The Way of the Knife: The CIA, A Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth

The Way of the Knife: The CIA, A Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth by Mark Mazzetti describes how since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, USA policy makers have steadily broken the wall separating the work of soldiers and spies.  This very interesting and informative book is nonfiction, but reads as an intriguing espionage novel . This well-researched book explores in detail the internal workings and missions of various government espionage agencies.  Mark Mazzetti is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist for the New York Times.  He currently serves as the Washington Investigations Editor for the Times.

The Way of the Knife: The CIA, A Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth describes how the CIA has slowly shifted its focus from intelligence gathering to lethal operations.  The book also describes how the USA military has a secret army that has grown into conducting intelligence operations of its own.  This includes the tensions that have arisen between this secret army and the CIA.  The author presents the deteriorating relationship between the CIA and Pakistan’s ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence).

This book explains the goals and objectives of these intelligence agencies. The book also names the people who played a role in the creation of various programs. One of these programs includes the assassination of the enemies of the United States. Main characters mentioned in this book were with the CIA, Department of Defense, White House, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. The prologue offers a quick look at “the war beyond.”

The chapters cover the following topics:

1. Permission to kill

2. Marriage between spies

3. Men with cloak and dagger

4. Rumsfeld’s spies

5. Angry bird

6. A true Pashtun

7. Convergence

8. A war by proxy

9. The Base

10. The Scalpel’s edge

11. The scramble for Africa

12. The unraveling

13. The doctor and the sheik

14. Fire from the sky.

Several covert missions are mentioned including the hunt and eventual demise of Osama Bin Landen in a US Navy SEAL raid.

This book is well written and it is clear that the writer has done excellent research on this subject. The book flows easily and the story is compelling that keeps you turning pages.

SUGGESTED READING:  My review of Dirty Wars: The World Is A Battlefield.  The plot is similar to this.

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