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Den of spies : Reagan, Carter, and the secret history of the treason that stole the White House / by Unger, Craig,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Argo meets Spotlight, as journalist Craig Unger, New York Times bestselling author of American Kompromat and House of Bush, House of Saud, reveals his thirty-year investigation into the secret collusion between Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign and Iran, raising urgent questions about what happens when foreign meddling in our elections goes unpunished and what gets remembered when the political price for treason is victory. It was a tinderbox of an accusation. In April 1991, the New York Times ran an op-ed alleging that Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign had conspired with the Iranian government to delay the release of 52 American hostages until after the 1980 election. The Iranian hostage crisis was President Jimmy Carter's largest political vulnerability, and his lack of success freeing them ultimately sealed his fate at the ballot box. In return for keeping Americans in captivity until Reagan assumed the oath of office, the Republicans had secretly funneled arms to Iran. Treasonous and illegal, the operation - planned and executed by Reagan's campaign manager Bill Casey - amounted to a shadow foreign policy run by private citizens that ensured Reagan's victory. Investigative journalist Craig Unger was one of the first reporters covering the October Surprise - initially for Esquire and then Newsweek - and while attempting to unravel the mystery, he was fired, sued, and ostracized by the Washington press corps, as a counter narrative took hold: The October Surprise was a hoax. Though Unger later recovered his name and became a bestselling author on Republican abuses of power, the October Surprise remained his white whale, the project he - as well as legendary investigative journalist, the late Robert Parry - worked on late at night and between assignments. In Den of spies, Unger reveals the definitive story of the October Surprise, going inside his three-decade reporting odyssey, along with Parry's never-before-seen archives, and sharing startling truths about what really happened in 1980. The result is a real-life political thriller filled with double agents, CIA operatives, slippery politicians, KGB documents, wealthy Republicans, and dogged journalists. A timely and provocative history that presages our Trump-era political scandals, Den of spies demonstrates the stakes of allowing the politics of the moment to obscure the writing of our history"--
Subjects: Foreign interference in elections; Foreign interference in elections; Intelligence service; Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981.; Military assistance, American; Political corruption; Presidents;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Red line : the unraveling of Syria and America's race to destroy the most dangerous arsenal in the world / by Warrick, Joby,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Black Flags, the harrowing story of America's mission in Syria: to find and destroy Syria's chemical weapons and defeat ISIS--only to lose control of both In August 2012, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was clinging to power in a vicious civil war. Concerned that Assad might resort to chemical weapons, President Obama warned that any such use would cross "a red line," warranting an American military response. When a year later Assad bombed the Damascus suburb of Ghouta with sarin gas, killing hundreds, Obama was torn between living up to America's word and becoming mired in another unpopular Middle Eastern war. So when Russia offered to store Syria's chemical weapons, Obama leaped at the out. So begins a race to find, remove, and destroy 1,300 tons of chemical weapons in the middle of Syria's civil war. Told in harrowing detail, the effort is a tactical triumph for the Americans, but soon Russia's long game becomes clear: it has UN cover to assist a close ally, Assad. As the Russians block attempts to check for chemical weapons that might have been missed, American realizes that ISIS seeks to secure them for itself. Red Line is a classic Joby Warrick true-life thriller: a character-driven narrative with a cast of heroes and villains, including weapons hunters, politicians, commandos, diplomats, and spies. Through original reporting and eyewitness accounts from direct participants, Joby Warrick reveals how a well-intentioned effort to save Syrian lives touched off a chain of events that would rescue a dictator, sustain a terrorist movement, unleash torrents of refugees, humiliate two U.S. presidents, and empower Russia and Iran"--
Subjects: IS (Organization); Chemical weapons disposal; Chemical weapons; Terrorism;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Exercise of power : American failures, successes, and a new path forward in the post-Cold War world / by Gates, Robert Michael,1943-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Since the end of the Cold War, the global perception of the United States has progressively morphed from dominant international leader to disorganized entity, seemingly unwilling to accept the mantle of leadership or unable to govern itself effectively. Robert Gates argues that this transformation is the result of the failure of political leaders to understand the complexity of American power, its expansiveness, and its limitations. He makes clear that the successful exercise of power is not limited to the use of military might or the ability to coerce or demand submission, but must encompass as well diplomacy, economics, strategic communications, development assistance, intelligence, technology, ideology, and cyber. By analyzing specific challenges faced by the American government in the post-Cold War period--Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, Syria, Libya, Russia, China and others--Gates deconstructs the ways in which leaders have used the instruments of power available to them. With forthright judgments of the performance of past presidents and their senior-most advisors, first-hand knowledge, and insider stories, Gates argues that U.S. national security in the future will require learning, and abiding by, the lessons of the past, and re-creating those capabilities that the misuse of power has cost the nation."--
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Operation Medusa : the furious battle that saved Afghanistan from the Taliban / by Fraser, David(Major-General),author.; Hanington, Brian,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."David Fraser, the Canadian in charge of the joint military command in Kandahar Province in Afghanistan, tells the real on-the-ground story of one of NATO's bloodiest, most decisive and misunderstood operations: The battle of Panjwayi, the defining moment of "Operation Medusa." In 2006, David Fraser was the Canadian general in charge of the joint military command in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. Like the troops under his command, he was in no way ready for what happened on Friday, September 1st of that year. He had been woken the night before by his intelligence officers who informed him that the Taliban were amassing on all fronts for an all-out battle. The NATO Alliance was about to engage the enemy in the greatest and bloodiest battle of their 70-year history. And they were grossly outnumbered. The facts of Operation Medusa have themselves been the casualties of war. At first deliberately withheld as classified, then muddied by imprecise and isolated personal accounts, exaggerated by rumour, misstated by ambition, or just rejected outright as irrelevant, the details of these events are still unknown by citizens of Canada and her allies. And yet the truth about those 15 agonizing days between September 2 and 17 is astounding. The secret agreements made in those two weeks, the expected death toll of Canadian soldiers, the wholesale changes to tactics made after the first engagement, the strafing of Charles Company by an American A-10, the contribution of the Afghan police, the genius of the Dutch artillery, the discovery of drugs, the extent of unreported civilian casualties, and even Canadian and Allied reliance on the insights of village elders were classified and kept from public knowledge. And yet in international military circles, the Battle of Panjwayi was quickly hailed as the defining moment of Operation Medusa. Canadians were credited with nothing less than saving Afghanistan from falling under Taliban rule. Our military's strategy and tactics were soon studied in warfare colleges in the U.S., and practiced by NATO troops in exercises around the world. Canada's reputation as a contributor to allied defence was once again revered. There is no one architect of Operation Medusa, a theme deeply embedded in David Fraser's first-hand account, but if anyone really had to point to the one person who could tell this incredible story, it is the Canadian General in charge of the joint military command"--
Subjects: International Security Assistance Force (Afghanistan); North Atlantic Treaty Organization; Operation Medusa, 2006.; Afghan War, 2001-;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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