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Jack Devine: Good Hunting - An American Spymaster's Story

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Date and time
Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Harvard Book Store welcomed CIA veteran Jack Devine and bestselling novelist Joseph Finder for a discussion of Devine's book Good Hunting: An American Spymaster's Story. Jack Devine ran Charlie Wilson's War in Afghanistan. It was the largest covert action of the Cold War, and it was Devine who put the brand-new Stinger missile into the hands of the mujahideen during their war with the Soviets, paving the way to a decisive victory against the Russians. He also pushed the CIA's effort to run down the narcotics trafficker Pablo Escobar in Colombia. He tried to warn the director of central intelligence, George Tenet, that there was a bullet coming from Iraq with his name on it. He was in Chile when Allende fell, and he had too much to do with Iran-Contra for his own taste, though he tried to stop it. And he tangled with Rick Ames, the KGB spy inside the CIA, and hunted Robert Hanssen, the mole in the FBI. Good Hunting: An American Spymaster's Story is the memoir of Devine's time in the Central Intelligence Agency, where he served for more than thirty years, rising to become the acting deputy director of operations, responsible for all of the CIA's spying operations. This is a story of intrigue and high-stakes maneuvering, all the more gripping when the fate of our geopolitical order hangs in the balance. But this book also sounds a warning to our nation's decision makers: covert operations, not costly and devastating full-scale interventions, are the best safeguard of America's interests worldwide. Part memoir, part historical redress, Good Hunting debunks outright some of the myths surrounding the Agency and cautions against its misuses. Beneath the exotic allure'living abroad with his wife and six children, running operations in seven countries, and serving successive presidents from Nixon to Clinton'this is a realist, gimlet-eyed account of the Agency. Now, as Devine sees it, the CIA is trapped within a larger bureaucracy, losing swaths of turf to the military, and, most ominous of all, is becoming overly weighted toward paramilitary operations after a decade of war. Its capacity to do what it does best'spying and covert action'has been seriously degraded. Good Hunting sheds light on some of the CIA's deepest secrets and spans an illustrious tenure'and never before has an acting deputy director of operations come forth with such an account. With the historical acumen of Steve Coll's Ghost Wars and gripping scenarios that evoke the novels of John le Carré even as they hew closely to the facts on the ground, Devine offers a master class in spycraft.

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Devine is a founding partner and President of The Arkin Group LLC and a 32-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency (“CIA”). While at the CIA, Mr. Devine served as both Acting Director and Associate Director of the CIA’s operations outside the United States and, in this capacity, he had supervisory authority over thousands of CIA employees involved in sensitive missions throughout the world. Mr. Devine held numerous other senior positions at the CIA such as Chief of the Latin American Division; and head of the Counternarcotics Center, which was responsible for coordinating and building close cooperation between all major U.S. and foreign law enforcement agencies in tracking worldwide narcotics and crime organizations in the 1980s. Mr. Devine also headed the CIA’s Afghan Task Force, which successfully countered Soviet aggression in the region. He was awarded the CIA’s Meritorious Officer Award for this accomplishment. Mr. Devine’s international experience with the U.S. government also included postings to Latin America and Europe. During his career with the CIA, Mr. Devine was involved in organizing, planning and executing countless sensitive projects in virtually all areas of intelligence, including analysis, operations, technology and management. He is the recipient of the Agency’s Distinguished Intelligence Medal and several meritorious awards. He is a recognized expert in Intelligence matters and has written op-ed and articles for The Washington Post, The Financial Times, The Miami Herald and The World Policy Journal. He has also made guest appearances on CBS, NBC, MSNBC, Fox News, as well as the History and Discovery channels, PBS and ABC Radio. Mr. Devine resides in New York City and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He has a Top Secret U.S. Government security clearance. Mr. Devine also is a Board Member of the CIA Memorial Foundation. He speaks Spanish and Italian.
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