Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

The title of this book alludes to the style of warfare adopted by the post 9/11 CIA (and other American military organisations) in handling clandestine war- shoot first, ask questions later.

Mark Mazzetti is the Pulitzer prize winning journalist working for the New York Times. He has had many articles published on the CIA and American national security. The Way of the Knife is his first book.

Mazzetti mainly focuses on the ongoing turf-battles and other bureaucratic head-butting going on between the CIA and the Pentagon in their clandestine operations in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia. He begins with a quick recap of how the CIA was censored by the Ford administration after their unauthorised operations (including assassination and gun-running) in Latin America. However post 9/11, Mazzetti paints a picture that the CIA was floundering and turned to drone-warfare because they had no other option left. The Pentagon therefore had to end up funding all kinds of people -including people who designed PC games- to collect data in the Islamic World; even a middle aged American woman -with absolutely no experience in clandestine work- to collect usable intelligence under the guise of humanitarian aid in Somalia. Incidents such as the shooting of turned-terrorists who were actually working for the CIA by the army, or MI5 informants shot by the CIA ad ISI men are recounted in a deadpan manner. The strange relationship between the ISI, the intelligence wing of the Pakistani army -believed to have connections with both the Taliban and the al-Qaeda- and the CIA is the focus of quite a few chapters. This is clearly a pre-Edward Snowden book and the NSA makes only one cursory appearance.

Mark Mazzetti has collected a tremendous amount of material in various forms: interviews, secret reports, court hearings and a host of others and speaks with tremendous authority. While he adopts a decidedly neutral tone, there is an underlying sense of dread that something in the American defence and political setup has gone horribly wrong. Whether it is the privatization of war through the hiring dubious paramilitaries (the now notorious Blackwater firm) or the uncontrolled killing of vaguely defined "threats to national security".

Since the War on Terror is unfinished, the book ends on a disconcerting note: Obama has only increased the drone operations after his re-election and the Pentagon's vague funding operations are only just beginning. Even the killing of bin-Laden has brought no closure. Overall The Way of the Knife offers an excellent view to anybody interested in the secret goings-on in some of the most forgotten and dangerous places in the world.