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A review by baronessekat
Left of Boom: How a Young CIA Case Officer Penetrated the Taliban and Al-Qaeda by Ralph Pezzullo, Douglas Laux
1.0
What a load of self-centered narcissistic dreck.
I expected from the title that this would be about someone who actually went undercover into the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Not an informant handler who never went close to undercover. And by the telling was some one who just was able to come in and turn things around. I have trouble believing he was the first operative in Afghanistan who spoke fluent Pashtun (despite that he had been trained in a completely different dialect and had to relearn on the job). That he was the first and only one to suggest that the danger in Afghanistan was the Taliban and not Al-Qadea?
From the descriptions I felt more like he was a small town High School Quarterback who lived off of his self-perceived glory. That he was God's gift to everything - women, the CIA, the world. His girlfriend is mad at him, but the minute he takes off his shirt and she sees his fabulous abs she has to have sex with him right then and there? Give me a break.
And the attitude he claims he had with superior officers... dropping out of communication for two months and just going off on vacation jaunts without checking in at all, and he's not disciplined for it... I don't buy it.
sorry, no.
The only reason I give this book a 2 instead of a 1 is because I liked the reader. He's the only thing that kept me listening to the book.
I expected from the title that this would be about someone who actually went undercover into the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Not an informant handler who never went close to undercover. And by the telling was some one who just was able to come in and turn things around. I have trouble believing he was the first operative in Afghanistan who spoke fluent Pashtun (despite that he had been trained in a completely different dialect and had to relearn on the job). That he was the first and only one to suggest that the danger in Afghanistan was the Taliban and not Al-Qadea?
From the descriptions I felt more like he was a small town High School Quarterback who lived off of his self-perceived glory. That he was God's gift to everything - women, the CIA, the world. His girlfriend is mad at him, but the minute he takes off his shirt and she sees his fabulous abs she has to have sex with him right then and there? Give me a break.
And the attitude he claims he had with superior officers... dropping out of communication for two months and just going off on vacation jaunts without checking in at all, and he's not disciplined for it... I don't buy it.
sorry, no.
The only reason I give this book a 2 instead of a 1 is because I liked the reader. He's the only thing that kept me listening to the book.