After September events, American authorities adopted a new type of warfare to combat Islamic extremism. In addition to their battles in Afghanistan and Iraq, they engaged in a third, hidden war, occurring in the shadows from afar and in distant parts of the world. Instead of costly wars with money and lives, the U.S. administration embraced these new, claimed-to-be clean, economical, and localized wars. They managed to eliminate their adversaries remotely using drones and special operations. Individuals were chosen and trained for assassination missions and creating secret espionage networks. The U.S. president could select a name from a list to have the person eliminated wherever they were in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, or elsewhere. How did the CIA transform after the September events, under the White House’s orders, into a people-hunting and killing machine? Mazzetti, from his position as a national security correspondent, takes us inside the CIA offices to reveal information about one of the world's most secretive wars and introduces us to remarkable field operatives involved in this covert war. From an officer named Cofer Black, driven to hunt Osama bin Laden, to an officer sent to tribal areas to learn espionage in Pakistan, to a retired CIA member imprisoned in Lahore after losing control over his superiors. Shadow Wars is also about fierce rivalry among three giant American institutions: the CIA, Pentagon, and White House.

Publishing house: The Distribution and Publishing Company

Number of Pages: 348

Year of publication: 2015