Gray Work: Confessions of an American Paramilitary Spy

by Jamie Smith Narrated by Jeff Gurner

Overview

The first ever, first-person story of America's private, paramilitary contractors at work around the world-from a man who performed these missions himself and has decades of stories to tell. This is a fascinating tale-and potentially the first-to describe the work of American contractors, men who run highly dangerous missions deep inside foreign countries on the brink of war. It will lift the veil and detail the ultimate danger and risk of paramilitary operations (both officially government-sanctioned and not) and show us in very intimate terms exactly what private soldiers do when the government can't act or take public responsibility. GRAY WORK combines covert military intelligence with boots-on-the-ground realism, following Jamie Smith through his CIA training and work as a spy in the State Department, to his co-founding of Blackwater following 9/11, to his decision to leave that company. As the founder and director of Blackwater Security, Smith's initial vision has undeniably shaped and transformed a decade of war. He argues that this gray area-and its warriors who occupy the controversial space between public and private-has become an indispensable element of the modern battlefield.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

04/13/2015
Smith, a "simple, Christ-following American from Mississippi" offers a look inside the world of the "operator"—a contractor who works in the "gap between the soldier and the spy"—that doubles as an advertisement for his security services company, Gray Solutions. The book, in tone and content, reads like late-night bar braggadocio. Smith presents himself as a cutting-edge, hands-on expert in a new kind of warfare, the product of a "savage, hard" world that is "more lethal than ever." Private security companies, Smith argues, trace their roots to government agencies like the CIA, where he claims he began his own career. He learned the techniques of intelligence collection in an increasingly paramilitary atmosphere, during the CIA's development of "a killing machine like none that has ever existed on this planet." Today, there is cutthroat competition for contracts among the paramilitary entrepreneurs, and Smith's account of his business's volatility is almost as exciting as the tales of operational derring-do that hold the book together. Smith insists that private contractors do "hard work worth doing" in "providing training, intel, and security services" to ungoverned spaces in "innovative and flexible frameworks." He is persuasive enough to be almost convincing. (Apr.)

From the Publisher

Patriot, warrior, spy. Smith may be a real life Jason Bourne.” — Fred Burton, Vice President at Stratfor and coauthor of Under Fire: The Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi

“No one knows more about the grit and reality of counterterrorism than Jamie Smith, or writes better about it. His insights are indispensable to our understanding of a shadowy and dangerous world.” — Richard North Patterson, author of Loss of Innocence

“Espionage, trade-craft, politics, gunfights, explosions, assassinations, and covert operations around the world. Clancy, Griffin, and Ludlum use these in their novels, but only Jamie Smith has really lived them. Page after page, you can’t help thinking ‘this is all real.’” — Colonel Lee Van Arsdale, retired former Commander, Delta Force Sabre Squadron and Branch Chief, Counterterrorism Special Projects, U.S. Secretary of Defense

“Smith’s experience in the military and intelligence worlds, and the insights he has gleaned along the way, provide indispensable reading for anyone who wants to understand, or profit from, our dangerous times.” — James Rosen, Fox News Chief Washington Correspondent and author of The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate

“Smith takes you inside the Libyan revolution with a vivid and emotionally engaging account of the people and politics. This story shows the shaping of American foreign policy by players relatively unknown to the key decision makers. . . . This is a hugely interesting, entertaining, and heart-stopping read.” — Colonel Rick Cantwell, retired US Army Special Forces

Colonel Rick Cantwell

Smith takes you inside the Libyan revolution with a vivid and emotionally engaging account of the people and politics. This story shows the shaping of American foreign policy by players relatively unknown to the key decision makers. . . . This is a hugely interesting, entertaining, and heart-stopping read.

Richard North Patterson

No one knows more about the grit and reality of counterterrorism than Jamie Smith, or writes better about it. His insights are indispensable to our understanding of a shadowy and dangerous world.

Colonel Lee Van Arsdale

Espionage, trade-craft, politics, gunfights, explosions, assassinations, and covert operations around the world. Clancy, Griffin, and Ludlum use these in their novels, but only Jamie Smith has really lived them. Page after page, you can’t help thinking ‘this is all real.’

Fred Burton

Patriot, warrior, spy. Smith may be a real life Jason Bourne.

James Rosen

Smith’s experience in the military and intelligence worlds, and the insights he has gleaned along the way, provide indispensable reading for anyone who wants to understand, or profit from, our dangerous times.

Library Journal

01/01/2014
Have today's paramilitary forces become an integral aspect of military warfare? Whatever you think, Smith is worth attending to;he cofounded Blackwater Security and now has his own contracting company. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170354092
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/30/2015
Edition description:	Unabridged

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