{"product_id":"jawbreaker-isbn-9780307351067","title":"Jawbreaker","description":"The Book the CIA Doesn’t Want You to Read\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGary Berntsen, the CIA’s key commander coordinating the fight against the Taliban forces around Kabul, comes out from under cover for the first time to describe his no-holds-barred pursuit—and cornering—of Osama bin Laden, and the reason the terrorist leader escaped American retribution. As disturbingly eye-opening as it is adrenaline-charged, \u003ci\u003eJawbreaker\u003c\/i\u003e races from CIA war rooms to diplomatic offices to mountaintop redoubts to paint a vivid portrait of a new kind of warfare, showing what can and should be done to deal a death blow to freedom’s enemies.“A thrilling read . . . Berntsen did his best to try to get bin Laden; many in Washington have yet to do theirs.”\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—The Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Gripping . . . this honest account doesn’t do the president any favors.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The hunt for Osama bin Laden is the story of courageous CIA officers, like Gary Berntsen, repeatedly finding him and U.S. political and military leaders refusing to kill him. \u003ci\u003eJawbreaker\u003c\/i\u003e—which CIA leaders tried to suppress to protect America's bipartisan political elite and its military sycophants—precisely describes the eleventh such opportunity since 1998, and again shows that uniformed bureaucrats masquerading as U.S. generals let bin Laden escape.”\u003cb\u003e—Michael Scheuer, author of \u003ci\u003eImperial Hubris\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThrough Our Enemies’ Eyes\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eJawbreaker\u003c\/i\u003e is a real page turner . . . Berntsen was the CIA’s ‘go to guy’ when it came to leading in Afghanistan, owing to his exceptional operational and leadership skills in situations involving the threat of immediate danger. Berntsen is brave and bold and a true American hero.”\u003cb\u003e—Cofer Black, former Chief of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Counterterrorism Center\u003c\/b\u003eGary Berntsen spent more than twenty years as an officer in the Clandestine Service and served in an array of Field Command assignments.  He has been awarded both the Distinguished Intelligence Medal and the Intelligence Star.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRalph Pezzullo is a former journalist, award-winning playwright, and screenwriter, and is the author of At the Fall of Samoza, Plunging into Haiti, and the mystery novel Eve Missing.\u003cb\u003e1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e THE ATTACK—7 AUGUST 1998\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \"Dawn comes not twice to awaken a man.\"\u003c\/i\u003e —an  Arab proverb\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e I jumped out of bed by the second ring and grabbed  the STU-III secure   telephone from the waist-high dresser. The digital clock read  4:23   a.m. in the dark bedroom of our Reston, Virginia, townhouse. My wife,   Rebecca,  sat up, rubbing her eyes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Hello.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e A voice on the other end said, \"Gary,  it's Dorothy in the watch office.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I recognized her voice immediately. Dorothy  was one of XXXXXXX   officers assigned to my staff in the CIA's Counterterrorism  Center.   Our job was to identify, penetrate and disrupt the activities of   Islamic  Jihad Organization (IJO)—the Hezbollah's terrorist arm and   the most deadly organization  of its kind up to that time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"One second,\" I said, removing the top of a XXXXXXX  by the phone,   extracting a XXXXXX key XXXX and inserting the key into the phone.    \"I'm going secure.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Ready.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e After pushing the \"secure voice\" button,  a small horizontal panel lit   up indicating that the encryption sequence was underway.  It took   fifteen seconds before the screen on the phone read \"TOP SECRET.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Dorothy said: \"I have you TS.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"I have you TS,\" I echoed back.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Thirty-five  minutes ago the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi was attacked   with a large explosive device,\"  Dorothy began. \"Ten minutes later our   Embassy in Dar es Salaam was also attacked  with an explosive device.   I just talked to Chief CTC O'Connell [CTC is the CIA's    Counterterrorism Center]. He wants you to come in.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Do you have numbers on  casualties? Did we lose any of our people?\" I asked.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Hearing the word \"casualties,\"  my wife gasped.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"There have been large-scale casualties, including some of our    people,\" Dorothy answered.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Thanks,\" I said. \"I'm on my way in.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I turned  the key, extracted it, XXXXXXXXXX, carefully reset the top   and stood for a moment  in the darkness. I was one of our country's   most experienced clandestine counterterrorism  officers, but news like   this still filled me with cold, seething anger. Pictures  of the   carnage from bombings I'd witnessed in places like Sri Lanka and   Nepal  flashed in my head.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e My wife understood instinctively that something terrible  had   happened. \"Where?\" she asked.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Being an intense, aggressive guy, I imagined  myself rushing to the   scene immediately and grabbing the bombers. But I managed  to remain   outwardly calm. \"Nairobi and Dar es Salaam,\" I answered. \"We've just    had two Embassies bombed within thirty minutes.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e After nineteen years married  to a CIA officer, my wife knew the   drill. \"Should I pack a bag for you now?\" she  asked.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I thought of practicalities for a second. \"I have to go into the   building  first. If I fly out I'll come back first and get some   things. Why don't you go  back to bed?