Twilight Warriors: The Soldiers, Spies, and Special Agents Who Are Revolutionizing the American Way of War

by James Kitfield

Overview

A dramatic portrait of the innovative Special Forces commanders and FBI agents who wage war against America's hidden enemies

With the planned withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, the longest conflicts in our nation's history were supposed to end. Yet we remain at war against expanding terrorist movements, and our security forces have had to continually adapt to a nihilistic foe that operates in the shadows.

The result of fifteen years of reporting, Twilight Warriors is the untold story of the tight-knit brotherhood that changed the way America fights. James Kitfield reveals how brilliant innovators in the US military, Special Forces, and the intelligence and law enforcement communities forged close operational bonds in the crucibles of Iraq and Afghanistan, breaking down institutional barriers to create a relentless, intelligence-driven style of operations. At the forefront of this profound shift were Stanley McChrystal and his interagency team at Joint Special Operations Command, the pioneers behind a hybrid method of warfighting: find, fix, finish, exploit, and analyze. Other key figures include Michael Flynn, the visionary who redefined the intelligence gathering mission; the FBI's Brian McCauley, who used serial-killer profilers to track suicide bombers in Afghanistan; and the Delta Force commander Scott Miller, responsible for making team players out of the US military's most elite and secretive counterterrorism units.

The result of their collaborations is a globe-spanning network that is elegant in its simplicity and terrifying in its lethality. As Kitfield argues, this style of operations represents our best hope for defending the nation in an age of asymmetric warfare. Twilight Warriors is an unprecedented account of the American way of war-and the iconoclasts who have brought it into the twenty-first century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465064700
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	10/25/2016
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	1,118,998
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

James Kitfield is currently a contributing editor and former senior national security correspondent for the Atlantic Media Company and National Journal. Mr. Kitfield's articles on defense, national security, intelligence and foreign policy issues have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, National Journal, Bloomberg View, Yahoo News, Breaking Defense, Defense One, The National Interest, the Daily Beast, the Hill, Newsday, Los Angeles Magazine, Army Times, Air Force Magazine, the Stars & Stripes, Off Duty, and other publications.

He is the only three-time winner of the prestigious Gerald R. Ford Award for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense, most recently for his first-hand reporting on the Afghan War. The Military Reporters and Editors Association (MRE) and the Medill School of Journalism have awarded Mr. Kitfield their top prize for excellence in reporting an unprecedented six times, most recently in 2016 in the "Online Journalism" category for his articles in POLITICO Magazine, Yahoo News and Breaking Defense.

Mr. Kitfield is author of three books, most recently Twilight Warriors: The Soldiers, Spies & Special Agents Who Are Revolutionizing the American Way of War (Basic Books, 2016). He lives in Alexandria, VA.

Table of Contents

Prologue: The Brotherhood 1

Part I

1 Where There's Smoke: 1998-2001 17

2 Another Kind of War: October 2001-May 2002 35

3 Descent Into Darkness: March-October 2002 59

4 The Crucible: October 2003-May 2004 75

5 Martyrs' Den: 2006-2007 103

6 Five Assassins: May-July 2006 125

7 Prodigal Soldiers: January-December 2007 147

Part II

8 Al-Qaeda Pandemic: 2008-2010 165

9 The Ghosts in the Network: 2009-2010 193

10 The Forgotten War: 2009-2010 213

11 American Jihad: 2010-2011 237

12 Retribution: May-December 2011 247

Part III

13 Retrenchment: 2011-2012 261

14 Shadow War: 2013 275

15 The Enemy Votes: September-December 2013 289

16 Reflection in a Broken Mirror: 2013 303

17 Twilight Warriors: 2013-2014 313

18 Going Dark: 2013-2014 329

19 A World on Edge: 2015 345

Epilogue 359

Acknowledgments 371

Notes 373

Index 389

Editorial Reviews

09/12/2016
Kitfield (War and Destiny), a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, analyzes the cadre of leaders that came of age during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, asserting that the U.S. national security apparatus has developed a new and devastatingly effective approach to war. This new approach is based on the F3EA techniques pioneered by generals Stanley McChrystal and Mike Flynn in Iraq: “find, fix, finish, exploit, and analyze.” Kitfield’s well-researched argument, based on interviews and personal experience, describes the professional development and interaction of these and other innovators as they come to occupy some of the highest positions in the national security structure. A new cooperative interagency culture is a hallmark of the tactics employed globally as the centerpiece of U.S. counterterrorism strategy. Kitfield acknowledges that the F3EA tactic is not a war winner, but rather provides time for other more deliberate and traditional nation-building strategies to win. He also includes in his analysis the rise of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, European immigration issues, and the recent Paris (2015) and Brussels (2016) terrorist attacks. Kitfield’s insightful and timely work highlights the gaps between policy makers and military brass. Agent: Andrew Stuart, Stuart Agency. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"An enlightening tour of 21st-century counterterrorism."—Wall Street Journal

"[Twilight Warriors] reads like a collection of gripping stories about the host of evolving security, bureaucratic, and resource challenges faced by these 'twilight warriors' and their respective responses to them. These stories are packed with tension, drama, human interest, vivid vignettes, and insightful analyses of a fast-changing threat environment and the remarkable people who are still navigating its uncharted waters."—CHOICE

