Other reviews have heaped well-deserved praise on Dirty Wars. They rightly point to Scahill's meticulous research, his use of skillfully interwoven storylines, and his terse yet insightful writing style. But many of these reviews don't describe the actual contents of the book. At the risk of "spoiling" the stories told in this non-fiction book - some but not all of which you'll be familiar with from the past decade of news headlines - here is an overview of the topics you can expect to encounter in Dirty Wars:

-A brief history of U.S. covert operations from the 1970s to the present.

-The tremendous impact of the 9/11 attacks in redirecting the course of American foreign policy, with reduced judicial and legislative oversight over military and intelligence operations.

-The Bush administration's manipulation of intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the Iraq War's disastrous sidelining of U.S. counterterrorism efforts, and the consequent creation of greater terrorist threats to U.S. combat forces.

-A richly detailed account of the life of Anwar Awlaki, an American citizen who gradually transformed from a respected moderate imam living in the United States to a radical fundamentalist provocateur hiding in Yemen. Scahill also examines the Obama administration's justifications for targeting and eventually assassinating Awlaki and his teenage son Abdulrahman. This particular story is so well told that it could have easily been a separate book of its own.

-The ever-increasing authority granted to the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), elite warriors with the impressive capability to carry out lethal actions anywhere, any time.

-Abundant evidence of CIA and JSOC "black sites" all over the world, including graphic descriptions of detainee torture. The instances of torture documented here pre-date, post-date and sometimes exceed the severity of the more well-known abuses perpetrated at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

-The terribly misguided approach to combating terrorism in Somalia, including U.S. aid to numerous Somali warlords, support for an Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, and the growing influence of the terrorist group Al Shabab.

-The wily maneuverings of Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who extracted untold millions in military aid from the U.S., our escalating strikes against the Yemeni-based terrorist group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and the contrast between American officials' public praise for Yemen's government and their behind-the-scenes frustrations with President Saleh.

-A lengthy discussion on the use of drone strikes, their effectiveness, the extent of civilian casualties caused by them, and why Obama ultimately expanded their use.

-Kill lists and kill teams that target thousands of individuals. Scahill makes a strong argument that targeted assassinations are an attempt to avoid the messy complications of long-term detainment and legal prosecutions.

-A botched night raid by U.S. forces in Gardez, Afghanistan in 2010 that mistakenly killed a U.S.-allied Afghan police chief and several members of his family, the shameful cover-up that followed, and the eventual admission of guilt and apology offered by the U.S. military.

-The Raymond Davis affair, in which an American operative killed two Pakistanis in broad daylight, causing a public uproar in Pakistan and strained relations between U.S. and Pakistani intelligence.

-The heart-pounding raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

-The early stages of the Arab Spring uprisings that toppled U.S. allies and adversaries alike.

-And finally, the imprisonment of Yemeni investigative journalist Abdulelah Haider Schaye, who remains in prison largely at the behest of the Obama administration. Shaye exposed a 2009 U.S. cruise missile strike that killed dozens of civilians, conducted several probing and highly critical interviews with Anwar Awlaki, and pointed out the Yemeni government's manipulation of U.S. military aid. Shaye is portrayed as a truly fearless and intrepid reporter whose confinement is completely unwarranted.

If this brief summary does any justice to Scahill's book, it should be obvious that his is a wide-ranging and gripping account of the Global War on Terror that casts an equally critical eye on both the Bush and Obama administrations. Scahill does acknowledge that there are plenty of truly bad guys out there, with descriptions of dozens of sinister terrorist attacks. But his book also stresses the need for accountability, transparency, the rule of law, and public debate over U.S. policy.

At 500+ pages (and 80 pages of footnotes) Dirty Wars is a very big book, but due to the wide variety of stories and short length of each individual chapter, it never drags. Without hesitation, I heartily recommend this book to readers of all political persuasions. I also look forward to eventually watching the documentary film Dirty Wars based on this book.

In Jeremy Scahill's new book a Somalia WarLord financed by the US to interrogate and kill suspected terrorists considered America, a War Master, a great educator in the art of War and killing. Not what we had in mind for the US's PR, is it?

"Dirty Wars" is Jeremy Scahill's book and film that investigates American strikes that killed civilians with no ties to terrorist groups, beginning with a raid in Afghanistan, that killed several members of a family. An Afghan police chief, taught and financed in the ways of War by the US and three women, two of whom were pregnant, were among the dead. This one series of killings by bearded men from the US, flown in at night and striking wherever they want, leads to many more such strikes. They are all denied and kept secret until a BBC journalist provides evidence. What we learn is that these killings of innocents that are adding up to the thousands , may be radicalizing Muslims. The American cleric-turned-Qaeda, Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed by drones in September 2011, was put on the kill list. No capture nor charges, nor judge or jury, only assassination. Mr. Scahill said. "We are making more new enemies than we are killing actual terrorists."

