Class 11

October 30, 2006
In the surge of patriotism following 9/11, Waters joined the CIA's elite clandestine service program, whose grueling, year-long training course the first-time 37-year-old author and former private consultant for intelligence collection describes (with some details omitted or changed) in this lively account. Deployed in Washington, D.C., he and hundreds of colleagues practiced surveillance detection and rehearsed secret drop-offs and techniques for meeting foreign agents without attracting attention. In realistic simulations, they learned to assume a false identity, then withstand interrogation designed to trip them up, how to pick out amenable foreigners at diplomatic parties and persuade them to betray their country. Waters mixes these details with sketches of classmates and their hijinks, portraits (not always flattering) of instructors, grumbling about CIA politics and ongoing difficulties with his new wife, who supported his career choice but chafed at his long absences. Publication of this book is proceeding despite Waters's unresolved lawsuit against the CIA Review Board, which approved the book then reversed itself under the Porter Goss administration. The CIA scandals that the patriotic author mentions in passing are public knowledge, and his criticism of the Agency is outweighed by praise. The end result is only mildly controversial but rarely dull.