In a recent article for Cicero Magazine, retired Army Col. Philip Lisagor opines that CIA has drifted from an organization focused on collections and analysis to one consumed with finding, fixing and killing ambiguously designated terrorists. Lisagor’s point is intentionally uncomplicated: The agency traded in the unglamorous work of predictive analysis in order to drop bombs on ‘celebrity militants’. A compelling argument, but is it accurate?
With the release of 88 Days to Kandahar, Robert Grenier – the former CIA Chief of Station for Pakistan and director of the vaunted CIA Counterterrorism Center during the mid ‘00s – casts an introspective gaze on his involvement in the early actions of the War on Terror. A seasoned operative with a “natural advantage over desk-bound, bookish analytic types,” Grenier outlines in detail the integral role he – and the agency writ large – played in what is called ‘The First American-Afghan War’. Grenier’s tale is inflected by inter-personal conflicts at home and abroad. He offers a cautionary, firsthand perspective for the agents, bureaucrats and decision-makers who must work together to sort out the next chapter in America’s wars in Southwest Asia and the Middle East. Although unintended by its author, 88 Days (Simon & Schuster, 2015) also serves as a personal account of transformation and tumult from inside America’s leading spy agency.
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