18 A NOTE ABOUT SECRECYOnly close friends, family, and a handful of hostile foreign intelligence
services are aware of my former CIA affiliation. I’ve been careful to avoid
revealing information in this book that may enable a hostile foreign intel-
ligence service (or non-state group like ISIS) to determine the identities of
my foreign contacts or sources, by putting together various pieces of the
puzzle—the way zealous Iranians literally pieced together sensitive CIA
documents, which had been frantically shredded during the violent take-
over of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979. (Fortunately, shredder tech-
nology has improved since then.)
The point is this process is not just to protect national security; it’s also
for my own protection and that of my family, former agents, and other
contacts.
Where necessary, then, I will not use the real names of key people
involved. Generally speaking, unless I’m referring to someone in the public
domain whose name is well known, I’ll change the name. Also, at times
I’ll be intentionally vague about a place, an organization, or details of an
operation. For example, I can’t explicitly identify the name or industry of
my company in Iraq.
None of these measures will detract from the story itself and should
not even be noticed by the reader. It’s simply necessary in order to comply
with my CIA secrecy agreement and with my own moral compass, which
compels me to protect family, friends, colleagues, and former agents
with whom I’ve worked over the years. Secrecy agreement or no secrecy
agreement.