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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... northern afghanistan known as the northern alliance and began to sweep south in a remarkable offensive, other agencies in washington contemplated the political problem that had confounded policymakers since the departure of the Soviets ...
... northern alliance should have a greater or lesser share of “power” ministries in the Cabinet, for example—but Karzai's name as the potential leader of this fractious group was always at the top of the list of presidential candidates ...
... northern alliance troops had taken Kabul but before the fall of the Taliban stronghold of Qandahar in southern afghanistan, so it was not a typical diplomatic exercise. Before I left CIa headquarters for the assignment, I had met hank ...
... northern alliance soldiers stood to salute us, with matching uniforms but often wearing what appeared to be basketball shoes, presumably donated by their american sponsors. walking past the line, toward the waiting vehicles, it was hard ...
... northern alliance) representing several major ethnic groups, fighting another faction (the Taliban) comprised ofrival Pashtun tribals. and Karzai, viewed by the northerners as a southerner. and not only leadership rivalries from Day One ...
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 |