Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield

Jeremy Scahill

Nation Books, Apr 23, 2013 - Political Science - 512 pages

In Dirty Wars, Jeremy Scahill, author of the New York Times best-seller Blackwater, takes us inside America’s new covert wars. The foot soldiers in these battles operate globally and inside the United States with orders from the White House to do whatever is necessary to hunt down, capture or kill individuals designated by the president as enemies.

Drawn from the ranks of the Navy SEALs, Delta Force, former Blackwater and other private security contractors, the CIA’s Special Activities Division and the Joint Special Operations Command ( JSOC), these elite soldiers operate worldwide, with thousands of secret commandos working in more than one hundred countries. Funded through “black budgets,” Special Operations Forces conduct missions in denied areas, engage in targeted killings, snatch and grab individuals and direct drone, AC-130 and cruise missile strikes. While the Bush administration deployed these ghost militias, President Barack Obama has expanded their operations and given them new scope and legitimacy.

Dirty Wars follows the consequences of the declaration that “the world is a battlefield,” as Scahill uncovers the most important foreign policy story of our time. From Afghanistan to Yemen, Somalia and beyond, Scahill reports from the frontlines in this high-stakes investigation and explores the depths of America’s global killing machine. He goes beneath the surface of these covert wars, conducted in the shadows, outside the range of the press, without effective congressional oversight or public debate. And, based on unprecedented access, Scahill tells the chilling story of an American citizen marked for assassination by his own government.

As US leaders draw the country deeper into conflicts across the globe, setting the world stage for enormous destabilization and blowback, Americans are not only at greater risk—we are changing as a nation. Scahill unmasks the shadow warriors who prosecute these secret wars and puts a human face on the casualties of unaccountable violence that is now official policy: victims of night raids, secret prisons, cruise missile attacks and drone strikes, and whole classes of people branded as “suspected militants.” Through his brave reporting, Scahill exposes the true nature of the dirty wars the United States government struggles to keep hidden.

What people are saying

Dirty Wars

User Review  - mistiboy - Overstock.com

Every American should read this book! The jouralist that wrote this book is honest. He is factual and lists his references.It ahows just how dishonest our last present was with proof.

Contents

• You Dont Have to Prove to Anyone That You Did Right: 13
• An American Story: 31
• The Rise of JSOC: 48
• Ali Abdullah Saleh: 61
• Were in a New Kind of War: 75
• No Blood No Foul: 85
• Stanley McChrystal: 102
• Their Intention and Our Intention Is the Same: 118
• Never Trust a Nonbeliever: 134
• The Death Star: 162
• A Lot of It Was of Questionable Legality: 180
• America Knows War They Are War Masters: 191
• Prison Break: 210
• Every Step Taken by the US Benefited al Shabab: 219
• If Your Son Does Not Come to Us He Will Be Killed by: 230
• Obama Is Set to Continue the Course Set by Bush: 244
• Special Ops Want to Own This Shit Like They Did in Central: 254
• Suicide or Martyrdom?: 264
• Obama Embraces JSOC: 270
• Let JSOC Off the Leash Saudi Arabia Washington DC and Yemen late 2009: 278
• An Unlikely Foot Soldier The United States and Yemen 20012009: 285
• Blowback in Somalia Somalia and Washington DC 2009: 294
• If They Kill Innocent Children and Call Them al Qaeda Then We Are All al Qaeda Washington DC and Yemen 2009: 303
• The Americans Really Wanted to Kill Anwar Yemen late 2009early 2010: 314
• Mr Barack ObamaI Hope That You Reconsider Your Order to KillMy Son Washington DC and Yemen early 2010: 325
• One Night in Gardez Washington dc 20082010 Afghanistan 20092010: 328
• The Year of the Drone Yemen and the united states 2010: 350
• Driving Anwar Awlaki to Hell: 356
• Yemen 2010: 359
• The CIAs Dating Service Denmark and Yemen 2010: 364
• The Auction of the Assassin Washington DC 2010: 367
• Martyrdom Is Why We Came Here My Brother Yemen 20092010: 375
• The Persecution of Abdulelah Haider Shaye Yemen summer 2010: 382
• The President Can Write His Own Rules Washington DC and Yemen late 2010: 386
• Al Qaedas Foothold in Somalia Has Probably Been Facilitated Somalia 2010: 393
• Anwar AwlakiDefinitely Has a Missile in His Future: 398
• Act I: 403
• The Tsunami of Change: 430
• We Got Him We Got Him: 444
• Yemen 2011: 453
• It Was ColdBlooded: 458
• Total Savagery Throughout the Country: 487
• Paying for the Sins of the Father: 507
• Acknowledgments: 523
• 147: 541
• 162: 559
• 210: 566
• 254: 572
• 278: 577
• 285: 578
• 294: 579
• 303: 581
• 314: 583
• 328: 585
• 350: 588
• 356: 589
• 367: 590
• 375: 591
• 386: 592
• 393: 593
• 398: 594
• Index: 615

About the author

Jeremy Scahill is National Security Correspondent for The Nation magazine and author of the New York Times best-seller Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. He is a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute. He has reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, the former Yugoslavia, and elsewhere across the globe. Scahill is a frequent guest on a wide array of programs, appearing regularly on The Rachel Maddow Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, and Democracy Now! He has also appeared on Fresh Air, ABC World News, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, CNN, PBS NewsHour, and Bill Moyers Journal. Scahill’s work has sparked several Congressional investigations and won some of journalism’s highest honors. He was twice awarded the prestigious George Polk Award, in 1998 for foreign reporting and in 2008 for his book Blackwater. He is also a producer and writer of the film Dirty Wars, which won the cinematography prize at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield
• Author: Jeremy Scahill
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Nation Books, 2013
• ISBN: 1568587279, 9781568587271
• Length: 512 pages
• Subjects: History / Military / Special Forces; Political Science / International Relations / General; Political Science / Security (National & International)