Macht und Wahn

Mitreißend und fast thrillerhaft erzählt Tim Weiner von den Machenschaften der CIA im 21. Jahrhundert.Der 11. September 2001 veränderte die CIA grundlegend. Aus dem Geheimdienst, der seine Kernaufgaben - Spionage und Spionageabwehr - nach dem Kalten Krieg so gut wie aufgegeben hatte, wurde eine Organisation, die Foltergefängnisse baute und tödliche Drohnenangriffe durchführte. Die Folgen waren gravierend: Chinesische Spione stahlen Akten, amerikanische Hacker verschafften sich Zugang zu sensiblen Daten und zahllose Menschen starben in Afghanistan und im Irak. Heute sieht sich die CIA vor neue, enorme Herausforderungen gestellt: von den Konflikten mit Russland, dem Iran und China bis hin zur Auseinandersetzung mit Trump, der den Geheimdienst als subversive Kraft bezeichnet.Ein schonungsloser Blick auf einen der mächtigsten Nachrichtendienste der Welt in einem Vierteljahrhundert voller Krisen, Kriege und globaler Machtverschiebungen - von einem der intimsten Kenner des amerikanischen Geheimdienstsystems.

New York Times Bestseller * A New Yorker Best Book of the Year * A Washington Post Notable Book of the Year * A New York Times Editors' Choice "No one has opened up the CIA to us like Weiner has, and The Mission deserves to win Weiner a second Pulitzer." —The GuardianA masterpiece of reporting based on-the-record interviews with six former CIA directors and scores of spies, station chiefs, and top operations officers: The Mission is a gripping and revelatory history of the modern CIA, reaching from 9/11 through its covert operations in Afghanistan and Iraq to today’s secret battles with Russia and China, concluding with the Agency's own fight for survival under the current president of the United States Tim Weiner's epic successor to Legacy of Ashes, his National Book Award–winning classic about the CIA's first sixty yearsAt 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 11, 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 consequences were grave: the deaths of scores of its recruited foreign agents, the theft of its personnel files by Chinese spies, the penetration of its computer networks by Russian intelligence and American hackers, and the tragedies of Afghanistan and Iraq. A new generation of spies now must fight the hardest targets—Moscow, Beijing, Tehran—while confronting a president who has attacked the CIA as a subversive force.From Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Weiner, The Mission tells the gripping, high-stakes story of the CIA through the first quarter of the twenty-first century, revealing how the agency fought to rebuild the espionage powers it lost during the war on terror—and finally succeeded in penetrating the Kremlin. The struggle has life-and-death consequences for America and its allies. The CIA must reclaim its original mission: know thy enemies. The fate of the free world hangs in the balance.A masterpiece of reporting, The Mission includes exclusive on-the-record interviews with six former CIA directors, the top spymaster, thirteen station chiefs, and scores of top operations officers who served undercover for decades and have never spoken to a journalist.

Zwielichtige Machenschaften wie Drogenhandel und Geldwäsche, Mordkomplotte, illegale Interventionen und Folter: Seit ihrer Gründung vor sechzig Jahren steht die CIA für viele dubiose Vorgänge beginnend mit dem Kalten Krieg bis zum heutigen 'War on Terror'. Es gibt kaum eine Veränderung im Weltgeschehen der letzten Jahrzehnte, bei der die CIA nicht ihre Hände im Spiel hatte, ob in Südamerika, Vietnam oder Afghanistan... In zahlreichen Filmen und Thrillern wird sie als kühler, brillanter und allmächtiger Strippenzieher der Weltpolitik dargestellt.Doch das Gegenteil ist der Fall. Der zweifache Pulitzer-Preisträger Tim Weiner zeigt beängstigend und zugleich erstaunlich unterhaltsam, mit welcher Inkompetenz und Naivität der mächtigste Geheimdienst der Welt operiert. Unter anderem war man in Langley vom Fall der Sowjetunion völlig überrascht, hatte die Invasion in Kuwait übersehen und die Warnsignale vor dem 11. September ignoriert.

'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 consequences were grave: the deaths of scores of its recruited foreign agents, the theft of its personnel files by Chinese spies, the penetration of its computer networks by Russian intelligence and American hackers, and the tragedies of Afghanistan and Iraq. A new generation of spies now must fight the hardest targets - Moscow, Beijing, Tehran - while confronting a president who has attacked the CIA as a subversive force.From Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Weiner,¿The Mission¿tells the gripping, high-stakes story of the CIA through the first quarter of the twenty-first century, revealing how the agency fought to rebuild the espionage powers it lost during the war on terror - and finally succeeded in penetrating the Kremlin. The struggle has life-and-death consequences for America and its allies. The CIA must reclaim its original mission: know thy enemies. The fate of the free world hangs in the balance.A masterpiece of reporting, The Mission includes exclusive on-the-record interviews with six former CIA directors, thirteen station chiefs, and scores of top spies who served undercover for decades and have never spoken to a journalist before.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • With shocking revelations that made headlines all across the country, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Tim Weiner gets at the truth behind the CIA and uncovers why nearly every CIA director has left the agency in worse shape than he found it, and how these profound failures jeopardize our national security.<BR><BR>"For anyone interested in the CIA or American intelligence since World War II.” —The Washington Post<BR><BR>A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century • The precursor to the New York Times bestseller The Mission<BR><BR>For years, the CIA has managed to maintain a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, burying its blunders in top-secret archives. Its mission was to know the world. When it did not succeed, it set out to change the world. Its failures have handed us, in the words of President Eisenhower, “a legacy of ashes.”<BR><BR>Now Pulitzer Prize–winning author Tim Weiner offers a definitive history of the CIA—and everything is on the record. LEGACY OF ASHES is based on more than 50,000 documents, primarily from the archives of the CIA itself, and hundreds of interviews with CIA veterans, including ten Directors of Central Intelligence. It takes the CIA from its creation after World War II, through its battles in the cold war and the war on terror, to its near-collapse after 9/ll.<BR><BR>Here is the hidden history of the CIA: why eleven presidents and three generations of CIA officers have been unable to understand the world; why nearly every CIA director has left the agency in worse shape than he found it; and how these failures have profoundly jeopardized our national security.<BR><BR>