Killer Elite: The Inside Story of America's Most Secret Special Operations Team

The story of a low-profile intelligence organization known variously as the Activity and the Army of Northern Virginia, starting with the debacle involving the hostage rescue operation in Iran and taking it up to the death of Osama bin Laden. The Activity is the point of the sword...operatives who gather the intelligence that is needed for planning special operations missions. This is done through radio detection, electronic tracking, satellite surveillance, and other means, not the least of which is actually infiltrating agents into the area to check on things first-hand. The multi-star brass, as has ever been the case, had little or no use for special operations and it wasn't until Donald Rumsfeld and the war in Iraq that they came show more fully into their own. You can't argue with success...Osama bin Laden was pinpointed and killed. Along the way, the Activity gathered intelligence that led to the death of cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar, provided ignored security analysis that could've helped save the Marines killed in the Beirut barracks bombing, and assisted in numerous other ways. The bin Laden story is played up big but is a couple chapters, however succinct and descriptive. Good book. show less

If you enjoy the television show, "The Unit," then this book will introduce you to the background and history of military units of that type. While The Killer Elite contains very little in the way of in-depth information on specific actions, this broad overview is extremely informative. Reading it provided me with answers to many of the questions I had regarding the intel gathering aspects of the Special Forces.

This book is not about a group of highly skilled group of commandos that go to bad places and do bad things,as the name might indicate. It is about a small group that gathers intelligence for Delta force and SEAL Team Six. This group was reportedly involved in the hunt for Pablo Escobar, the hunt for Saddam's sons and tracking down al-Zarqawi.

History of the founding of the Fort Belvoir, Virginia unit founded by Colonel Jerry King in response to his SAS interactions. FRom it came groups like Seal Team 6 and the creation of an integrated Terrorist Intelligence Centres to establish enemy order of battle and identify key leadership targets. Numerous operations discussed by a competent well researched journalist. Glossary, index (no entry for the Canadian partnerships). Revised and updated.

really interesting. The coolest of the cool stuff. at least there are units out there like this getting it done. Gives some hope for the Army as a whole