"Twilight Warriors is undoubtedly one of the best books I have ever read. A brilliantly written narrative and real world adventure that draws the reader in, and vividly explains how a group of dedicated professionals helped keep our country safe after the 9/11 terrorist attacks."—Gen. Dennis Reimer (ret), 33rd Army Chief of Staff

"Twilight Warriors provides a uniquely intimate and timely window into the special operations, intelligence and law enforcement counterterrorism efforts of the past two decades. Compelling and insightful, it is the most up-to-date account available of the ongoing war on terrorism. James Kitfield's gripping portraits of the key figures leading this struggle makes this book required reading for anyone wishing to understand the threat that terrorism continues to pose-and what we are doing to defeat it."
-Bruce Hoffman, Professor & Director, Center for Security Studies, Georgetown University, and author of Anonymous Soldiers


"James Kitfield is one of the United States' leading national security reporters. In Twilight Warriors, he profiles the key players, and delivers a deeply reported and well-calibrated account of the shadowy conflicts that have defined America's post-9/11 wars."
-Peter Bergen, author of United States of Jihad: Investigating America's Homegrown Terrorists

"Kitfield's insightful and timely work highlights the gaps between policy makers and military brass."—Publishers Weekly

"A compelling chronological examination of the new intelligence-driven, multiagency counterterrorism model the U.S. military now uses to meet the 'Age of Superterrorism'... Kitfield gets inside the U.S. military 'brotherhood' to produce an engaging and chilling report."—Kirkus Reviews

"Twilight Warriors is bar none the best work yet published on the global struggle against terrorism. James Kitfield's riveting narrative reflects 15 years of insider reporting on the soldiers, spies, and special agents who have fought to keep the nation safe, and changed the way America fights. Breathtaking in its insights and revelations on our bitter, ongoing wars of counter-terrorism. Kitfield has hit a home run."—Barry McCaffrey, former General in the US Army

"Twilight Warriors provides a uniquely intimate and timely window into the special operations, intelligence and law enforcement counterterrorism efforts of the past two decades. Compelling and insightful, it is the most up-to-date account available of the ongoing war on terrorism. James Kitfield's gripping portraits of the key figures leading this struggle makes this book required reading for anyone wishing to understand the threat that terrorism continues to pose—and what we are doing to defeat it."—Bruce Hoffman, Professor & Director, Center for Security Studies, Georgetown University, and author of Anonymous Soldiers

From the Publisher

★ 10/01/2016
After the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, those wars evolved into insurgency warfare, which is much harder to deal with than more traditional warfare and doesn't provide the kind of big payoff that Americans desire. Veteran reporter Kitfield (senior fellow, Ctr. for the Study of the Presidency & Congress) relates how some dedicated military professionals strove to meld various military units with the FBI and other intelligence agencies, an organizational and doctrinal shift that took a lot of time and effort. He shows how smaller units and actions were more effective with better intelligence and faster reaction times. He is disgusted that some generals who did so much to change the way that the United States fought wars were brought down by seemingly common human mistakes and bureaucratic opposition. Kitfield warns that while various analyses of the situation may be correct and forward thinking, our national leaders keep making bad decisions because they are politically expedient and not paying the direct price of failure (e.g., dead friends and relatives). VERDICT This easy-to-read book tells how America can fight a different kind of war if those in charge are open to change and experimentation by those who are doing the grunt work in the field.—Daniel Blewett, Coll. of DuPage Lib., Glen Ellyn, IL

Library Journal

2016-08-24
A compelling chronological examination of the new intelligence-driven, multiagency counterterrorism model the U.S. military now uses to meet the “Age of Superterrorism.”In order to penetrate the layers of official agency and military-speak, Kitfield (Senior Fellow/Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress; War & Destiny: How the Bush Revolution in Foreign and Military Affairs Redefined American Power, 2005, etc.) begins with the American response to 9/11 via the unprecedented scope provided by the Donald Rumsfeld Pentagon to the U.S. Special Operation Forces in Afghanistan, led by Col. John Mulholland. Featuring strategic air attacks during Operation Enduring Freedom, led by Air Force Maj. Gen. David Deptula—drones turned out to be the “real game changer”—the vast U.S. national security apparatus successfully melded into a synergy of operation despite long-standing jealousies among agencies like the FBI, CIA, and National Security Agency. However, the failure to capture Osama bin Laden when he was within reach at Tora Bora in late 2001 and the controversy over CIA interrogation tactics of “enemy combatants” at secret “black sites” opened up old scores of ineptitude. During the subsequent war in Iraq, both generals Stanley McChrystal and David Petraeus had significant roles in transforming the vast counterterrorism apparatus—e.g., McChrystal created Task Force 714, “combining under one roof all the military, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies that had a piece of the counterterrorism mission.” Improvised explosive devices, suicide bombings, and assassinations of Western journalists and others demanded new ways of gaining information and rooting out terrorist cells, as Kitfield amply illustrates in his discussion of the intensive manhunt for al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 2006. The author also addresses the Obama administration’s attempts at drawdown and discrete, targeted operations, while the homeland threat—e.g., the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing—would prompt the NSA’s massive collection of metadata in the communications of average Americans, to worldwide outcry. Kitfield gets inside the U.S. military "brotherhood" to produce an engaging and chilling report.

Kirkus Reviews