Code Names: Deciphering U.S. Military Plans, Programs and Operations in the 9/11 World

by William M. Arkin

Book Overview

Addressing the growing emphasis on secrecy in the post-9/11 world, a defense analyst identifies more than three thousand code names and explains the missions and plans for which they stand. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1586420836
• ISBN13: 9781586420833
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Steerforth Press
• Length: 608 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Reference

Only a smidgen more charming than the telephone book, but just as accurate and useful, this is a groundbreaking contribution to "truth in government." I don't how how anyone could attempt to learn anything about national security without it.

Excellent reference work

This book must be considered in its correct context: that of a reference book. If you're not interested in reading what is basically a dictionary of covert ops codenames and current operations, don't read this book. Otherwise, pick it up, it's fascinating. If you can track it down, Arkin's first book, Nuclear Battlefields is great too.

The A-Z of classified projects

Code Names has been thoroughly researched and is mandatory reading for anyone with a professional interest in national security analysis. If you are a serious journalist, foreign policy academic or defense analyst working in the private sector, Arkin's ground-breaking book should be placed in to your shopping basket and read as soon as it is delivered. Far more contentious than anything you will read in Jane's, Code Names is research with precision and a very handy reference tool if you write countrywide assessments. This is a rare book for any researcher. ++Caution: This is not a book to purchase if you are used to getting your popcorn thrills from reading Tom Clancy.++

An Encyclopedia of US Military Activities Worldwide

William Arkin published this book out of concerns over the culture of hyper-secrecy that is rampant in Washington, DC today. In his introduction he anticipates concerns that he is disclosing information that will be harmful to US national security by stating that he is more fearful of a government that may not be supporting the public interest by protecting the dirty laundry of some of our allies than of the possibility that terrorists may learn secrets in this book that could kill Americans. He wants to shine a light on the dark underworld of the national security state. Besides the introduction, this book is not written in the traditional narrative format. It is a reference book of military and intelligence outfits. It is broken into sections discussing activities in nearly every country in the world, a glossary of terms, and an overview of US national security units and agencies. This is a useful book that I would recommend to others interested in the topic.

Handy reference book for those outside the establishment

For anyone with a remote interest in the intelligence and military communities, this book will be an eye opener. In painstaking (sometimes too much) detail, Arkin has compiled a list of code names that run the gamut of the mundane to the extremely sensitive. I concur with Arkin (based on his radio interview on NPR) that classifying something from Americans that is in the open for the rest of the world to see, is irresponsible. However, I would also have to say that pushing the envelope with some of the issues covered in this book is also not terribly responsible. Does the government need to classify plans/programs/activities --absolutely yes. Does the government tend to err on the side of overclassification--of course. Make the determination yourself by reading this book. I am not sure who to attribute this quote to, but in the game of politics in Washington, this may not always necessarily be the case..."those who know do not talk, those who talk do not know"