We have long heard of secret, covert groups of military who answer only to the President, who kill and assassinate, capture and torture, but now we are doing this with our own Americans. The secret group is called JSOC, Joint Special Operations Command. JSOC's mission, is identifying and destroying terrorists and terror cells worldwide. Personnel are often exchanged between JSOC and CIA. By the early 1980s, CIA and military veterans were running counter-insurgency and counter-terror ops worldwide. General Paul Gorman, who commanded U.S. forces in Central America in the mid-1980′s, defined this advanced form of Dirty War as "a form of warfare repugnant to Americans, a conflict which involves innocents, in which non-combatant casualties may be an explicitobject."

JSOC now operates in over 70 countries, killing thousands, many of them innocents. Drones are flying in many countries. Is this how we want our country to operate? Jeremy Scahill has also been an outspoken critic of President Obama. He disapproves of what the administration's efforts to "normalize and legitimize" targeted assassinations -- drone-executed and otherwise -- Special Operations raids and other covert military practices that blur the battle lines of the war on terrorism.

This is a very thought provoking book, filled with interviews from informants and those who cannot give their names. Today, there was a raid in Yemen, and it was associated with JSOC. Frightening, what have we wrought.

Recommended. prisrob 12-16-13

The Society of Professional Journalists' preamble begins with, "Members (of the SPJ) believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty."

Jeremy Scahill is not only at the top of his field in journalistic thoroughness, honesty, and integrity (as well as courage) he is in a class all his own. In "Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield" he has chronicled the opening salvo of the twenty-first century; he lays out in incredibly researched and factual detail, what America has done to the world in our never-ending "War on Terror." The reader cannot help but come away with the realization that America's violating of the international laws we were instrumental in creating, our use of torture, our massive assassinations by JSOC death squads and drones, has created far, far more enemies than we have killed, or can ever hope to kill. Example: Scahill quotes a Special Ops source revealing that after their team had killed their way through a HVT (high value target) list of 30 or 50 that their next list was 3,000, and it extrapolated from there. Equally important is how he exactingly exposes the destruction of our nation's laws--how in twelve short years we have dismantled our 250-year legacy of a legal structure that allowed for a civilized society and protected us as a people.

There is no polemic narrative; he lays out the dark and ugly facts with objective, but stark clarity. Every American should read this book, and then every American--regardless of their political stripe--should ask themselves what kind of world we want to leave our children and grandchildren. Do we want to return to being a country based on the rule of law? Or do we continue to allow our leaders to pursue this path that has not only tarnished our nation, but will ultimately be our own destruction. I read a lot, but this book goes on my short-list of the best of the decade. It provides the true underbelly of our recent history, and it will go down in history of one of the most important books of our time.

Janet Wise is the author of "The Black Silk Road" and "A Midnight Trade" (just released and available on Amazon.com).

I put off reading Dirty Wars because I feared it would be a jumble of unfamiliar names like I saw in clips from Scahill's film of the same name. In fact, in this book it is extremely easy to follow Scahill's narrative describing how it has come to be that America is now involved is so many places around the world: surveilling and meddling (known as "preparing the ground for battle"), as well as killing.

Andrew Bracevich has written that after Viet Nam the transition to an all volunteer military eventuated into an army deployed at the bidding of the Executive without meaningful authorization or oversight by Congress. Dirty Wars, a further refinement in America's way of war, describes how, with little fanfare, President Obama has replaced large troop deployments with the practice of "clean war" -- targeted killing by drones, cruise missiles, and teams of Special Forces.

Step by step the author follows the development of US capabilities for drone warfare, the rivalry between the CIA and JSOC (Special Forces) to be in charge of calling down death, and the tangled relationships with countries like Pakistan and Yemen that lets America try to hide its involvement in the killing.

Along with the chapters in the book about presidential decisions, military rivals, and US foreign relations around the globe the past couple decades, there are a series of sections that detail the life and career and death of Anwar Awlaki.

Anwar was born in the US and raised by his Yemen father (a naturalized citizen) to take advantage of educational opportunities and perhaps one day going back to help Yemen society. In the 1990's Anwar got sidetracked from his engineering studies when he discovered his vocation to preach. He became a sought after Imam in American Muslim communities.

