THE MISSION

No one has opened up the CIA to us like Weiner has and The Mission deserves to win him a second Pulitzer JOHN SIMPSON GUARDIANThe epic successor to Tim Weiner s National Book Award winning classic Legacy of Ashes a gripping and revelatory history of the CIA in the 21st century reaching from 9 11 through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to today s battles with Russia and China and with the President of the United States At the turn of the century the Central Intelligence Agency was in crisis The end of the Cold War had robbed the agency of its mission More than thirty overseas stations and bases had been shuttered and scores that remained had been severely cut back Many countries where surveillance was once deemed crucial went uncovered Essential intelligence wasn t being collected At the dawn of the information age the CIA s officers and analysts worked with outmoded technology struggling to distinguish the clear signals of significant facts from the cacophony of background noise Then came September 11th 2001 After the attacks the CIA transformed itself into a lethal paramilitary force running secret prisons and brutal interrogations mounting deadly drone attacks and all but abandoning its core missions of espionage and counterespionage The con