The Way of the Knife: The Untold Story of USA’s Secret War

Mark Mazzetti

Penguin Books India

392 pages, Rs 499

An account of how the USA has been waging a new kind of shadow war across the world against Islamic extremism. The CIA today has become, more than ever, a paramilitary agency, ordered by the White House to kill off its enemies. It is increasingly using private security firms and drones to conduct proxy killings. Mazzetti tracks an astonishing cast of characters: ISI chiefs pitted against CIA officers, Islamic terrorists playing double games, and bitter rivalries among the CIA, the Pentagon and the White House.