After the 9/11 attacks, the New York Times called Anwar the "go-to Muslim" to explain Islam and he became a media star as a "moderate" Muslim. But Anwar, watching the US actions in the Muslim world, eventually comes to believe "I could not reconcile between living in the US and being a Muslim..." He leaves America for Yemen and remains a powerful voice criticizing the US. By the end of 2009, says Scahill, his words had crossed a line to give "powerful endorsement to specific acts of terrorism on US targets."

In September 2011 Anwar is killed by drone attack. Obama, announcing the death, says Anwar was "the leader of external operations for al Queda in the Arabian Peninsula...[and] took the lead in planning and directing efforts to murder innocent Americans." Scahill maintains there is no evidence to show that Anwar was a member of al Queda, as, in fact, none was offered by Obama.

(Two weeks after Anwar's death, another drone killed his 16 year old son. The administration has offered no justification for this murder.)

The killing of a US citizen without any due process is a watershed moment to Scahill though few politicians seem to note it (Rand Paul a very vocal exception). Michael Hayden, a former CIA director, points out that Obama would have needed a court order to eavesdrop on Awlaki but apparently not to kill him.

The issue of how free a president is to kill without due process is raised in January 2013 by federal judge Colleen McMahon. She charged the Obama administration with not "citing...any statute or court decision that justifies its conclusions" that targeted killings, even of citizens, is legal. However, she couldn't rule in favor of allowing the release of government documents.

She wrote: "I can find no way around the thicket of laws and precedents that effectively allow the Executive Branch...to proclaim as perfectly legal certain acts that seem on their face incompatible with our Constitution and laws, while keeping the reasons for their conclusion a secret."

That's the take-away from this book. The government says what-we-do-is-legal but we can't tell you why. Just trust us. So the government can just "proclaim" in secret what is legal, including which citizens will be killed without due process.

Scahill concludes that far from pulling back from the illegalities of the Bush years, Obama's legacy will be "a streamlined process for assassinating enemies...perceived or real" in an "executive branch with sweeping powers, rationalized under the banner of national security."

America seems a long way from the ideals of 1776.

After September 11, 2001 this country and it's leaders embarked on a mission to locate and destroy the terrorist home bases in Afghanistan. Our first aggressive actions to destroy the Taliban and their leader Osama bin Laden were very successful except for constantly missing the main target, bin Laden himself. The author Jeremy Scahill has really done his homework and what this book brings home to the reader is just how badly we took our eye off the ball. On September 12, 2001 America had the whole world behind them, the British Parliament played our national anthem, even the French were behind us. Than almost from out of the blue Iraq became the enemy. The Bush administration dishonored itself with lies, Colin Powell going against all evidence presented the Bush administration's intelligence assessment to the United Nations along with a list of phony statistics showing the real enemy was Saddam Hussein. Suddenly and with little warning we pulled our assets out of Afghanistan and along with the British and lesser so-called allies, performed a full court press on Saddam Hussein. As we all know, almost all, Iraq turned out to be a disaster, an area little understood by our State Department and Pentagon. Precious lives were wasted along with treasure. We alienated the Muslim world and fought terrorism as if it were a hostile nation, forgetting that we had always (falsely) prided ourselves on the fact that we were a nation of laws with a two hundred year old constitution, backed by a Supreme Court. Instead of using our law enforcement assets to combat terrorism we declared war on anywhere in the world where we believed a terror cell popped up. We kidnapped suspects, unlawfully imprisoned and assassinated suspects. We conducted indiscriminate bombings, home invasions and created a carpet of destruction. We violated the Geneva Convention and all other conventions that attempt to make war more humane. We tortured thousands and many died. We have come full circle since September 12, 2001 to 2013 where polls taken throughout the world pick us as the number one terrorist in the world. This book is a must read if your a true (so-called) patriot. The author, Mr. Scahill expertly lays out all the dirty laundry and it's nothing to be proud of. We go about indiscriminately killing both friend and foe with an amazing lack of oversight. Families and tribes in some of the Muslim countries that have be waging ongoing tribal friction take money from American's for giving false intelligence on their tribal foes causing horrendous military actions by U.S. special ops and the U.S. Air force. We have created illegal detention centers around the world where suspects disappear. We send some individuals without legal representation or formal charges to countries who really know how to torture. The average American citizen is oblivious of U.S. global actions taken over the last 12 years. I grew up always thinking that American's at war were the (fictitious) WWII G.I.'s always handing out candy, always taking prisoner's and treating them fairly. Of course, since I am now in my mid-70's and a history buff I understand that I was overly naive to say the least. O.K. War is not for the weak of heart, but what this country has condoned in the name of anti-terrorist actions is unfathomable and Americans should know what their government in the name of security to the homeland is perpetrating on others who were no more guilty then the poor souls caught in the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. Read this book, it's imperative.

