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LEFT OF BOOM: HOW A YOUNG CIA CASE OFFICER PENETRATED THE TALIBAN AND AL-QAEDA Douglas Laux and Ralph Pezzullo New York, St. Martin's Press, 2016 301 pages, paper, $26.99
Left of Boom presents to the reader Douglas Laux's memoir as an undercover case officer in two troubled countries: Afghanistan and Syria. It narrates the circumstances that led to the formation of his interest to change his ambition from becoming an ophthalmologist in the college as the result of the fall of the American Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. Laux immediately switched to political science and by graduation succeeded in joining the Central Intelligence Agency. Through pressure, hard work, and display of youthful exuberance, Laux was posted to Afghanistan for a clandestine intelligence operation, after having mastered Pashtu, the native dialect spoken in southern Afghanistan. The author unpacks the strategies he followed that led him to come closer to the ranks of insurgents in the country, taking the pseudonym "Zmarai," growing a foot-long beard, and wearing Afghan native attire. Through networks of informants which Laux recruited with the irresistible power of incentives, the authors unveil many insightful clues related to how the insurgents operated underground.
While much of the Laux's revelations were worked upon and have in turn proved effective and productive to the US intelligence mission and war on terror, in an unprecedented fashion, thwarting a number of attacks and leading to the arrest of many terrorists, some of his other plans and recommendations, which he believed would refine and upgrade the mission and bring about greater triumphs, were rejected and given no consideration. This and other secondary reasons caused Laux to request an unpaid leave from the Agency and, when things did not look likely to improve, he eventually resigned from the job.
The book, which has 23 chapters altogether, is divided into two sections. The first section, which takes the lion's share of the pages, accounts for Laux's assignment in Afghanistan where he gathered sensitive information on insurgents while the second dwells on his short and relatively less productive stay in Syria to help end the regime of Bashar Assad. In both sections, the book sporadically takes readers to the ordinary life led by Laux, which involves his humble family background, schooling,...