MARK MAZZETTI: The title is drawn from-it’s a departure from an analogy used by John Brennan, who is now the CIA director, but he gave a speech several years ago where he talked about-he was comparing the big wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to these other kind of shadow wars, and he talked about instead of using a hammer, the United States will use a scalpel.

In 2009, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on Afghanistan and Pakistan.ĪMY GOODMAN: Well, the title, The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth, what’s the knife? He’s a national security correspondent for The New York Times, has broken a number of major stories in recent years, including the destruction of dozens of CIA interrogation tapes. targeted killings in Yemen and Somalia as well as secret spy operations inside Iran. The book examines the transformation of the CIA and America’s special operations forces into man-hunting and killing machines in the world’s dark spaces. As part of the deal, the United States also agreed not to carry out strikes in areas of Pakistan where Kashmiri militants were trained for attacks in India.ĪMY GOODMAN: The report is based on a new book by Mark Mazzetti called The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth. Pakistan took credit for the attack under the terms of its agreement with the CIA. The militant, Nek Muhammad, was killed by CIA Predator drone in 2004.

The New York Times reports the Pakistani government agreed to allow the drone attacks in return for the CIA’s assassination of a Pakistani militant who was not even a target of the United States. NERMEEN SHAIKH: New details have emerged this week on the origins of the CIA drone war in Pakistan.

The way of the knife by mark mazzetti