12 PREFACEand elsewhere in the Middle East and wrestling with issues like this, seven
days a week for fifteen years, have taken its toll.
To clarify, I love the unpredictable start-up phase of a risky venture,
especially in a challenging place like Iraq. I’m just not crazy about the
“running the established business” part.
I’m also tired of dealing with Shi’ite militias, Daesh (ISIS), and al-
Qaeda in Iraq (precursor to ISIS), not to mention the impossible Iraqi
government and equally impossible Western multinationals who rely on
my company’s services in Iraq. And don’t get me started on the Bank of
America, perhaps the most aggravating challenge of them all.
Before gambling on a business start-up in Iraq, I spent thirteen years
as a CIA operations officer (aka case officer). For most of those thirteen
years, I could not believe they actually paid me to do the job. I wasn’t the
only young ops officer blessed with that sense of wonder. The CIA mys-
tique, culture, and way of life really are that intoxicating. Like most of my
colleagues, I believed in the mission—I still do—and loved every bit of the
experience. At least until I reached the ranks of middle management.
An unconditional commitment to the career is a good and necessary
thing because the job demands unending hours and unquestioned 24/
devotion to duty. It’s a commitment I eagerly made, from intensive training
assignments in the DC area to equally intensive, risky, and exhausting
assignments in Latin America, the Balkans, and elsewhere.
The lengthy CIA training process was one of the greatest adventures
of my life, and it alone generated enough memorable and hilarious stories
on which to base an entire book.
Once I was posted abroad, employing solid tradecraft skills learned
during training was essential to success and survival, whether on the streets
of Latin America or while being followed by the Yugoslav “KGB” en route
to a midnight agent meeting in Belgrade. Overseas, I frequently (and inten-
tionally) crossed paths with Cold War nemeses, like Soviet and Cuban spies.
Post–Cold War CIA service allowed me and my family to bear witness
to the breakup of Yugoslavia as it slid out of Communism and into a hor-
rific, bloody civil war. I served on and behind the front lines, dispatching
reports and influencing events in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. My wife
and daughters experienced CIA life from a somewhat different perspective.
Because of the urgency of the Bosnia crisis, my raw intelligence