Charlie Wilson's War

Fülszöveg

ina little over a decade, two evcnts have transformed the world we live in: the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of militant Islam. Charlie Wilsons War is the untold story behind the last batde of the Cold War and how it fueled the new jihad. George Crile telis how Charlie Wilson, a maverick congressman from east Texas, conspired with a rogue CIA operatíve to launch the bitest, meanest, and most successful covert operation in the Agency s history. In the eariy 1980s, after a Houston socialite turnéd Wilsons attention to the ragged band of Afghan "freedom fighters" who continued, despite overwhelming odds, to fight the Soviet invaders, the congressman became passionate about their cause. At a time when Ronaid Reagan faced a totál cutoff of funding for the Contra war, Wilson, who sat on the all-powerful House Appropriations Committee, managed to procure hundreds of millions of dollars to support the mujahideen. The arms were secredy procured and distributed with the aid of an... Tovább

Fülszöveg

ina little over a decade, two evcnts have transformed the world we live in: the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of militant Islam. Charlie Wilsons War is the untold story behind the last batde of the Cold War and how it fueled the new jihad. George Crile telis how Charlie Wilson, a maverick congressman from east Texas, conspired with a rogue CIA operatíve to launch the bitest, meanest, and most successful covert operation in the Agency s history. In the eariy 1980s, after a Houston socialite turnéd Wilsons attention to the ragged band of Afghan "freedom fighters" who continued, despite overwhelming odds, to fight the Soviet invaders, the congressman became passionate about their cause. At a time when Ronaid Reagan faced a totál cutoff of funding for the Contra war, Wilson, who sat on the all-powerful House Appropriations Committee, managed to procure hundreds of millions of dollars to support the mujahideen. The arms were secredy procured and distributed with the aid of an out-of-favor CIA operatíve, Gust Avrakotos, whose working-class Greek-American background made hím an anomaly among the Ivy League world of American spies. Nicknamed "Dr. Dirty,'* the blue-collar James Bond was an aggressive agent who served on the front lines of the Cold War where he learned how to stretch the Agency s rules to the breaking point. Avrakotos handpicked a staff of CIA outcasts to run his operation: "Hilly Billy," the logistics wizard who could open an unnumbered Swiss bank account for the U.S. government in twelve hours when others took months; Art Alper, the grandfatherly demolitions expert from the Technical Services Division who passed on his dark ara to the Afghans; Mike Vickers, the former Green Beret (continued on back flap) Vissza