What We Won

In February 1989, the CIA's chief in Islamabad famously cabled headquarters a simple message: "We Won." It was an understated coda to the most successful covert intelligence operation in American history. In What We Won, CIA and National Security Council veteran Bruce Riedel tells the story of America's secret war in Afghanistan and the defeat of the Soviet 40th Red Army in the war that proved to be the final battle of the cold war. He seeks to answer one simple question—why did this intelligence operation succeed so brilliantly? Riedel has the vantage point few others can offer: He was ensconced in the CIA's Operations Center when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on Christmas Eve 1979. The invasion took the intelligence community by surprise. But the response, initiated by Jimmy Carter and accelerated by Ronald Reagan, was a masterful intelligence enterprise. Many books have been written about intelligence failures—from Pearl Harbor to 9/11. Much less has been written about how and why intelligence operations succeed. The answer is complex. It involves both the weaknesses and mistakes of America's enemies, as well as good judgment and strengths of the United States. Riedel introduces and explores the complex personalities pitted in the war—the Afghan communists, the Russians, the Afghan mujahedin, the Saudis, and the Pakistanis. And then there are the Americans—in this war, no Americans fought on the battlefield. The CIA did not send officers into Afghanistan to fight or even to train. In 1989, victory for the American side of the cold war seemed complete. Now we can see that a new era was also beginning in the Afghan war in the 1980s, the era of the global jihad. This book examines the lessons we can learn from this intelligence operation for the future and makes some observations on what came next in Afghanistan—and what is likely yet to come.

The 2000 Winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction judged by Mark Richard.

Since 1994, the UK's National Lottery has created 2,300 millionaires. Expensive cars, big houses and dream holidays are all top of the wish list for those ordinary people whose lives are changed with a winning lottery ticket. But what about buying a boob job for your sister, giving away holidays to children with cancer or hiring a private helicopter for the school prom? For the first time five winners share the details of their shopping sprees and the highs and lows of their lives once they became millionaires. "We Won The Lottery" also goes behind the scenes at the National Lottery to reveal funny facts, the luckiest numbers, the unusual purchases and exactly what happens when you win. "Quick Reads" are exciting, short, fast-paced books by leading, bestselling authors, specifically written for emergent readers and adult learners.

Forfatteren, som selv var fører af Sultanen af Omans styrker, beskriver Dhofarkrigen, hvor Omans styrker - suppleret med andre landes styrker, herunder britiske styrker - nedkæmpede kommunistiske styrker. Krigen varede ca. 10 år, og forfatteren var selv tjenestegørende dér de sidste 18 måneder af krigen.

Dario Fo, one of Italy's foremost playwrights, is a rarity- a Marxist with a sense of humor. This hilarious farce, a success Off Broadway and across the U.S., is set in motion when a housewife comes home with groceries she has swiped as part of a spontaneous community action where 300 women did the same. In her effort to keep her secret from her husband, she hides some of the groceries under her best friend's raincoat. Her husband and his friend the accomplice's husband notice the bulge, of course; but they believe the explanation that the accomplice is pregnant! Hilarity is piled upon hilarity as the characters try to extricate themselves from the mess they have gotten into. Eventually, they all unite to support the spontaneous resistance to eviction in their housing project.

Writings from over 2,000 years of tax resisters and tax resistance campaigns, covering both tax resistance as an act of individual conscience and revenue refusal as a technique of nonviolent resistance.

The War We Won By: L W Swartz At the age of twenty, L W Swartz enlisted in the United States Army. He was motivated by a desire to become a pilot and to serve and protect his country. Little did he know that he would be thrust into the middle of the Viet Nam War, a conflict condemned by the public and neglected by politicians. After saying goodbye to his family, unsure if he would ever see them again, L W set out for training and his eventual deployment. His experiences in the war are described in raw detail: from the few moments of humor and companionship to the all too frequent moments of sorrow that come from losing a fellow soldier. The War We Won sheds light on what the Viet Nam War was really like for the young men who fought in it and gave their lives for it.

FBI Special Agent Chad Winters is killed as he crossed the street by a driver in a stolen two-and-a-half-ton truck. Was it an al-Qaeda or ISIS agent that finally killed Chad or was it really an accident as reported by the D.C. police? His longtime FBI partner Reynolds and new FBI hire Padilla were cleaning out Chad’s apartment when they found documents of large investments in pharmaceutical companies by Washington D.C.'s prominent people and also documents of a viral attack. Was this information mailed to Chad that led to his murder? Then a mysterious call about a murder of an investment clerk in New York City shortly after the investment documents were mailed to Chad proved that the information was related to his murder. Identifying the investment clerk’s and Chad’s killers as the same individuals led Reynolds and FBI rookie Padilla to a beautiful Russian Research Assistant in a major US university. She had been placed there by a Russian oligarch to develop and release a virus in the United States. The Research Assistant turned witness but was quickly kidnapped by Russian Agents from an FBI safehouse in D.C. She was rescued by Reynolds and Padilla only to be kidnapped again by the same Russian agents while Reynolds and Padilla were out of country now capturing Chad’s killers in Canada. Will they rescue her a second time? Read the conclusion of “We Won’t Let It Happen” to find out the end of this exciting story.