From a former top-level insider whom the Los Angeles Times has called 'the most influential career lawyer in CIA history' comes an unprecedented memoir filled with revelatory stories about the US government's intelligence program. In 1975, fresh out of law school and working in a mind-numbing job at the US Treasury, John Rizzo took 'a total shot in the dark' and sent his resume to the Central Intelligence Agency. He had no notion that more than 30 years later, he would become a notorious public figure both a symbol and a victim of the toxic winds swirling in post - 9/11 Washington. From approving the rules that governing waterboarding and other 'enhanced interrogation techniques' to serving as the CIA's spokesperson during the Iran- Contra scandal, Rizzo witnessed and participated in virtually all of the significant operations of the CIA's modern history. He was the agency's top lawyer in the years after the 9/11 attacks, and oversaw actions that remain the subject of intense debate today. In Company Man, Rizzo charts the CIA's evolution over the course of his career, and offers a direct window into the organisation during some of its biggest controversies.
In doing so, he has produced the most comprehensive insider account of the CIA ever written a groundbreaking, timely, timely, and remarkable personal history of American intelligence. 'Think of Tom Hagen, the Corleone family lawyer in The Godfather, and you begin to get the flavour of what Rizzo had seen and heard. He draws vivid portraits of the agency's great characters and their sometimes outrageous schemes ...If you're interested in the inside life of the CIA, read this book!' David Ignatius, Washington Post columnist and New York Times bestselling author of Body of Lies 'When the CIA was in trouble, big trouble, it called John ...Rizzo knows where the bodies are buried because he helped stash them. Company Man reads like the CIA's conscience ...Why did the CIA violently interrogate suspects and then destroy the evidence? Rizzo knows, and he's talking.' Richard Engel, NBC News chief foreign correspondent and author of War Journal
- ISBN13 9781922070845
- Publish Date 2 January 2014
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 11 March 2016
- Publish Country AU
- Imprint Scribe Publications
- Format Paperback (UK Trade)
- Pages 336
- Language English