Tonight I heard Jeremy Scahill speak for about two hours about his book and field questions from the audience. I also skimmed through his book before his talk. While what he writes is compelling and needs to be heard by more Americans- I believe his talk and what I can gather from the book, have a fundamental flaw.

During his talk Jeremy spoke about building empathy- through reporting- reveal the stories that personalize acts of atrocity- committed by our government/military or others. This is important- and a major failing of our educational systems is the failure to expand the moral imagination- to go beyond dry facts into a deep and self questioning moral understanding. However, an adult audience present day- twenty years ago- one hundred years ago- needs more than a spark of moral outrage. They need at least a framework that can see US foreign policy in the context of empire- or corporate domination and the perversion of global capitalism. In the broader historical and current day contexts so brilliantly developed by Chomsky, Zinn and others- it becomes obvious that drone strikes, JSOC operations, tomahawk missile attacks on civilian populations, cluster bombs, targeted assassinations- are hardly recent aberrations, but are part of a pattern of empire that extends across time and spatially across the globe. Whether Honduras, Guatamala, Nicaragua, Palestine, Iraq, Iran and elsewhere- whether today or 40 years ago- the US and its allies' foreign policy have reigned more than just terror from the skies. It is directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of millions of innocents. And while there are always evil characters at all levels of society- the truth is our killing, exploitative policies have and are serving the basic needs of empire- which includes maintaining the American standard of living. Americans and others, must understand that these policies- are already coming home and being used to suppress dissent and erode basic freedoms. As Jeremy points out- globally they create enemies from friends. But more significantly- they are destroying the economic, environmental, political and social fabric of world society- putting what amounts to all life in jeopardy.

Jeremy stuck to the facts of what he investigated. But his motivation for writing is fundamentally moral. But his words and writing, by not at least hinting at a systemic critique- perpetuate the illusion that it is just a few bad apples. Sorry, Jeremy- the orchard is bad- and the disease is and has been spreading rapidly.

You might think that the war on terror rested exclusively in Iraq and Afghanistan. You would be wrong on that. This book catches you up. It covers the part of the war on terror that no one else covers. The book fills the gaps and tells an important story.

This book gives you extras. It covers how the war on terror took shape. You see a peak at the highest level as they tried to figure out how to fight the war. The author, Jeremy Scahill, extensively covers the war in obscure places like Yemen and Somalia. I think many previous books forget those areas and focus on Iraq and Afghanistan. His knowledge and depth of information do catch your attention. You will be blown away with the completeness of his information. I do think several of his stories slipped by the censors. They do seem classified to me. His writing style makes the words just fly by as you read it, almost like you are watching the story. The book ends in 2011 with the drone killing of Anwar Awlaki. That event does get a lot of coverage in the book as it should.

The book will give you information that you won't find anywhere else. The author gives you detailed information about how the US government acted. You will see how the CIA and JSOC of the Defense Department interacted to fight this war. He does spend a lot of pages to highlight the screwups. It brings up some important issues like the killing of US citizens overseas without due process. You will see how the US screwed up several times across the globe. The book misses an important part of the story. You don't see the why behind US decisions. He forgets what the bad guys did and why people were chasing them all over the world. As the book is now a reader might think that the US government violence was 100% arbitrary. A more balanced book, one that showed the good with the bad would move the book up from a 4 to a 5 for me.

I am Amazed that Jeremy is still alive, he displays far more intelligence, intellect, spine and humanity than the vast majority of those in the White House, Halls of Congress, the Senate, The Pentagon and the so called Halls of justice. I can think of no one whom I have more respect and admiration for. He is a TRUE PATRIOT, a TRUE AMERICAN, cut from the same cloth that the founders of our once great Nation came from. After reading his previous book "Blackwater" I bought "Dirty Wars" as soon as it became available. Having finished it I had no choice but to come to the conclusion that while my assessment of the last 50 years of America's direction has been disturbingly accurate the United States has slide even further into the pit of a sickening blend of Fascism, Feudalism and Plutocracy.

