobiographical account of his work in Afghanistan and his eventual fall from grace at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), he describes some of his experiences. After galleys were distributed, the Pentagon, with second thoughts about its approval of the book's release, bought up the entire first print run. The newly approved edition has all the same pages but with numerous redactions blacking out parts of the text. Like many autobiographies, this one seems self-serving and should not necessarily be taken fully at face value. Shaffer includes his formula for winning the seemingly endless war in Afghanistan. Readers interested in real-life spy stories will be attracted, and there is likely to be increased interest now that the book has been in the news.