FIRST, I WOULD like to thank Mike Ruby for the hundreds of hours he committed to helping me turn my ramblings into a coherent manuscript. Mike never lost his composure or sense of humor despite nine separate drafts I had to send through the CIA’s notorious Publications Review Board. Thanks to Rich Klein, my dear friend, for getting the ball rolling in the first place and for his unflagging friendship and support through some dark days. Thanks to Flip Brophy at Sterling Lord Literistic for guiding me through the process, and to John Flicker, Jessica Waters, Dennis Ambrose, and Michelle Daniel at Random House/Bantam Books for their editorial support. Thanks to Bruce Riedel for his long friendship and wise counsel. Thanks to Plato Cacheris for having my back when I went public that the CIA had waterboarded prisoners. And most of all, thanks to “Katherine.” I don’t know what I did to deserve a wife as wonderful as you. One preemptive apology: Any errors, faulty recollections, or oversights that appear in this book are mine and mine alone. I have related the facts as I recall them, or as the CIA has allowed me to tell them, but there are bound to be some mistakes. For those I take full responsibility.