From Warsaw with Love
Polish Spies, the CIA, and the Forging of an Unlikely Alliance
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- R$ 67,90
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- R$ 67,90
Publisher Description
From Warsaw with Love is the epic story of how Polish intelligence officers forged an alliance with the CIA in the twilight of the Cold War, told by the award-winning author John Pomfret.
Spanning decades and continents, from the battlefields of the Balkans to secret nuclear research labs in Iran and embassy grounds in North Korea, this saga begins in 1990. As the United States cobbles together a coalition to undo Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, six US officers are trapped in Iraq with intelligence that could ruin Operation Desert Storm if it is obtained by the brutal Iraqi dictator. Desperate, the CIA asks Poland, a longtime Cold War foe famed for its excellent spies, for help. Just months after the Polish people voted in their first democratic election since the 1930s, the young Solidarity government in Warsaw sends a veteran ex-Communist spy who’d battled the West for decades to rescue the six Americans.
John Pomfret’s gripping account of the 1990 cliffhanger in Iraq is just the beginning of the tale about intelligence cooperation between Poland and the United States, cooperation that one CIA director would later describe as “one of the two foremost intelligence relationships that the United States has ever had.” Pomfret uncovers new details about the CIA’s black site program that held suspected terrorists in Poland after 9/11 as well as the role of Polish spies in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
In the tradition of the most memorable works on espionage, Pomfret’s book tells a distressing and disquieting tale of moral ambiguity in which right and wrong, black and white, are not conveniently distinguishable. As the United States teeters on the edge of a new cold war with Russia and China, Pomfret explores how these little-known events serve as a reminder of the importance of alliances in a dangerous world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The "natural fellowship, and ease of understanding" between Poland and the U.S. helped their respective intelligence agencies forge a special relationship after the Cold War, according to this immersive and vividly detailed history. Pulitzer finalist Pomfret (The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom) documents how "backdoor deals," such as the CIA's purchase of Polish weapons to send to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, set the stage for the "floodgates of cooperation" to open in 1990, when Poland agreed to help rescue six American spies stranded in Iraq after Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. Among many mutually beneficial agreements, Pomfret highlights Poland's willingness to share intelligence from North Korea and Iran, and the U.S.'s support for including Poland in NATO. He also sheds light on darker aspects of the relationship, in particular Poland's agreement to let the CIA operate a "black site" where suspected terrorists were held and allegedly tortured. The lingering damage this scandal has done to the Polish government should serve as a warning, Pomfret writes, about "what happens when the United States asks for too much." Written in crisp, novelistic prose, this is an insightful study of the ins and outs of international spycraft.