In November of 1963 I was only 15 years old but even then I knew that Lee Harvey Oswald was a patsy and that JFK's assassination was motivated by something far more sinister than the insanity of a lone gunman. It was the result of insane greed for power and wealth. In 1980 when Reagan was shooed into the oval office I knew that the murder's of JFK and Bobby Kennedy had been necessary precursors to the Elite's positioning of Reagan and papa Bush (an ex CIA character) in place to further their agenda. Clinton, while appearing to be a leftist took down Glass-Steagall as he was supposed to and the Elite's movement to transform American democracy into something more to their liking marched onward. When GW Bush appeared on the scene from day one I saw him for what he is. My surprise was never at his actions for they were logical moves toward fascism. My shock was that the American people were so blind to what was so obvious. George Washington Bush (what irony) was the first President to be appointed rather than elected. Over the years in preparation for such an opportunity the Elite had stacked the deck. They had seen to it that Supreme Court appointments were shills, right wing biased Elite sympathizers who like their masters viewed the middle class as Serfs/Peons. Their purpose was to further the Elite, Multinational Corporate goal of dismantling The U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In the aftermath of GW's appointment to the office of President (rather than election) by a right wing Supreme Court of so called justices, carefully placed there over the years in preparation to further the goal of the dismantling of the Constitution. I was shocked and dismayed. How could the American people have fallen into such a stupor? Even the obviously homegrown act of 9/11 (which would never have happened if the American people had not complacently accepted the finding of the Warren Commission but forced the truth to the light of day) failed to register as pure bull crap. After over a year of the Bush White House doing it's damnedest to squash all attempts at any investigation a group of the family's of the victims via the use of the media brought enough pressure to bear that the Oval office gave in. The result of course was another fiasco like the Warren commission that obviously did far more to cover than uncover the truth. It has been the domino effect, which began probably even before the DuPonts and their kind attempted to overthrow FDR militarily.

When Obama first reared his head, I saw him for exactly what he was (I thought) a black GW clone with a better vocabulary. Up until this year nothing he did came as a surprise. Now after reading "Dirty Wars" exposing J.S.O.C. and Obama's use of it I can no longer look at the man as just another bought and paid for politician but as the EVIL being he most certainly is. J.S.O.C. is essentially a Rouge agency operating with no oversight from Congress, the Justice Department or even the Pentagon. It is the Presidents private hit squad, carrying out his commands to kidnap, torture, murder and disappear innocents including women and even babies as well as an American Citizen without charge or trial. I must now consider that the fact that he has had people incarcerated and tortured without charge and held indefinably that he has surpassed his predecessor's crimes against humanity. Obama has had and continues to have people including an American killed for less reason than for what I write here. The fact that the T.S.A. has become so sure of it's power that it is threatening to arrest people for making jokes about its agents gives me some concern that I may leave this world even sooner than my Doctors expect. I am certain that there are hundreds, probably thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of others who for what ever reason know far more than I about the horrendous crimes being committed by those in control of what was once our country that say nothing due to fear for their careers. Perhaps even terror, for what they must surly know could happen to their families their own lives. This is the stuff that the Iron Curtain, Gestapo, KGB and SAVAK etc were made of. As for any real concern for my own safety I am an insignificant with a nonexistent audience. Then to I really don't want to be around to see the horrors of the end result of what America is bringing down upon itself and the world. No matter how great a Nation may rise to become the greed of EVIL MEN for power and money always bring it down in the end. Everyone who cares one iota about America, Truth and Justice should be required to read this book, but I would have to warn them that the truth exposed here is extremely painful to deal with.

Dirty Wars is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the true costs of endless war. It’s a damning indictment of unchecked power and a call for transparency in an era of shadow conflicts. A must-read for those concerned about militarism, civil liberties, and accountability.The book reveals how the U.S. government’s unaccountable war machine has fueled global instability, often causing civilian casualties and breeding resentment. Scahill’s reporting is both relentless and deeply human, giving voice to victims whose stories are rarely told.

Libro fundamental para entender como a la chita callando se van extendiendo por el mundo un conjunto de empresas/ejercito estadounidenses, libres de todo control y vigilancia.

Asusta, pero es muy divulgativo. Muestra a las claras lo totalmente inmerecido que es el nobel de la paz para Obama. El que para muchos es, en cuanto a cuestiones de privacidad y derechos, un digno sucesor de Bush II.

AND THEY CANT UNDERSTAND WHY PLANES FLY INTO THEIR BUILDINGS.

Can't say I enjoyed this book, because the facts are grim, but it was Informative and well researched. He interviewed people who took part of this disaster.

Colis soigné, livré dans les temps prévus. Livre en parfait état. Merci.