The Good Spy is Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Kai Bird's
compelling portrait of the remarkable life and death of one of the most
important operatives in CIA history - a man who, had he lived, might
have helped heal the rift between Arabs and the West.
On April 18, 1983, a bomb exploded outside the American Embassy in
Beirut, killing 63 people. The attack was a geopolitical turning point.
It marked the beginning of Hezbollah as a political force, but even more
important, it eliminated America's most influential and effective
intelligence officer in the Middle East - CIA operative Robert Ames.
What set Ames apart from his peers was his extraordinary ability to form
deep, meaningful connections with key Arab intelligence figures. Some
operatives relied on threats and subterfuge, but Ames worked by building
friendships and emphasizing shared values - never more notably than with
Yasir Arafat's charismatic intelligence chief and heir apparent Ali
Hassan Salameh (aka "The Red Prince"). Ames' deepening relationship with
Salameh held the potential for a lasting peace. Within a few years,
though, both men were killed by assassins, and America's relations with
the Arab world began heading down a path that culminated in 9/11, the
War on Terror, and the current fog of mistrust.
Bird, who as a child lived in the Beirut Embassy and knew Ames as a
neighbor when he was twelve years old, spent years researching The Good
Spy. Not only does the book draw on hours of interviews with Ames'
widow, and quotes from hundreds of Ames' private letters, it's woven
from interviews with scores of current and former American, Israeli, and
Palestinian intelligence officers as well as other players in the Middle
East "Great Game."
What emerges is a masterpiece-level narrative of the making of a CIA
officer, a uniquely insightful history of twentieth-century conflict in
the Middle East, and an absorbing hour-by-hour account of the Beirut
Embassy bombing. Even more impressive, Bird draws on his reporter's
skills to deliver a full dossier on the bombers and expose the shocking
truth of where the attack's mastermind resides today.