Annie Jacobsen Books

"An urgent investigation into warfare in the age of biometrics, and the dangerous implications of new technologies that would allow the government to identify anyone, anywhere, at any time"--

From the dawn of the Cold War to the present day, when diplomacy has failed and war is unwise, the President has called on the CIA's Special Activities Division -- a highly classified branch of the CIA and the most effective, top-secret killing machine in the world. With unprecedented access tot he CIA's Senior Intelligence Service -- it's counterterrorism chiefs, targeting officers, and ground operators who conduct today's close-quarters killing operations around the world -- this book unveils a complex world of individuals working in treacherous environments populated with killers, connivers and politicians. Following this global history of ruthless operations of sabotage, subversion and even assassination, Annie Jacobsen reveals for the first time the sheer depth of this shocking, controversial and morally complex division

From the dawn of the Cold War to the present day, when diplomacy has failed and war is unwise, the President has called on the CIA's Special Activities Division -- a highly classified branch of the CIA and the most effective, top-secret killing machine in the world. With unprecedented access tot he CIA's Senior Intelligence Service -- it's counterterrorism chiefs, targeting officers, and ground operators who conduct today's close-quarters killing operations around the world -- this book unveils a complex world of individuals working in treacherous environments populated with killers, connivers and politicians. Following this global history of ruthless operations of sabotage, subversion and even assassination, Annie Jacobsen reveals for the first time the sheer depth of this shocking, controversial and morally complex division

"In this penetrating history of the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful, and most controversial military science R&D agency, Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents, and declassified memos to paint a picture of "the Pentagon's brain" from its Cold War inception in 1958 to the present. This is the essential book on DARPA--a compelling narrative about the clandestine intersection of science and the American military and the often jaw-dropping, futuristic, and frightening results"--Page 4 de la couverture.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER A Pulitzer Prize Finalist and the definitive history of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, from the author of the New York Times bestseller Area 51 No one has ever written the history of the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful, and most controversial military science R&D agency. In the first-ever history about the organization, New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents, and declassified memos to paint a picture of DARPA, or "the Pentagon's brain," from its Cold War inception in 1958 to the present. This is the book on DARPA--a compelling narrative about this clandestine intersection of science and the American military and the often frightening results.

The author of the acclaimed bestseller Area 51 reveals the explosive dark secrets behind America's post-WWII science programs. In the chaos following World War II, some of the greatest spoils of Germany's resources were the Third Reich's scientific minds. The U.S. government secretly decided that the value of these former Nazis' knowledge outweighed their crimes and began a covert operation code-named Paperclip to allow them to work in the U.S. without the public's full knowledge. Drawing on exclusive interviews with dozens of Paperclip family members, colleagues, and interrogators, and with access to German archival documents (including papers made newly available by direct descendants of the Third Reich's ranking members), files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, and lost dossiers discovered in government archives and at Harvard University, Annie Jacobsen follows more than a dozen German scientists through their postwar lives and into one of the most complex, nefarious, and jealously guarded government secrets of the 20th century.

The definitive history of the military's decades-long investigation into mental powers and phenomena, from the author of Pulitzer Prize finalist The Pentagon's Brain and international bestseller Area 51.

Area 51, the world’s most famous military installation, is shrouded in secrecy and never officially acknowledged by the U.S. government. Located just seventy-five miles from Las Vegas, it has sparked countless myths and theories over the years, including claims of alien encounters, underground tunnels, and even the filming of the lunar landing. The lack of credible insider accounts has fueled these rumors—until now. Annie Jacobsen gained exclusive access to nineteen men who served at the base for decades, now aged 75-92, along with insights from fifty-five additional military and intelligence personnel, scientists, pilots, and engineers connected to the site. In her exploration, Jacobsen reveals the true activities within the Nevada desert, from nuclear weapons testing to the development of advanced supersonic jets and efforts related to the War on Terror. This groundbreaking work, based on firsthand interviews, presents a compelling narrative that intertwines the secretive history of Area 51 with previously classified information, illustrating that reality can be more astonishing than fiction, particularly when the lines between the two blur.

Presents a history of the most famous secret military installation in the world, assembled from interviews with the people who served there and formerly classified information.

"Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These projects are vital to how we understand the world we really live in: where one nuclear missile begets one in return; where the choreography of the world's end requires massive decisions made on seconds-notice, with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have. Annie Jacobsen's Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking clock scenario, based on dozens of new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons; created the response plans; and been responsible for those decisions should they need to have been made. Nuclear War: A Scenario is unlike any other book in its depth and urgency"--