The triple agent the al-Qaeda mole who infiltrated the CIA

This work is a narrative account of the mysterious Jordanian who penetrated both the inner circle of al-Qaeda and the highest reaches of the CIA, with a devastating impact on the war on terror. In December 2009, a group of the CIA's top terrorist hunters gathered at a secret base in Khost, Afgh...

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Main Author: Warrick, Joby.
Format: Books Print Book
Language: English
Published: New York : Doubleday, c2011.
Edition: 1st ed.
Subjects:
Online Access: Go to Downloadable eBook Here.
Summary: This work is a narrative account of the mysterious Jordanian who penetrated both the inner circle of al-Qaeda and the highest reaches of the CIA, with a devastating impact on the war on terror. In December 2009, a group of the CIA's top terrorist hunters gathered at a secret base in Khost, Afghanistan, to greet a rising superspy: Humam Khalil al-Balawi, a Jordanian double agent who infiltrated the upper ranks of al-Qaeda. For months, he had sent shocking revelations from inside the terrorist network and now promised to help the CIA assassinate Osama bin Laden's top deputy. Instead, as he stepped from his car, he detonated a thirty-pound bomb strapped to his chest, instantly killing seven CIA operatives, the agency's worst loss of life in decades. In this book the author, a reporter, takes us deep inside the CIA's secret war against al-Qaeda, a war that pits robotic planes and laser guided missiles against a cunning enemy intent on unleashing carnage in American cities. Flitting precariously between the two sides was Balawi, a young man with extraordinary gifts who managed to win the confidence of hardened terrorists as well as veteran spymasters. With his breathtaking accounts from inside al-Qaeda's lair, Balawi appeared poised to become America's greatest double agent in half a century, but he was not at all what he seemed. Combining the powerful momentum of Black Hawk Down with the institutional insight of Jane Mayer's The Dark Side, the author takes the readers on a harrowing journey from the slums of Amman to the inner chambers of the White House in an untold true story of miscalculation, deception, and revenge.
Physical Description: 244 p. ; 25 cm.
Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 9780385534185
0385534183
Author Notes: Joby Warrick was born on August 4, 1960. He received a B. A. from Temple University. He has been a reporter for the Washington Post since 1996. He shared the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service with Melanie Sill and Pat Stith for a series of articles about North Carolina's hog industry and the environmental and health risks of the waste disposal systems the industry uses. He is the author of The Triple Agent and Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS, which won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.

(Bowker Author Biography)