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Go back to bed?\" she asked, incredulously. \"I can't go back to  bed   now. I'll make you some coffee and start getting your stuff ready.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Using  the encrypted phone, I called one of my branch chiefs, Ted—an   FBI agent assigned  to CTC. The CIA and the FBI, in the spirit of   cooperation, had begun placing officers  in each other's   counterterrorism units, and Ted was one of the first FBI detailees.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Ted was one tough guy. Prior to joining the FBI, he'd been a Maryland   State  Police officer. While working undercover, he infiltrated a   motorcycle gang suspected  of major criminal activity. One night, they   got suspicious, dragged him into a  deserted field on Maryland's   Eastern Shore and stuck a gun to his head. Ted didn't  lose his cool.   Not only did he talk the gang out of killing him, he eventually    locked up sixty of them for crimes varying from grand theft, to drug   trafficking,  to murder. At the Bureau, he played a lead role in a   number of important counterterrorism  investigations, including the   Iraqi attempt to assassinate former President George  Herbert Walker   Bush after the Gulf War.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e He was the kind of officer I wanted  at my side in a crisis. I quickly   filled him in.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Then I jumped in the shower,  skipped shaving and got dressed,   foregoing a jacket because it was going to be  a hot, humid August   day. Exiting the bedroom, I ran into my seventeen-year-old  daughter,   Alexis, on the landing. The sound of my moving around had roused her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e She asked, \"Dad, what's going on? Why are you guys up so early?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e There  was no point trying to hide the truth. Alexis already knew that   I was one of the  CIA's senior counterterrorism officers, but her   thirteen-year-old brother, Thomas,  thought I had a desk job at the   XXXXXXX.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"There were some attacks on our Embassies  in Africa so I need to go   in early,\" I told her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Are you going to Africa?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Maybe, sweetheart, but not right now.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e After a quick cup of coffee and  kisses for my wife and daughter, I   started out the door. Over my shoulder, the  first reports of the   bombings aired over CNN.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Standing outside our townhouse  was my maroon 1987 Chrysler K station   wagon—the car my son and daughter teasingly  called \"the red rocket.\"   No, it wasn't an Aston Martin or a Land Rover equipped  with   surface-to-air rockets, but it got me where I wanted to go. My wife   and  daughter got the new wheels.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I'd taken this route so many times I could drive  it in my sleep: down   the Dulles toll road, onto route 123, a sharp turn into CIA    headquarters twenty minutes later. At this hour of the morning the   vast parking  area was almost empty, except for vehicles belonging to   members of the watch office  and Directorate of Intelligence personnel   who worked on the President's Daily Brief.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Passing through the CIA entrance, I swiped my badge over an optical   reader  and punched in my security code. My watch read 5:05 a.m. as I   entered an elevator  of the oldest wing of the three-building complex   and hit five.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Crisis  Center consisted of two large rooms—one packed with   communications racks with  radios and multiple workstations to monitor   Counterterrorism Center (CTC) developments  around the world. The   second room housed a large conference table and chairs.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e CTC is part of the CIA's Directorate of Operations. The rest of the   CIA's XXXX  employees are organized under three other directorates:   Science \u0026amp; Technology, Intelligence  and Administration. Most of them   are analysts, scientists and administrators.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Directorate of Operations (DO) is the place that employs   clandestine case  officers like myself. Back in the mid-'90s the   Clinton administration had reduced  the number of operations officers   by twenty-five percent. The DO is responsible  for collecting human   intelligence and running operations against 6 billion people  and   governments around the globe who want to harm the United States.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The FBI,  for purposes of comparison, has approximately 10,000 field   officers (special agents)  covering the United States. There are one   thousand FBI officers assigned to New  York City alone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e You could say that working for Operations is challenging. Most  of my   closest colleagues are type-A individuals who won't back down from   anyone  or anything. We accept the fact that we live in a hard world   and deal with that  reality. It's dangerous work.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In the past, I've stopped dozens of bombings and  assassinations   overseas. I've also hunted down and captured terrorists from various    groups. These are CIA successes that were never reported in the news.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e When  we're portrayed in the media, ninety-five percent of what's said   or written is  dead wrong. Books like Tom Clancy's \u003ci\u003eClear and Present   Danger\u003c\/i\u003e where the Deputy Director  of the CIA personally hunts down   terrorists—ridiculous. Movies like \u003ci\u003eThree Days  of the Condor\u003c\/i\u003e where   CIA operatives assassinate members of the American Literacy    Historical Society—disgusting!New York Times Bestseller","brand":"Crown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46305286193381,"sku":"NP9780307351067","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780307351067.jpg?v=1767730360","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/jawbreaker-isbn-9780307351067","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}