Takedown: Inside the Hunt for Al QaedaOn September 11, 2001, as Central Intelligence Agency analyst Philip Mudd rushed out of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House, he could not anticipate how far the terror unleashed that day would change the world of intelligence and his life as a CIA officer. For the previous fifteen years, his role had been to interpret raw intelligence and report his findings to national security decision makers. But within weeks of the 9/11 attacks, he would be on a military aircraft, flying over the Hindu Kush mountains, en route to Afghanistan as part of the U.S. government's effort to support the fledging government there after U.S. forces had toppled the Taliban. Later, Mudd would be appointed deputy director of the CIA's rapidly expanding Counterterrorist Center and then senior intelligence adviser at the FBI. A first-person account of Mudd's role in two organizations that changed dramatically after 9/11, Takedown sheds light on the inner workings of the intelligence community during the global counterterror campaign. |
From inside the book
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... never to tell their fathers that they love them. But perhaps they can write it. thank you, papa, for everything you gave us, and everything you taught us. Break out a deck of cards. This page intentionally left blank.
... never be able to pursue a doctorate and settle into a professorship. as I searched for the next step, teaching kids to love literature seemed like a good option: until threedozen high schools rejected my resume, all in similar letters ...
... never forget it. “what do you want?” the armed guard asked. and, like naive college graduates the world over, I thought I had a good explanation for a rash drive across town to one of the most secure facilities in washington. “I ...
... never work. another trip in my Chevette, whose engine at this point had the unfortunate habit of regularly cutting off entirely in 65-mile-per-hour traffic on washington's beltway, the commuter highway that encircles the city. another ...
... never mess with polygraphers, a rule I kept during the many polygraphs that followed over the next quarter-century. without receiving any coaching on interview skills—I don't recollect even thinking about practicing how to answer the ...
Contents
1 | |
2 A Return to Langley | 27 |
Moving Beyond the Core of Al Qaeda | 70 |
The Intelligence Problem of Iraq | 90 |
Deputy Director of the Counterterrorist Center | 104 |
6 The Years of Threat | 135 |
The FBI Calls | 145 |
Intelligence at the Department of Homeland Security | 191 |
Index | 199 |