المهمة .. وكالة المخابرات المركزية في القرن الحادي والعشرين

At the turn of the century, the CIA was experiencing a real crisis. The end of the Cold War stripped it of its basic mission. More than thirty stations and overseas bases were closed, and the activities of the remaining dozens were greatly reduced. Many countries where surveillance was considered crucial have become undetected. The necessary intelligence was not being collected. At the dawn of the Information Age, CIA officers and analysts were working with outdated techniques, struggling to discern clear signals of important facts amid the surrounding information noise. Then came the events of September 11, 2001. After the attacks, the CIA transformed itself into a lethal paramilitary force, running secret prisons, conducting brutal interrogations, and launching deadly drone attacks, effectively abandoning its core missions of espionage and counterintelligence. The consequences were dire: the deaths of dozens of its foreign conscript agents, the theft of its personnel files by Chinese spies, the intrusion of its computer networks by Russian intelligence and American hackers, and the tragedies of Afghanistan and Iraq. A new generation of spies now must battle the toughest targets — Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran — facing off against a president who has attacked the CIA as a subversive force. "The Mission," by Pulitzer Prize-winner Tim Weiner, tells the riveting and incisive story of the CIA during the first quarter of the 21st century, revealing how the agency struggled to regain the espionage capabilities it lost during the War on Terror, and how it finally succeeded in infiltrating the Kremlin. This conflict has dire consequences for America and its allies, as the CIA must regain its original mission: knowing enemies. The fate of the free world hangs in the balance. "The Mission" is a masterpiece of journalism, featuring exclusive taped interviews with six former CIA directors, a top spy official, thirteen station chiefs, and dozens of senior operations officers who have worked undercover for decades and never spoken to a journalist before.