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Drawing on extensive interviews with Ames' widow and quotes from his private letters, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer presents a brilliant narrative of the making of America's most influential and effective intelligence officer in the Middle East.
The Good Spy is Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Kai Bird's compelling portrait of the remarkable life and death of one of the most important operatives in CIA history - a man who, had he lived, might have helped heal the rift between Arabs and the West. On April 18, 1983, a bomb exploded outside the American Embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people. The attack was a geopolitical turning point. It marked the beginning of Hezbollah as a political force, but even more important, it eliminated America's most influential and effective intelligence officer in the Middle East - CIA operative Robert Ames. What set Ames apart from his peers was his extraordinary ability to form deep, meaningful connections with key Arab intelligence figures. Some operatives relied on threats and subterfuge, but Ames worked by building friendships and emphasizing shared values - never more notably than with Yasir Arafat's charismatic intelligence chief and heir apparent Ali Hassan Salameh (aka "The Red Prince"). Ames' deepening relationship with Salameh held the potential for a lasting peace. Within a few years, though, both men were killed by assassins, and America's relations with the Arab world began heading down a path that culminated in 9/11, the War on Terror, and the current fog of mistrust. Bird, who as a child lived in the Beirut Embassy and knew Ames as a neighbor when he was twelve years old, spent years researching The Good Spy. Not only does the book draw on hours of interviews with Ames' widow, and quotes from hundreds of Ames' private letters, it's woven from interviews with scores of current and former American, Israeli, and Palestinian intelligence officers as well as other players in the Middle East "Great Game." What emerges is a masterpiece-level narrative of the making of a CIA officer, a uniquely insightful history of twentieth-century conflict in the Middle East, and an absorbing hour-by-hour account of the Beirut Embassy bombing. Even more impressive, Bird draws on his reporter's skills to deliver a full dossier on the bombers and expose the shocking truth of where the attack's mastermind resides today. -- Publisher description
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Subjects
Intelligence officers, Officials and employees, Employees, United States. Central Intelligence Agency, United States, Biography, Intelligence officers, biography, Spies, United states, central intelligence agency, nyt:e-book-nonfiction=2014-06-08, New York Times bestsellerPeople
Robert Ames (1934-1983)Places
United StatesShowing 4 featured editions. View all 4 editions?
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1
Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames
2015, Crown Publishing Group
in English
0307889769 9780307889768
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The good spy: the life and death of Robert Ames
2014
in English
- First edition.
0307889750 9780307889751
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3
The good spy: the life and death of Robert Ames
2014, Thorndike Press, A part of Gale, Cengage Learning
in English
- Large print edition.
1410469182 9781410469182
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4
The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames
May 20, 2014, Random House Audio
audio cd
0804166471 9780804166478
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Source title: The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames
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