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Killer Elite: The Inside Story of America's Most Secret Special Operations Team
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Killer Elite: The Inside Story of America's Most Secret Special Operations Team
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by Michael Smith
Sales Rank: 5186
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List Price: $24.95
$16.47
At Amazon
on 12-29-2007.
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Features
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press March 6, 2007
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312362722
ISBN-13: 978-0312362720
Product Dimensions:
9.4 x 6 x 1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
Former British intelligence officer Smith (The Emperor's Codes) shines a light on one of the U.S. Army's blackest agencies and best-kept secrets, the Intelligence Support Activity—aka the Activity—in this extensively researched and crisply written exposé. The Activity was established, after the failed attempt to rescue the American hostages in Iran in 1980, as "a dedicated special operations intelligence unit" to provide signals, imagery and human intelligence to other black units: e.g., the army's Delta Force. Although opposed by army traditionalists, the Activity proved itself in operations from El Salvador to Iraq, playing important roles in tracking down Colombian drug czar Pablo Escobar, Somali warlord Mohamed Farah Aideed and several prominent Bosnian war criminals. Since 9/11 and Operation Iraqi Freedom have exposed the shortcomings of U.S. intelligence, the size and scope of the Activity has, according to the author, "dramatically increased." Drawing on recently declassified documents and confidential interviews with key participants, Smith has produced an important primer for anyone hoping to understand the (usually quiet) successes and the (well-documented) failures of U.S. intelligence in the last 25 years. 16 pages color photo insert. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
A British journalist specializing in defense topics offers a readable, useful addition to the literature on American special operations forces. During the expansion of special operations forces in the 1980s, a secret group given the code name Intelligence Support Activity was charged with the primary function of gathering intelligence. It has played a valuable though unpublicized role in both Iraq wars, in antiterrorist operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and in the war on drugs. Its operatives can also fight--very well--as and when necessary. This book is finally a portrait of the unit's founder, Jerry Ryan, who had the usual spec-ops specialist's trouble with the brass. But his unit, now expanded to regimental strength, seems likely to remain on U.S. Army rolls, and military buffs and authorities may some day rank Ryan with Charles Beckwith, the founder of Delta Force. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
The book, Killer Elite, by Michael Smith is not only a highly interesting expose of an elite American covert military unit, but also provides a thought provoking illustration of how US Foreign Policy objectives are increasingly being met by small teams of operators in the back alleys of the world. The unit is commonly known as the "Activity" and occasional snippets concerning its various missions and techniques have periodically emerged in the mainstream media for the past few decades. Its mission is to support the better-known and more overt Special Operations Forces such as DELTA and the SEALS in conducting their missions. They do this by providing actionable intelligence that they gather via various means such as the handling of agents or through eavesdropping of communication networks. The book further describes how the unit is now evolving into more expanded missions that are similar to the traditional clandestine agent handling performed by the CIA. The books' beginning reads similar to Steven Emerson's classic, Secret Warriors: Inside the Covert Military Operations of the Reagan Era, but springs forward into more current and less known operations. I was surprised at the level of research and the author's contacts with both the US and British Special Operations and Intelligence Communities. It sheds a great deal of light and is an excellent read for anyone interested in Special Operations or Human Intelligence gathering. For those interested in this field, Fishers of Men by Rob Lewis is also an excellent book.
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Killer Elite: The Inside Story of America's Most Secret Special Operations Team
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