This is from a review of Mark Mazzeti's "The Way of the Knife: The CIA, A Secret Army, and A War at then Ends of the Earth"
http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2013/0608/bk/book06_dorschner_knife.html
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Mazzetti reiterates his basic premise numerous times, namely that we have entered a dangerous new era in intelligence. Describing a line of causality, Mazzetti asserts that after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Bush Administration threw all caution aside and ordered the CIA to do whatever it needed to do to capture or kill those responsible. Mazzetti describes how the CIA subsequently kidnapped suspects and handed them over to friendly intelligence services for torture, or for confinement in CIA “black sites” around the world (and at Guantanamo). These methods ultimately proved counterproductive when the torture came to light and the United States could not figure out what to do with growing numbers of terrorist suspects. Held as “enemy combatants” rather than criminals, the suspects were often denied due process, making it extremely difficult to wrap up their cases. This is playing out at Guantanamo. President Obama is facing growing numbers of detainees on hunger strike, wants to close the facility, and is finding it difficult to do so.
Mazzetti asserts that once the Bush Administration determined that holding terrorist suspects without charge indefinitely had become a liability, it was desperate for a better solution. Growing advances in drone technology seemed to provide a way out. Drones provided the President with the capability to kill terrorists anywhere on earth. The action was swift and certain, ending the need for detentions. Instead, the United States constructed a “kill list.” Drone strikes became instruments of counter-terrorism policy under President Bush, but were vastly expanded under President Obama.
Prior to 9/11, the CIA was not in the killing business and its covert action capability was withering on the vine. According to Mazzetti, the 9/11 attacks brought big changes to the Agency. In the 1970’s revelations of Cold War excesses by the CIA shocked the nation. Congress conducted well-publicized investigations, and public anger led to calls to rein in the spies. The CIA was founded to provide intelligence to the President. Covert action not supposed to be authorized, but was only possible due to vague language in the CIA charter. However, the unique ability of the CIA to conduct covert activities anywhere in the world has proven too tempting for American presidents, both Republican and Democrat. Even Presidents with an avowed aversion to covert action become seduced by it. Covert action has become a method of dealing with complex crises that escape easy solution. Critics claim that they invariable do more harm than good. Mazzetti agrees, and claims that the current shift towards targeted killing and covert wars in the name of counterterrorism will prove the most harmful covert actions of all.
Mazzetti describes a world turned upside down. In the post 9/11 world, the CIA controls a fleet of drones based around the world dedicated to eliminating those on the White House kill list. The CIA also controls small armies of local paid soldiers in Pakistan, Afghanistan and other locales fighting a war in the shadows against Islamic terrorist groups. These missions have overwhelmed the Agency. It has reassigned more and more personnel from traditional espionage to counter-terrorism missions. With insufficient personnel, the CIA is increasingly relying on contractors. According to Mazzetti, the CIA had at one point so many personnel assigned to Pakistan, conducting so many disparate missions, that no one in the country had a handle on how many there were or where they were located. This was a recipe for disaster that blew up when contractor Raymond Davis shot and killed two petty thieves in Lahore, Pakistan and an innocent Pakistani was hit and killed by a CIA vehicle in a rescue attempt.
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