Gray Work: Confessions of an American Paramilitary Spy - Softcover

Smith, Jamie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062326473 ISBN 13: 9780062326478

Publisher: Harper Large Print, 2015

Synopsis

[ Gray Work LP: Confessions of an American Paramilitary Spy By ( Author ) Apr-2015 Paperback

About this title

Review:

"Espionage, trade-craft, politics, gunfights, explosions, assassinations, and covert operations around the world. Clancy, Griffin, and Ludlum use these in their novels, but only Jamie Smith has really lived them. Page after page, you can't help thinking 'this is all real.'"--Colonel Lee Van Arsdale, retired former Commander, Delta Force Sabre Squadron and Branch Chief, Counterterrorism Special Projects, U.S. Secretary of Defense

"Smith takes you inside the Libyan revolution with a vivid and emotionally engaging account of the people and politics. This story shows the shaping of American foreign policy by players relatively unknown to the key decision makers. . . . This is a hugely interesting, entertaining, and heart-stopping read."--Colonel Rick Cantwell, retired US Army Special Forces

Patriot, warrior, spy. Smith may be a real life Jason Bourne. --Fred Burton, Vice President at Stratfor and coauthor of "Under Fire: The Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi""

No one knows more about the grit and reality of counterterrorism than Jamie Smith, or writes better about it. His insights are indispensable to our understanding of a shadowy and dangerous world. --Richard North Patterson, author of "Loss of Innocence""

Espionage, trade-craft, politics, gunfights, explosions, assassinations, and covert operations around the world. Clancy, Griffin, and Ludlum use these in their novels, but only Jamie Smith has really lived them. Page after page, you can t help thinking this is all real. --Colonel Lee Van Arsdale, retired former Commander, Delta Force Sabre Squadron and Branch Chief, Counterterrorism Special Projects, U.S. Secretary of Defense"

Smith s experience in the military and intelligence worlds, and the insights he has gleaned along the way, provide indispensable reading for anyone who wants to understand, or profit from, our dangerous times. --James Rosen, Fox News Chief Washington Correspondent and author of "The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate""

Smith takes you inside the Libyan revolution with a vivid and emotionally engaging account of the people and politics. This story shows the shaping of American foreign policy by players relatively unknown to the key decision makers. . . . This is a hugely interesting, entertaining, and heart-stopping read. --Colonel Rick Cantwell, retired US Army Special Forces"

"Patriot, warrior, spy. Smith may be a real life Jason Bourne."--Fred Burton, Vice President at Stratfor and coauthor of Under Fire: The Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi

"No one knows more about the grit and reality of counterterrorism than Jamie Smith, or writes better about it. His insights are indispensable to our understanding of a shadowy and dangerous world."--Richard North Patterson, author of Loss of Innocence

"Smith's experience in the military and intelligence worlds, and the insights he has gleaned along the way, provide indispensable reading for anyone who wants to understand, or profit from, our dangerous times."--James Rosen, Fox News Chief Washington Correspondent and author of The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate

From the Back Cover:

In this unprecedented book, a paramilitary contractor with more than two decades of experience gives us a firsthand look into the secret lives of America's private warriors and their highly covert work around the world. Author Jamie Smith has planned and executed hundreds of missions on behalf of government agencies and private industry in some of the world's most dangerous hot spots--and lived to tell the tale.

They are elite warriors who run highly dangerous missions deep inside foreign countries on the brink of war. Jamie Smith knows these men well. Not only is he one of them, but he was the founding director of one of the most successful global, private military contracting firms. For the first time, he breaks his silence, pulling back the curtain to reveal in raw, intimate terms exactly what paramilitary spies and operators like him do when the government cannot act or take public responsibility.

Combining the thrilling narrative of an international spy thriller with bracing boots-on-the-ground realism, Gray Work follows Smith through grinding CIA training and his career as an operative, his work with Blackwater Security, and the creation of his own successful company. Here is the grit and gristle of modern warfare, from espionage and assassinations, rescues and renditions, from the dark corners of the Arab Spring and the fall of Qadhafi to black ops from Syria to Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and beyond. Smith has fought terrorists and won; he was ambushed on a mission in Pakistan and took a bullet through his shoulder and to his back, and subsequently survived a grueling mountain trek that almost cost him his life.

As founding director of Blackwater Security and then as head of his own company, Smith has helped shape a decade of war. His book powerfully illustrates how the men who serve in this gray area between the public and private worlds are transforming the art and science of modern warfare. Unparalleled in its revelations and riveting in its intensity, Gray Work is as exhilarating as the best novels by Clancy, Cussler, Flynn, and Thor--and all the more so because it's true.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Large Print
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0062326473
• ISBN 13: 9780062326478
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 704