Secret Warriors: Inside the Covert Military Operations of the Reagan Era

Place_Pub: New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1988. Fifth Printing. Hardcover. Good/Fair. 256 pages. Glossary. Note to Readers. Index. Ink underlining to text, DJ worn and scratched: edge tears/chips and creases. Previously unpublished documents and personal interviews reveal the Pentagon's attempt to establish a "mini-CIA" after the doomed 1980 Iran hostage rescue attempt and the role it played in the Iran-Contra affair. Steven Emerson (born June 6, 1954) is an American journalist, author, and pundit on national security, terrorism, and Islamic extremism. Emerson received a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University in 1976, and a Master of Arts in sociology in 1977. He went to Washington, D.C., in 1977 with the intention of putting off his law school studies for a year. He worked on staff as an investigator for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee until 1982, and as an executive assistant to Democratic Senator Frank Church of Idaho. From 1986 to 1989 he worked for U.S. News & World Report as a senior editor specializing in national security issues. In 1988, he published Secret Warriors: Inside the Covert Military Operations of the Reagan Era, a strongly critical review of Ronald Reagan-era efforts to strengthen U.S. covert capabilities. Reviewing the book, The New York Times wrote: "Among the grace notes of Mr. Emerson's fine book are many small, well-told stories". Derived from a Publishers Weekly article. This work was first serialized in U.S. News and World Report. Emerson describes how the Pentagon set up its own clandestine "mini-CIA'' following the attempt to rescue the hostages in Iran in 1980. A leak in 1983 led to a widespread investigation by certain Army officials and the Justice Department, resulting in secret court-martials and the conviction of several key Army officers who had `decided they knew what was best for the country.'' More recently, some of the original players participated in a reincarnation of the scheme called `Enterprise,' according to Emerson. Part business empire, part military-intelligence operation under late CIA director William Casey and National Security Council staffer Oliver North, the Enterprise operation reportedly provided a framework for retired Air Force Gen. Richard Secord and Iranian-born businessman Albert Hakim to control elements of U.S. foreign policy while making huge profits. Emerson focuses on what he sees as the central paradox of covert operations: they are necessary, but they tend to spin out of control.