Left of Boom
How a Young CIA Case Officer Penetrated the Taliban and Al-Qaeda
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4.4 • 213 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Left of Boom is the explosive New York Times bestselling memoir by a young CIA operative on the front lines in Afghanistan.
On September 11, 2001, Douglas Laux was a freshman in college, on the path to becoming a doctor. But with the fall of the Twin Towers came a turning point in his life. After graduating he joined the Central Intelligence Agency, determined to get himself to Afghanistan and into the center of the action. Through persistence and hard work he was fast-tracked to a clandestine operations position overseas. Dropped into a remote region of Afghanistan, he received his baptism by fire. Frustrated by bureaucratic red tape, a widespread lack of knowledge of the local customs and culture and an attitude of complacency that hindered his ability to combat the local Taliban, Doug confounded his peers by dressing like a native and mastering the local dialect, making contact and building sources within several deadly terrorist networks. His new approach resulted in unprecedented successes, including uncovering the largest IED network in the world, responsible for killing hundreds of US soldiers.
Meanwhile, Doug had to keep up false pretenses with his family, girlfriend and friends--nobody could know what he did for a living--and deal with the emotional turbulence of constantly living a lie. His double life was building to an explosive resolution, with repercussions that would have far reaching consequences.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Smith, a pseudonymous CIA case officer, aided by Pezzullo (Zero Footprint), recounts his two-year stint trying to infiltrate and destroy the bomb-making network of the Afghan Taliban. The authors describe in detail the techniques, dangers, and stresses of creating a network of Afghan sources, some of whom are actual Taliban commanders. This is an unvarnished, critical look at the inner workings of the CIA, and seeing the organization function through Smith's eyes can be both inspiring and disheartening. The field operatives, middle-age careerists, and enthusiastic newcomers generally demonstrate patriotism, intelligence, and sacrifice; the agency itself perhaps unsurprisingly is portrayed as overly political and incredibly bureaucratic. Smith is able to present unique descriptions of the psychological stresses endured by the CIA case officers who are forced to lie to even their closest family and friends about what they do, where they are, and whom they work for. It's a fascinating and engaging look inside the fast-paced and dangerous daily workings of today's CIA, and Smith reveals in stark terms that the personal stresses he endured were as dangerous as the physical threats he faced operating alone among the world's most dangerous terrorists.
Customer Reviews
Great book
Don’t worry the bad reviews. This is an excellent book. The writer won’t win any writing awards, but the story itself is very compelling. The book is heavily redacted but not so much so that lose track of what’s going on. The author wrote the book and that had to submit it to CIA and military reviewers who redacted a bunch of stuff. At that point, the author can’t do a rewrite to try to eliminate the redacted sections because he would have to resubmit the new version to the reviewers again and no doubt they would be different people who would redact a bunch of new stuff.
All Lies
Absolute lies written by a talentless hack. He continues to take credit for work he has nothing to do with and invents tales in a sad attempt to seem important.
Great read!
From beginning to end. Well written, well told. One of my favorite reads of the last 3 years.