Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander
by Gary Berntsen, Ralph Pezzullo
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Book Summary Information
Author: Gary Berntsen, Ralph PezzulloEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2005-12-27
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Crown
Book Reviews of Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander
Book Review: The Unredacted Version Will Be Better
Summary: 3 Stars
Gary Berntsen's Jawbreaker is a welcome historical account of CIA involvement in the early days of Operation Enduring Freedom. Bertnsen was a career CIA case officer experienced in counterterrorism and the Middle/Near East. The CIA tapped Bertnsen to replaced Gary Schroen (who himself has written a book about his involvement) as the head of a "Jawbreaker" team. It is not clear from Bertnsen's account until the end whether his Jawbreaker team dealt with all of Afghanistan or just Eastern Afghanistan. The Jawbreaker team included case officers, Special Activities Division paramilitary types, attached US special operations personnel, and CIA Arab American translators. Their role was to work with the Northern and Eastern Alliances, gather intelligence for US Central Command, and search for high-level Taliban and Al Qaida personnel. For the most part, the Jawbreaker team's routine involved placing personnel with Northern/Eastern Alliance leaders or US Army Special Forces teams, and using substantial amounts of cash (Berntsen's team had $8 million US) to bribe ally or foe to secure objectives favorable to the United States government.
One drawback of Berntsen's account is that nearly a third or more of his account is blacked out--redacted is the word--on orders of the CIA's censors. I can understand why Berntsen and his ghostwriter included the blacked out lines--to show how much was removed. Bertnsen writes that he hopes one day to be able to publish the content. But despite occasional summaries of deleted content, it does make for some jarring reading at times. Also, the censors did not do a great job. If you are experienced in the military/special operations world you can read between the lines. Sometimes you need not even do that, as some Afghan's titles are blacked out and then revealed later in the text. It seems the censors were most concerned with removing references to allied intelligence agencies (like MI6), the ethnic ancestries of the CIA translators, how much money was used to bribe Afghan friend and foe to secure intelligence or surrenders, and the results of exploiting Al Qaida personnel or documents.
Having read Berntsen's book, you almost have to go back and read Schroen's as he was the "first in" to Afghanistan. I have not read Schroen's book but I might have to now to get the complete picture of the first days of the CIA's second war in Afghanistan.
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