Gray Work: Confessions of an American Paramilitary Spy

Smith, a "simple, Christ-following American from Mississippi" offers a look inside the world of the "operator"%E2%80%94a contractor who works in the "gap between the soldier and the spy"%E2%80%94that 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.)